Kitchen Garden: Taste testing the best of the crop, and making passata

Not this year. The best crops ripened this month.

At the end of January my lunch friends were at an outdoor cafe table in Manuka and, at the next table, was another group one of whom asked, "Susan do you have any ripe tomatoes at the moment?" No, I replied and she said we must meet in Deakin and I will give you some.

It was Irene Kaspar (Kitchen Garden, September 28, 2021) and she and partner Peter Boege then left for a trip to King Island, home of my favourite cheese, Surprise Bay cheddar. Upon their return the offer was made to visit them in Deakin on March 4 for a tomato tasting. They had two large wicker baskets full of tomatoes. It was rather tormenting as Peter was simmering tomato passata in the kitchen and the smell was superb.

Just like a wine tasting, after you eat and assess about five raw tomatoes you need water, especially after the small Green Grapes type which look like large green/black olives. They are lemon-zesty with an explosion of flavour. I made favourite choices with Peter slicing and serving each one of 16 varieties grown in seven raised beds with its name and a brief description.

They gave me 11 tomatoes to bring home so, the next day I took them to our Saturday lunch, this time at a cafe in Parkes.

The man with the best taste buds, Graham, chose Nebraska Wedding to top the lot. It was also the favourite of grower Peter. An American heirloom and known over generations as a bridal gift, it has round yellow/orange fruit.

Irene's favourite was Wapsipinicon Peach, a climbing tomato and Iowa heirloom with spicy, sweet yellow fruit that is covered in fine fuzz. She thinks it has a mango flavour and says the resilient skin means the tomatoes get few grubs. Irene also said my my Bon compo tomatoes were "excellent, light and tasty" - this year's two plants came from the compost and one has produced more than 150 ripe tomatoes.

A man who grows tomatoes of only one variety each year, Jim, chose Amish Paste which originated in Pennsylvania. He is keen to grow it from November onwards. Diggers supplies seed of this variety and it gained 10/10 in their taste test this year and they say that David Cavagnaro, a world tomato expert, rates it 100 per cent like Grange Hermitage. It has a rich, sweet flavour and hearty texture.

John, a horticulturist, also chose Amish Paste as a favourite for its "real tomato flavour" and he is saving seeds. John said he loved the flavour of Nebraska Wedding and thought it very sweet.

Peter Boege said his passata was made almost to Nonna's recipe in Food & Wine last week but he also does a roasted variant where the tomatoes are placed in the oven at 160C for an hour then 100C for another hour.

Two gardeners from O'Connor organic garden both use an SP5 manual tomato machine. Barbara's is new and came from The Artisan's Bottega (established 1965 in Victoria) while Alan uses an older version purchased at Butts & Brew at Kaleen Plaza. Alan adds salt and a splash of red wine vinegar to his passata as a preservative and a bit of fresh basil.

At the Mediterranean Garden in Cook (Kitchen Garden, March 22) I gave an extra charity donation for a handful of fresh Borlotti beans. Their pods are freckled hot pink and white and the beans are white, also with freckles. Grower Robyn Spencer told me she uses a recipe from Antonio Carluccio so I combined two of his recipes from the fagioli section of his Vegetables (Quadrille, 2000).

The pasta and fresh borlotti bean soup has chilli, garlic cloves, small pasta tubes, tomato pulp and red onion but, in the simple bean recipe from the Veneto region, two-thirds of the beans are pureed to make a thick soup.

For my fagioli simplici, the fresh borlotti beans were boiled for 20 minutes. Some finely sliced garlic was fried in olive oil, mashed anchovy fillet and fresh parsley, basil and oregano were added. I had skinned two large ripe tomatoes, chopped them and simmered in olive oil with a teaspoon of sugar. The herbs and tomatoes and fresh basil topped the beans.