How to make passata just like a nonna

When the family migrated to Australia in 1969, passata day became something of a tradition, a way for families to get together and share memories of Italy.

"I would get together with my sisters and we would start early in the morning washing the bottles, then making the sauce, it was such a fun day," she said.

"We would play music in the background, there was a lot of talking and some singing. No arguments, most of the time anyway.

"We would always stop for lunch. Sometimes we would make a pasta using the fresh sauce we were making. It was a big day, that only got bigger as our families did, but it was always fun."

While families around Canberra often gather for passata day, this year there's something special happening. On March 27, at Fox and Bow at the Farrer shops, owner Alex Piris is hosting a Let's Talk Tomato Day.

The day includes live interactive demonstrations from local nonnas, making passata with tomatoes provided by food delivery service Alpha Fresh, and will raise funds for mental health charity Let's Talk. It all kicks off in the laneway next to the cafe, from 1pm.

The dinner, which featured antipasti from local deli, Tutto Delicatessen, fresh authentic pasta from Nonna Maria's Pasta with a homemade sauce created by Fox and Bow, as well as a house-made tiramisu for dessert, has sold out but the public can still get involved with the demonstrations.

Bottled sauce will be available for purchase on the day and ongoing on Alpha's home delivery website https://shop.alphafresh.com.au/ until sold out.

The idea came about from a recent conversation between Piris and Alpha Fresh co-owner Giuseppe Iannelli.

"Alex was enquiring about the availability of sauce tomatoes this season," says Ianelli.

"Like everyone, we got onto talking about the ongoing effects of COVID this year and how exhausted we already feel so early in the year.

"That's when Alex had the idea to do a community sauce day. An event that gathers people together again over good food and good fun, all in the name of mental health."

Piris said if he's learned anything over the past few years is that traditions built around food have added value now.

"Whilst they may have been done through necessity to preserve foods through winter or lean periods, now we're seeing the importance of passing those skills and knowledge down through generations," he says.

"Whether it's making passata, paella, spring rolls, or Christmas Pudding, it's the time spent together and the conversations that take place while the work is being done, the meals then shared, that's what's so beautiful."

To make the sauce you start by washing the tomatoes, then you slice them in half and cut off the bad bits including rotten parts and the root. At first, we used to pass them straight through the machine, but we worked out that boiling them a little makes for a tastier, thicker sauce. So then we started boiling them in a deep pot for around four to five minutes until they were soft.

Then we would pass them through the strainer. We used to use an old fashioned passa tutto which was a sieve with a handle that you would turn to squash them through. Over the years we moved over to electric machines and now we use a big one that can do a lot more tomatoes much quicker. We need it now with our growing families because we have a lot more people who need bottles and a lot more box of tomatoes to get through.

With the machine, the sauce comes out on one side and the waste comes out the other. We always put the waste through the machine one more time because you can get the best thick, juicy sauce from that.

Then we funnel the sauce into the bottles, put the lids on and boil the bottles in a large deep pot. From the point of boiling, it takes about an hour. Once they're boiled and cooled, we store the jars in a cool dry place for 12 months, or more if they're done properly. We used to put a spring of basil in the bottles for flavour. But we stopped doing that because we figure you can just put the herbs in when you're cooking the sauce again for your pasta.

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