Topic: Passata@home

[supersprout]

There have been quite a few questions about bottling and preserving toms, so if you're interested this is the way we do it at chateau sprout :)

Preparation

Wash and cut toms in halves or quarters - no smaller!
Pressure cook toms to full pressure, let pressure drop naturally
Clear watery juice will have separated from the flesh. Tip contents of pressure cooker into a seive over the preserving pan. The watery juice will go through, leaving the pulp in the seive.
Put the pulp out of the way to cool.
Start to boil off the juice. Boil until it is syrupy (reduced to about 1/8 of original volume). This juice-boiling helps reduce the volume quickly, and the clear juice will not stick to the bottom of the pan!
Squidge the cooled tomato pulp through the passata machine (we put it through four times to get all the mush we can)
Add mush to syrupy juice in pan.
Bring to boil and simmer for ten minutes to a quarter of an hour, making sure it doesn't stick. We think this short simmering of the pulp keeps a fresher taste.
The passata will be very thick so a spoon will stand up in it.



Bottling

Boil the kettle, put jars in the sink, lids in a bowl, and pour boiling water over everything, including the funnel.
Take the passata off the heat until the last bubble blops.
Put two bottles at a time on the worktop - one to fill, one to transfer the funnel to whilst the lid goes on.



Fill bottle from pan using funnel. If any tomato gets on the jar mouth, wipe it off immediately - the mouth of the jar must be completely clean.



Immediately screw on lid tight. It's not like jam, filling all the jars then topping off - we do them one at a time to make sure the goodies inside stay sterile.



There's always some left over (see bottle on right) - this either gets used during the week, or tipped into the next batch and boiled for a few minutes, then bottled again.



This is posted with a little trepidation, as I know there are REAL experts out there who have been doing it for a lot longer than we have :-[ :P so please post variations and improvements  :)

[Svea]

well this looks not like i do it, but probably as mamma does! :)

nice piccies.

incidentally, when you say 'unlike jam you put the lids on immediately' well i always put the lids on immediately. sterility is everything when it comes to preserving, imho

where do you get your bottles and lids from? recycled passata jars, or newly purchased?

[MikeB]

Appreciate the information SS and also the bottling info. Thanks for all your effort.

[Hot_Potato]

that was so interesting to read and lovely pics to accompany info

where did you get that brilliant looking funnel please?

[Emagggie]

That's great SS,thanks very much.

ps Where did you find that funnel?

[supersprout]

Thank you for the feedback - it consoled me somewhat finishing off passata early this morning that the recipe would be written down for posterity (aka no.1 son!) - glad you enjoyed it too :)

Svea - agree completely - I shouldn't be so careless with jam :'( ;)
These are new (ish) 1 litre bottles and lids from Bormoli, sold by Franchi - they were on special introductory offer when I got them early this year and even so not cheap, but I expect them to last as long as I do. In theory you should buy new lids each time you use them, but I've tried a few refills and the lids are still behaving perfectly (crossed fingers)
Periwinkle found cheap preserving jars at IKEA: http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/smf/index.php/topic,23578.0.html

That funnel? Would you believe Franchi sell them too!

Happy bottling ;D

[Mrs Ava]

So you don't then put the bottles in the oven or whatever it is you do when you read american sites and they say after bottling, process for blah minutes at blah pressure....?

[supersprout]

Nope! :o At the start of the season I did a trial bottle to test the method, couldn't believe it was that easy. I'm sure I got this method here somewhere! Also got these bottles because of the minimal surface area exposed, unlike Kilners/Parfait, and the 'tell tale' dimple in the top.

I do make sure everything is as hot and sterile as it can be, and the lid goes on asap. Did get a giant aluminum pan from eBay to do the water bath method, and haven't needed to use it - though I will if I start with bolognese sauce in bottles (no chances with meat!)  EDIT: Boiling water temp won't do for meat, so I'm gonna take no chances, and will try to find a pressure canner - probably from the US - unless someone out there has one you don't use? :P Whilst I was checking the facts about canning meat, I found that one of the reasons for tom sauce storing so well may be its high acid content which is concentrated by all that boiling down. Meat needs higher temps cos of its low acid content. Well, thar you go!

Searching on 'passata' in A4a was a revelation. My favourite method is vaca's posting about an Italian family who filled the bottles with passata and put the lids on, put them into an old oildrum with water, tossed in a few potatoes, and brings them to the boil. When the potatoes were done, they lifted out the bottles ;D

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=72&/topic,12927.0.html

[plot51A]

This is all so inspirational and useful, many many thanks  ;D ;D ;D
Have never ever before grown enough toms to do other than eat them in salads. Different this year, and cannot believe the difference in making your own fresh tomato sauce to the manufactured stuff!
Am off to Italy in 2 weeks time, have been considering buying some bottles out there but think the challenge of getting them home unscathed is just TOO much. But think I may be faced on my return with a mountain of tomatoes to process - I hope...................

