🇮🇹Day 22
🍅Pomodori Prep!
🍅From the Bay of Napoli , to Bella Sicilia, homemade tomato salsa is prepared within the month of August. (It is know as ‘Le Bottiglie di Pomodori.)
🍅There is not a family I know, that doesn’t have some part of the garden where they grow fresh tomatoes, ready to do the ‘Pomodori’ process. I hope this tradition always lasts.
🍅Fresh food is paramount in southern Italy, and being married to a southern Italian I know exactly what that means! (So fussy, but absolutely right!)
🍅So, first the tomatoes are grown in the hot sunshine, until they are harvested in August. Then they are washed and left to dry. Once cooked briefly in boiling water, the tomatoes are peeled, popped into sterilised bottles.
🍅The bottles are packed full of the succulent tomatoes. Finally the jars are then placed in a huge pot of boiling water and boiled for one hour.
🍅When cooled they are put into the ‘Cantina,’ which is a dry food storage room where wines,salamis, and other such preserves are kept. (Every good southern Italian house has one!)
🍅So when you are ready to make whatever dish that requires you to use tomato sauce, instead of buying a tin of tomatoes from a retailer, you have your own homemade tomato sauce, which is far healthier, completely authentic and has no added salt or preservatives, instead just packed with love ❤️
