Homemade Tomato Passata

Homemade Tomato Passata

I had a very productive day in the kitchen yesterday.  I converted two boxes of locally grown tomatoes into 9 bottles of delicious homemade Passata - and look at the results!

I have been collecting these jars for years and years and I have often been asked "are you ever going to use them?"  I have to admit that my inside voice usually answered "probably not!"  I have another habit of tearing recipes out of magazines but seldom using them.  Well, thanks to this Green Street initiative I can proudly say that has all changed!

Not only have I used some of my jars and a recipe I tore out of a recent Mindfood magazine, I have also put to use the preserving skills I learnt from our Street pear bottling day.  I washed the jars and lids (very dusty), sterilised the jars in the oven (150 degrees for 20 minutes) and once full, checked they had all sealed by pressing my finger on the centre of the lid every time I walked past (100% success rate)!  It was all quite simple and totally satisfying.

And it tastes delicious (one jar will not make it to the preserve shelf).  This is the perfect time to make Passata as the tomatoes are sweet and ripe and all you need are tomatoes, olive oil, onions, garlic and basil.

P.S. I now have only five jars of Passata in the pantry as I have given away a jar to both Campbell and Denis for delivering and stacking my firewood and a jar to the Frasers because they keep giving me beautiful fresh eggs.  Looks like I will be bottling more tomatoes this weekend - weather permitting!