As the pale late Summer sun arcs over the medieval town of Sarnano, the ancient terracotta is briefly set ablaze, and disappears suddenly behind the Sibillini Mountains, leaving Le Marche with a tranquil but chilly dusk.
September is a glorious time in this part of Le Marche and whilst the cool nights have reduced swimming temperatures to a level that could do permanent damage to your “palle”, the days are still mainly filled with wonderful sunshine. Truffle and mushroom hunters armed with wicker baskets and small knives weave stealthily through the stunning landscape; which has taken on a new richness with the first vestiges of Autumn.
In the garden, the walnuts and hazel nuts are beginning to fall and the last of the fruiting vegetable are reaching maturity; plump and shiny pepperoni, deep purple aubergine, melons and butternut squash. Not wanting to be outdone, even the courgette plants are squeezing out a last crop, the fig trees are also fruiting with their second crop and are ready for our favourite Fig and Chilli pasta recipe, if you need invigorating and a real pick me up then give it a try (I don’t know what it’s medicinal qualities are but we all agree that it makes you feel damn good!).Then we reach the tomatoes and it seems that 50 plants was overegging it slightly and despite many guests to the villa helping themselves for over 3 months now, there are still windfalls and ridiculous quantities of plum and cherry tomato on the vines.
Making traditional Italian Tomato Passata
The tomato glut gives us no alternative, either we allow them to add to the organic matter in the rich Marche soil or we brace ourselves for a Passata making session. We discuss the project with our guests who, being foodies, seem to think this will be great fun. Our neighbour Maria, who is always so kind and helpful, offers to help and to lend us her electric Passata maker. So we set about picking about 35 kilos of sweet ripe tomatoes, this fills a wheelbarrow which is rolled down the hill and across the road to Maria’s house, where we establish a production line with Barbara, John, Richard, Ollie, myself and Maria; cutting the fruit, feeding this into the hopper of the passata machine. The juice is collected in buckets and the skins and seeds are extracted and fed through a second time for good measure. At the end of the process, we are proud owners of 30 litres of Passata and clothes that have been Jackson Pollocked.
The buckets of fresh tomato juice are carried back to the Le Marche Farmhouse and we set about cleaning jars and bottles and preparing a fire. Once we have sufficient heat an enormous Copper cauldron* is placed over the fire and filled with water. The jars and bottles are filled with the passata and a small gap is left at the top, once filled they are placed in the lukewarm cauldron water (don’t place them into boiling water), the water is brought to the boil, left boiling for 10 minutes or more and then left to cool, allowing us to indulge in a few beers as the sun sets over medieval Sarnano. Finally, the jars of passata are placed in the cool of the cantina or old wine store. Having a ready supply of sweet and fruity tomato juice has already proved a wonderful addition to the larder.
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