WEEK #13 MARCH 24th, 2025
Dear Customers,
In about a week, I will plant some tomato seeds that I saved and nurtured from last year’s crop. By the middle of May, or a little later, they will be ready for the garden! I have been planting San Marzano tomatoes for about 10 years now, ever since I watched a video by chef Mario Batali proclaiming them the absolute best tomatoes for sauce. Not willing to believe it on his say so alone I ordered a packet from Italy. (apparently the ones from Florida are not up to snuff). Every year since, I’ve taken one of the biggest, plumpest tomatoes from the vine at the end of the season and harvested its seeds for next year.
When I processed my first crop in the tomato milling machine a few months later, I was convinced. Where most other tomatoes go through the milling process producing about 50% water, the San Marzano’s come out looking like a “slushie”! So thick and delicious . . . which leads to thick and delicious sauce!
You might be wondering, why does he bother raising his own tomatoes when he can just go down to the Produce section and grab fresh tomatoes or down to aisle #2 and pick up a can of Ragu, Prego, Francesco Rinaldi or any one of a dozen varieties of pasta sauce.
Commercial tomato sauce tastes as much like real tomato sauce as Dinty Moore tastes like real corned beef. Or as Chef Boy-Ar-Dee tastes like real pasta. (read: “not much at all”)! The worst part of commercial pasta sauce is that they used to come in a quart jar. Now they’re 24oz and dropping. That’s 8oz less to cover a pound of pasta. Is it any wonder your main course is often dry?
Growing up, my mom and grandmother always seemed to have a pot of sauce on the stove, simmering, bubbling the day long. When I make tomato sauce, whether it be for spaghetti or some other entrée, I love the aroma that permeates the kitchen. It smells like my boyhood and brings back fond memories of meals shared with family and friends. If you really want to jazz up your sauce, add 3 or 4 anchovy fillets to the kettle. They will cook down until invisible and nobody will know they’re in there, but the full bodied flavor will make everybody sit up and take notice!