[supersprout]

Oo lucky you, maybe you could bear to get a few of different sizes to try out for portion size etc - the jars that Franchi sell aren't cheap, but the cost per use should reduce over the years. I like Robert B's idea of freezing the surplus when you open a large bottle, not sure that will ever happen here, that leftover half bottle in the pic had 'disappeared' when I got back from a day out! ;)

cannot believe the difference in making your own fresh tomato sauce to the manufactured stuff!

I do sometimes wonder whether the energy cost is disproportionate - washing the tomatoes, pressure cooking, squidging, reducing, buying/washing bottles and tops, storage space - but all I have to do is taste the results (swoon) ;D
Hope you return to a tomato mountain when you get back too p'winkle :)

[SMP1704]

Supersprout

Thanks for this post, you inspired me to make a batch of sauce.  I modified the approach a bit to suit the equipment I have - big pan, fine mesh sieve and blender.  I threw in a clove of garlic and now have about a pint of intensely flavoured sauce, to be put in the freezer - or I may just put in the fridge and use tomorrow.

[Svea]

funny you should mention the lids - i had one bottle of passata (recycled a few times from dolmio) which had start to ferment, the tell tale dimple at the top wasnt inverted, but an 'outie'

luckily i spotted it at the back of the cupboard as i was adding more bottles, otherwise it might have exploded one day and that would have been an awful mess (and stink)

the other bottles i did on the same day as the gone off one were fine. but i will now check them all everytime i add to my larder cupboard, just to be safe.

[Mrs Ava]

oooo Svea, that could have been nasty!  I always keep an eye on mine and any that don't pop in properly before storeage go straight into the fridge for quick use.

[supersprout]

Good idea Svea, periodic checks for 'outies'. Would hate to have an explosion in the preserves cupboard (which is in son's bedroom lol) :P

[Svea]

EJ, the lid was closed and vacuum-sealed properly before i put them into storage.
i have never had fermentation in the bottle like this before. :)

[MikeB]

Totally misunderstood by me it seems, brought the passata maker and have just followed the directions as posted by S-sprout. Now I was expecting that when a recipe called for a tin of tomatoes I would use one of these jars instead. Today I have created 2 1/2 jars of passata from the equivalent of 60 tins of tomatoes, so I guess I won't be using them as tinned tomato replacements, what do I use them for, tomato paste? S-sprout you didn't tell me how messy I was going to get and I'm not sure how but even one of the walls in the kitchen seems to be tomato coloured.

[supersprout]

Ooer Mike, I'll see if I can answer some of it, hoping others will chime in too  :)

Passata is concentrated - roughly half the volume of canned tomatoes, and with no pips or lumps of tomato. It takes up less storage room and jars, is sweeter with a more concentrated flavour and more acid-ey than plain tinned toms, but not over-sweet like concentrate can be. It's a happy medium between the two. We get just over a litre of passata from one of those blue plastic veg boxes filled level with fresh toms.

We get through one or two litres per week:

As a base for any pasta sauce - bolognese, puttanesca, creamy, cheesy, garlic, mushroom, chilli etc.
On its own with salt, a dash of sugar and pepper as a plain pasta sauce, with loads of Parmesan
Spread on top of pizza as the base for veggies/cheese
In the sauce for beans (e.g. Greek giant butter beans with onion and dill)
In soups, or as tomato soup on its own with onion and a couple of spuds
In dishes like lasagne, chilli con carne, anything alla cacciatore
A couple of tbs in quite a few Indian dishes - chicken tikka masala, for instance!

You'll find you use less than you might be used to with tins of toms, and the boiling down seems to enrich the flavour more than it does from tins. Does that make any sense Mike, and have I forgotten anything?

SSx

[MikeB]

have I forgotten anything?

SSx

How to get it off the walls. ;D ;D

roughly half the volume of canned tomatoes,

I boiled the juice down to 1/8th as suggested and the tomato pulp is concentrated by the use of the passata maker. My volume seems to be 1 jar = 20 tins, have I over done it?

[triffid]

Go on SS, own up -- you didn't really manage all that cooking and bottling and not even end up with a splash on the counter?!  ;D

*is totally awed anyway* -- when's your next TV series starting?

[supersprout]

erm, maybe I didn't explain fully that it's the pale liquid that exudes from the toms before you pulp them that gets reduced to about 1/8 the volume. Like you I'm not over-fond of red-hot splats, and I found that by boiling down the watery liquid fiercely first, and adding the pulped mush for 10-15 minutes gentle simmering at the end, once the watery stuff is syrupy from reduction, I can ensure freedom from splats (all right, mostly) ::)

LOL@triffid, the bottling process is splat free, honest the photos are Unretouched and Genuine 8)
But I'll own up - I always keep a damp cloth handy for the odd splop from the cooking pan (thank you Fanny Cradock) ;D