Glorious tomatoes and sauce
There’s no doubt the hot topic this March was ‘when will the tomatoes be ready?’ Families across the state, including ours, had been anxiously keeping an eye out throughout February, in eager anticipation of ripe tomatoes, with texts and calls making the rounds each week: Are they ready? The excitement of ripe tomatoes centre around our annual Basile & Co Passata-Making day, when the Basiles, with extended family and friends, gather on my older brother’s bush block to make sauce.
It’s become quite the family tradition and social gathering, for young and old, with more than 20 people gathering for this year’s day (sometimes we’ve had over 30!) Some of the helpers come a day or two early to camp and enjoy the serenity of the bush, while others arrive on the day, just in time to start cutting the tomatoes, stirring, mincing, bottling, or eating! The latter are the smart ones.
I must say, the process actually starts the day before, when Adrian (my older brother) and his wife Eryn, head out to the block, to get all of the ‘stations’ ready. We have the tomato cutting station, the cooking station with four cauldrons over wood fire, the mincing station, the bottling station, and the boiling station with big drums. Everything is cleaned, the onions, basil and salt are apportioned in their containers, and the trailer of tomatoes arrive — 20 cases this year, direct from a local farmer not far from Bendigo.
This year, we started at 8am. Fortunately it wasn’t too hot. We slice the tomatoes into quarters, filling buckets or containers, which are then transported (by hands and feet) to the cauldrons, where they’re stirred in with basil, onions and salt. We have a few muscly folk on constant stirring duty to ensure the tomatoes don’t get burnt or stick to the bottom of the cauldrons. From there, the cooked sauce is strained to remove excess water, and then taken across to the mincing station. A big shout out to the Sharkey family who are faithful and joyful attendees, and who expertly manage and work the mincing station. Then comes the bottling and sealing with lids, with the sealed bottles being placed into a large drum (with soon to be boiling water) for sterilising and sealing purposes.
While each of these things are going on throughout the morning, there’s cleaning and packing up going on in the background, kids playing, coffee-drinking, and bruschetta-eating for morning tea. There’s never any shortage of food, conversation and laughter. Sometimes there’s even time for a dance, a game of cards or another board game, or kubb. That’s when we have heaps of people, so we can do things in shifts!
By 1pm, we sit down for our lunch of pasta and fresh sauce. It’s delicious! We know we’re lucky to have this annual gathering where our family, extended family and friends can join in. And of course, the added benefit is that after all of this work, we have cases of tomato sauce to take home, which usually last 12 months. This year we did 216 bottles, with four lids coming off during the boiling stage (oops!) … so, 212 total. That’s pretty good!
This sauce is our ‘liquid gold’. It can be used for pasta, on top of pizzas or parmigiana. I often love gifting it, knowing how precious and rare it is, and that the receivers really appreciate it. Each time we gather, I’m reminded of our beautiful connection to our Italian heritage, to my nonni who’ve all passed away now, but who live on in our hearts and minds. This is such a special family tradition, that strengthens connection to family, friends, and our past. Long live the Basile & Co sauce-making day!
“Each time we gather, I’m reminded of our beautiful connection to our Italian heritage and past...”
