My New Toy

*NOTE: Feeling much better emotionally today than yesterday; I was in a bad place not having slept well the previous night and watching/reading too much bad news. It was one of those days that I didn't think I could survive until election day, let alone Inauguration Day.

But here I am, playing with my new toy. I tried ordering one of these on line, but every vendor was either "out of stock" or was shipping from another vendor and delivery dates were toward the end of October.

Just what I don't need: another kitchen gadget. This one is for making tomato passata. Basically, tomato puree.

My tomatoes are ripe NOW and will be rotten by the end of October. So a few days ago I took a chance and stopped in to Bed bath and Beyond - the item was supposedly out of stock, but there it was on the shelf.

 

Prepping my San Marzano and Roma tomatoes. Halving, removing green parts, heating in water at a boil for about ten minutes till the skins start to loosen. Letting the excess water drain out.

 

Milling the tomatoes  

Basilico Genovese from the garden.

 

This is imported Passata. The jar is typical of the product in Italy.

This is all I got out of those tomatoes. Watch the videos to see how much passata some people make.

The skin and seeds to go into compost.

 

I don't can stuff. This will go into the freezer. I did a second pass with the skins and seeds and got about a cup and a half more of passata which I will use for tonight's tomato sauce.

 

This is how the pros do it:

 

My next project for the morning was to make eggplant parmigiana.

But hubby called and said that we are going camping tomorrow instead of Monday as the campground had this Sunday available, but not this coming Saturday...whatever.

So I had to change my plans for the eggplant as it would take me hours with clean-up and now I had to hustle and cook and get the camper packed.

So I diced up the eggplant with garlic, onion, baby bella mushrooms, salt, pepper, oregano, pepperoncini (hot pepper flakes), olive oil and roasted the whole thing in the oven at 425 degrees.

My new plan involves adding the veggie mixture into a tomato sauce to serve over pasta. But I will need more sauce and don't want to use up all my new passata for tonight...so I reverted to the tomato paste from a can. (Kirkland organic if that makes a difference.)  Mom and every Italian aunt always "fried" the tomato paste in olive oil. It is not for me to question that wisdom, so that is how I do it too.

I added the second pressing of passata to the paste with water.

The roasted veggies ready to add to the sauce.

 

Fried some sausages and deglazed with a little red wine and added them to the sauce. Had some homemade turkey meatballs in the freezer, so added them as well.

So there. Can't wait for pasta tonight. Oh, and I also made bread this morning too. Baked one loaf and put two balls of dough into the freezer. We'll take one camping and have fresh bread one evening.