If you are Italian then you know all about the Tomato Day Olympics. For a very long time, my family honored this tradition and I was not that involved. Now that I have my own household, I wanted to keep the tradition going and began to collect all the gadgets so that I could have my own stock of tomato sauce. Every family does it differently, and as always to each their own. But I will share with you how my family has done them, and in my opinion it’s the simplest with the thickest and tastiest sauce you’ll ever have IMO. Here is my contribution to the world by bringing tomatoes to the masses.
First things first – tools.
If you think it’s cheap – it’s not. But you will pay once for all the gadgets.
You will need:
- a tomato mill
- I ordered mine from Consiglio’s and it works like a charm
- burners
- I recommend two – the more burners the quicker things get done (but then also the more cleaning.) These were pretty strong and scorched the bottom of my pans because the paint it pretty much burned off the paint of the burners. I saw some on Cerini’s website for a bit cheaper, might consider looking into that.
- large cooking pots
- I am actively searching for links for the pots I have but honestly, I cannot find them. If you are in NYC, Coluccio’s begins selling them in July, they do not take orders or make deliveries so this is definitely a DIY. But, from the hours of researching I did, I found these at home depot and I think – not certain – the burners come with these. From the looks of it so does a strainer which will also come in handy later. They look to be for those crab boils they make in the south, but it might work for this too. Basically, you will need a large enough cooking pot to not only cook down your bushels of tomatoes, but to boil the jars in later.
- large stock pots
- These can be cheap but should be large as this is where you will mill the tomatoes into sauce. I purchased mine at National Wholesale in Brooklyn, but amazon seems to have some under $40 from Imusa. I do not really recommend cooking in these as they are likely to burn but since we only use them to store the sauce as we transfer to the jars, it works just fine.
- little tiny pots
- these are the pots you will use to fill up the jars and to pour the cooked tomatoes into the mills. This was the cheapest I found on amazon but I went to National Wholesale and found for like $3. You want to get the most lightweight one you can find as you will be lifting it a lot.
- strainers
- I also bought mine from National Wholesale, we use the plastic ones and my aunt says you want the ones that have large enough holes to strain. I think I might try these large restaurant quality ones instead of my little cheap plastics because it might make the cleanup easier.
- large wooden spoon
- you need a spoon to fit the height of your pot but also to give you enough length that you can easily turn the tomatoes. Preferably a spoon with a flat side as to scrap the pot easier. I ordered mine from Cerini’s in Astoria. Even if you do not see what you need on their site, call them to place an order. They ship all over the US and they offer free shipping over $100. I called and explained to the woman over the phone exactly what I was looking for and she walked around the store while talking to me to let me know what she had.
- large tomato strainer spoon
- you will need one long enough to not burn yourself when you are taking the cooked tomatoes out. I ordered mine from Cerini’s but I ordered it over the phone as it was not available online. I found this seafood boil one that is quite similar in length, however from what it looks like online I think that the circumfrence of the spoon might not be large enough. The smaller the spoon the more work you will have to do taking the tomatoes out.
- mason jars
- We use Ball Mason Jars in 32 ounces. You can do wide or regular mouth it makes no difference, although we prefer the regular mouth. I will say over the past two years of me doing this we have STRUGGLED to find regular mouth jars. They are so expensive compared to the wide mouth ones on amazon. So if you see them at walmart, stock up!
- funnel
- You can use any funnel you like, but the easiest one is definitely from prepworks. It fits perfectly in the jar.
- buckets
- These buckets make straining the tomatoes exceptionally quicker. You place the strainer right on top and let gravity do its thing.
- mop cloths
- aka ‘mappini’. You will need mop cloths for the inspection/cleaning and to boil the jars. You will need A LOT. I stock up on these whenever I see some and as they get raggedy I toss them in the “tomato mappini” bag.
- canning jar grabber
- jar tightener
- basins
- Outdoor Tables, Chairs, Vinyl Table Cloths, Tent.
The Steps
Days Leading up to Tomato Day:
- If your jars are new, you can skip this step-Wash and sanitize all your jars. Then, wash all your pots and pans and strainers.They must be completely dry come tomato day. In my opinion two to three days in advance is the safest.
