Recipes

Re: Pasatta

sue1002 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:49:56 GMT

That's the same reason we sometimes have takeaways, those plastic containers are the ideal size for freezing individual portions or enough sauce for all three of us for one meal

Re: Pasatta

miranda — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:17:05 GMT

They must use the same factory, catymck!

Give bottling a try - it's really nice to see the big cupboard in the garage filling up with jars. It's like the Olden Days.

Phot's does have to keep eating take aways. Anyway, that's the main reason the ancients didn't freeze stuff - no take aways

Re: Pasatta

catymck — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:31:20 GMT

Maybe I'll give bottling a bash next year - the freezer isn't full yet. You don't need to keep on getting takeaways - though it does sound like a brilliant excuse - I freeze stuff in clingfilm inside a mug or something then just wrap it up a bit better for storage or do tomato puree in ice cube trays.

The Lakeland thing is made in Italy, seemingly by this lot www.rigamontipietro.it

Re: Pasatta

Phot's-Moll — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:07:23 GMT

I freeze everything as we've got a big freezer that's usually less than half full. Only downside is we have to eat a lot of takeways as the plastic containers are perfect for freezing fruit and vegetables.

Re: Pasatta

miranda — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:41:15 GMT

That looks very similar, catymck. Makes things much easier, doesn't it! Any idea where it's made?

Bottling isn't that tricky, you just need everything really hot and well-sealing jars. I started bottling because our freezer isn't very big and also because we were living in an area where we had a lot of power cuts, so bottling seemed like the way to go.

I wasn't sure if it would work to begin with and then when I came to open the first jar of preserved apple, after leaving it in a dark corner of the garage for over a year, the seal was so tight that I couldn't get the lid off (had to ask a man to do it!) and the contents were pretty much the same as when they went in. Thought I may as well carry on doing it that way.

Re: Pasatta

catymck — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:20:47 GMT

Hi - I've been making passatta (& tomato puree) but freezing it rather than bottling. I've never really tried bottling and I think I'm a bit frightened of it! By the way, Lakeland also do a passata maker - called Tomato Master - which is brilliant and saves so much time and effort. I too put the tomatoes through 3-4 times to get the last drop out. It's on offer at the moment for £14.68 rather than the £28 or so on the Seeds of Italy site- it looks very similar. It aso does a great job ob raspberries and grapes - rather nicer results that a juicer, I think.

Re: Pasatta

miranda — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:26:35 GMT

I made up another batch of pasatta today, then went out and picked the rest of the tomatoes and now there's a new pile to do that was bigger than the last lot. Looking forward to some good sauces!

Re: Pasatta

Phot's-Moll — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:30:01 GMT

Please let us know how you get on with the truffles, Susiq.

Re: Pasatta

miranda — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:46:11 GMT

Susiq, I find that if I put the skins back through a couple of times then a surprising amount of pulp still comes out them.

Truffles, eh? Does the site say how long it takes for them to start growing?

Re: Pasatta

Susiq — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:25:24 GMT

The passatta machine you've got some herb seeds and er (Gawd help me) truffles and more truffle trees - eeeks!!!!

Re: Pasatta

miranda — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:22:34 GMT

We ordered quite a lot from them last year, Susiq, and everything has done really well. What are you going to buy?

Re: Pasatta

Susiq — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:15:09 GMT

Oh Miranda - What have you done?!?!?! I'm just about to spend a small fortune on that link - what a brilliant site!

Re: Pasatta

sue1002 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:51:36 GMT

Excellent, thanks Miranda.

Re: Pasatta

miranda — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:56:05 GMT

It does if you whiz it for long enough, Sue. One time I didn't and there were tiny shreds of skin left in it, but by then it was a lot easier to sieve.

Re: Pasatta

sue1002 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:51:42 GMT

Thanks for this one Miranda. I don't have a pasatta mill but I'm guessing that whizzing it through a blender would take care of the skins and seeds.