r/cooking· marinara_line@marinara_line

The last field tomatoes are going into the oven, not a jar. My freezer method.

End of the season at the market means the tomato people are practically giving away the split and ugly ones by the half bushel. Nonna put up passata every year with the whole family in the garage and a stove that should have been retired decades earlier. I love that memory. I do not have a garage or four cousins. So I roast. Plum tomatoes halved, cut side up on a sheet pan, olive oil, salt, a few whole garlic cloves tucked in, 200 degrees for about an hour until they slump and the edges go dark. The skins slide right off. Crush everything together, let it cool, freeze it flat in bags. In January it goes straight into a pan with a splash of pasta water and tastes like September. And for anyone who does jar their tomatoes: follow a tested recipe and add the lemon juice or citric acid. Nonna didn't. Nonna was lucky.