Pictures by John Heseltine
Bruna’s cantina or store-cupboard contains jar upon jar of her luscious red tomato sauce. It is a staple ingredient used almost daily, and she makes enough over the late summer and early autumn months to last her family for a year.
She harvests the tomatoes from her orto while they are still warm from the sun, and after making the fragrant sauce puts it into all kinds of glass jars which have been carefully collected for the purpose.
Bruna sterilizes her jars in water over an outdoor fire, but you can put them on newspaper in an oven set at its lowest temperature for 30 minutes.
Once the jars have been sterilized, filled with sauce and hermetically sealed, boil them in water for half an hour and then leave them to cool in the same water.
Alternatively, you can just eat it fresh by adding Parmesan cheese and spooning it over pasta.
Sugo al Pomodoro
Ingredients (enough to serve four people)
350 g fresh Italian tomatoes (any type will do)
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
A handful of basil
Some chopped chilli pepper (optional)
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Grated Parmesan cheese (if eating the sauce fresh)
Salt and pepper
Roughly chop all the ingredients. You can peel the tomatoes first by placing them in boiling water and then removing the skins, but Bruna uses hers with the skins and then passes them through a sieve after cooking.
Place all the ingredients in a pan with the olive oil. Do not add any water. Bring slowly to the boil and then simmer for about half an hour, stirring from time to time, until the sauce thickens.
If it becomes dry then add some more olive oil, but never water. Take off the heat and pass the sauce through a sieve or processor to get it smooth and to remove the skins, if you haven’t done so beforehand.
If using the sauce fresh, then stir into it salt, pepper and grated Parmesan cheese. If bottling, then spoon into sterilized glass jars, seal and boil as described above. Serve on pasta or use in any recipes, such as ragu, which require tomato sauce.
Buon appetito!