- The day before tomato day, pick up your tomatoes and place them outside in a shaded spot. If it is going to rain, best keep them in the garage or somewhere the tomatoes will not get wet.
- Set up outdoor tables, tents and chairs. Set up burners and propane tanks.
Tomato Day
- Begin by cleaning and inspecting your tomatoes. This is the longest process. I used a large plastic bin with wheels but my aunt washes hers directly in the crate.
- The crate way: open the bushel and rinse over the top with the hose. Then, individually grab each tomato to wipe off with the mop cloth and clean
- The bucket way: In a large plastic storage container with wheels, mine fit about three bushels at once, fill with tomatoes and rinse the tomatoes with water. As you do each individual inspection and empty out the bin of tomatoes, you can reuse that water or empty it and put new water depending on how dirty it got.
- *You are thoroughly cleaning to get rid of any blackened leaves or bugs*. While cleaning INSPECT for any “eyeballs” to cut out to make sure no rotting tomatoes enter your sauce – very important. If you see any eyes you can cut that part off and then smell it. If it doesn’t smell like a tomato then its not good. I know it sounds silly to say but you would be surprised how easily you can miss it when you’ve individually inspected 500 tomatoes. One bad tomato will ruin the whole batch. As my Zia says “when in doubt, throw it out”. The passed inspection tomatoes get put into a basin and placed close to the burners to get ready for cooking.
- Once you have enough of the tomatoes washed, or all if you want to do it one step at a time, turn on your burners. Place the pot and fill with about a finger length of water. You do not want to put too much water in as the tomatoes will release their own.
- Once the water is hot enough, begin slowly pouring in your tomatoes. Let it cook down for a little but stir it frequent enough to not only prevent burning but to rotate the cooked ones from the not cooked ones on the top till they all reach the same consistency. I can’t give you an exact cooking time for this step because I simply do not have one. It is an observation. Once you see that the tomato skins have all cracked and the tomatoes are softened and not full anymore then you can begin to strain.
- Strain the tomatoes in a plastic strainer over a bucket. Once the tomatoes are all removed from the pot you can add more cleaned tomatoes directly into that hot water. The second round should take a little less time as it is already hot and ready to go! The straining tomatoes need to sit for a while to remove as much excess water as possible. Do not let any new water, dirt, or anything touch these tomatoes!
- Once the tomatoes have strained, transfer them to one of the stock pots to prepare for milling. Place another pot under the milling machine to catch the strained sauce. Use an aluminum try to catch the skins. Using a little pot grab a scoopful and place into the top of the mill. Never turn the mill on without anything for it to mill. IDK why, but just don’t. Mill the skins for a second time.
- Once you have enough sauce to start filling some jars, get started. In one 32 oz jar place one spoon of salt (usually the spoon you have for your daily utensils. It isn’t the large table spoon one, and not the tiny teaspoon so find one in the middle- best description I could give!), a bunch of basil leaves – about 5, and then fill with sauce. Do not overfill, fill to slightly under the base of the neck. If you fill too much then it will pop and bye bye sauce.
- Add lids and tighten and set aside to get ready for sealing stage.
- After all your tomatoes have been cooked, strained, milled, and jarred, start cleaning up what you can and rinse out the pots you cooked the tomatoes in.
- Add the pot back to the burner fill with water. Place a layer of mop cloths on the bottom and start layering in jars, separating each layer with another layer of mop cloths till you get to the top. Turn the burners on and bring the jars to a boil and then once it comes to a rapid boil start the countdown: 20 minutes!
- Let the pot cool down and then begin the removal process. Usually we take them out and let them dry off in milk crates so that once the water has finished dripping we can easily transport them to their final resting place aka storage 🙂
Thats it! Our family usually makes a pot of sauce to eat with some pasta to taste the batch. The rest is cleanup. Clean your pots. Put things away. Mop. Have wine and sleep. This year I did wayyyy too many. I woke up at 4am to start cleaning early as to not make the cleaning tomato process too long for when my family got there. Was I tired, yes. Did it deter my excitement, no.
I hope you found this helpful, or at least interesting. Please let me know if you do it any differently or if you give this a shot. I am avid tomato day lover not just for the liquid gold it creates but that family time is my favorite. Ci vediamo la prossima volta!!! See you next time.
