Passata making festival

Andy and I were lucky enough to be invited by homesteader, food forager and passionate foodie, Wink Lindsay to help make passata. I’d heard that making passata can be quite an involved process and it is, however when you throw together some great people, brilliant wine and awesome food, then it becomes more like a festival.  

 

 

You start with 30 kilos of roma tomatoes from the Italian market gardener down the road.

 

Wink showing Andy how to put the tomatoes in the sieve which squeezes the crap out them while removing the seeds and skins. (I had to use step ladder)

 

 

While everyone worked hard I read cook books.

 

 

Then we opened a bottle of local wine, the award winning Different Drummer from Bakkheia Wines.

It was decided that lunch was needed, so Wink’s husband Dave showed Andy how simple it was to make fettuccini from scratch.

 

 

See, easy to make!

 I followed Wink out to her wild and untamed veggie garden to forage for fresh stuff to throw in the pasta sauce and the salad for lunch.

 

Newly made passata was simply added to the sautéed veggies and garlic and there you have it, instant pasta sauce in minutes and it didn’t come from a jar. Thanks to Wink's good friend Tash for making it.

 

The bottling begins. 

 

The bottles are then wrapped in old cloth nappies so they don’t clink against each other when they’re heated. The only sound of clinking you want to hear is that of wine glasses as you celebrate the end of the day!

 

 

Lunch time, my favourite part of the day. Penne with homemade basil pesto. I’m salivating.

 

A little bit everything goes into my bowl. Get your own.

 

 

Everything you see on the table was either grown by Wink or sourced locally.

The end product, bottles of passata ready to use as a base for any sauce including Italian, Mexican, Moroccan or Indian. The bottles keep for a couple of years in the cupboard.

Wink will have her own blog soon where she'll share her journey to turn the front of her property into a food forest.

Cooking shouldn't be a competition or difficult to do. Check here for host of simple meal ideas that'll have you salivating.