Tomatoes galore!! It’s the season and with the abundance of tomatoes from my garden, right now is the time to make Nonna’s Pomarola Sauce Recipe that I learned from my friends in Italy when we visited in July for Bianca’s wedding.

It was funny, when I first tried to make this, we were all texting back and forth running from Warsaw (with Agata) and Milano (with Bianca, the granddaughter) and Arezzo (with Tiziana, the daughter) on ingredients for the recipe but I had already started with carrots and onions before I learned from Tiziana, that Nonna only uses garlic, oil, tomatoes, salt, chili flakes and a little bit of butter at the end. That’s it! Simple is always best, isn’t it? Although I met Nonna at the wedding, she only speaks Italian, not my strong suit.

So make this simple clean tomato sauce, called Pomarola Sauce, that just lets the richness of the tomatoes shine through. Think of this as “summer in a jar” ‘cause that’s what it is!

Of course you skin the tomatoes easily after a dip in boiling water, but then you have to remove the seeds by hand. This takes time!! But it is worth it because I made it again this past week, cooking the tomatoes with skin and seeds and then putting it through the mill to remove it all and you know what? The resulting sauce was not as sweet and it was much thinner.

So it’s up to you but the work beforehand does pay off.

Here you go with the official recipe from Nonna!

NONNA’S POMAROLA SAUCE – makes four 14 oz. jars of sauce

¼ cup of olive oil
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
11 lbs. tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
Salt, preferable French Grey Salt, to taste
¼ – ½ tsp. red chili flakes
1 Tbs. unsalted butter

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Drop tomatoes in and leave in for one minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and let drain. When cool enough to handle, peel the tomatoes, remove all of the seeds (it is tedious but worth it) and chop.

Heat the olive oil and add the minced garlic and salt. Saute for just a minute and smash down the garlic with a fork, just like Nonna does it. Stick your nose in the pot and breathe in the delicious garlic aroma.

Add the chopped tomatoes and bring to a boil, lower to a simmer. Simmer slowly for two hours, uncovered, stirring every so often. When thick and lovely, or as Nonna says, “It is ready when the tomatoes are ready.” Ha!

Add the chili flakes and off-heat, stir in the butter until melted. That’s it!

Store in clean glass jars and freeze or you could actually can them if you want to. Follow the specific canning instructions for that.

My apologies to you for being out of commission for a bit. Our son got married on September 9^th with a big reception at their house in Brooklyn on September 10^th!!! Here they are leaving City Hall in a rice shower.

It was quite the party, delicious cheeses and appetizers followed by Turkish food and a huge spread of homemade desserts. His new wife did such a sweet thing. She went on Facebook, found and printed photos of everyone who made a dessert and put it as a stand-up card next to their creation, so everyone knew who made what. Isn’t that so SWEET??!!

Hope you have a great week and get your tomato sauce made for a little summer in a jar this winter.