Tomato Season Means Salsa!

To get your Italian food fix this summer the time is right to see the lovely Italian gardens that flourish under the hot Aussie sun and soak up the unpredictable Melbourne rain. Italians treasure their adored gardens full of flowering beanstalks, ripening tomatoes and green basil plants. My Mamma has the greenest of thumbs and puts me to shame as I virtually kill anything with a stalk! 

Basil Soldiers 

The gardens of Italians are looked after with much pride. Upon every visit to my Mamma’s or another relative’s home, I am always taken outside to see the fruit trees and the growing herbs in their garden beds. Since Mamma got her new garden bed, she happily planted her basil in perfect straight rows that look just like an army of soldiers, and every day nurtures them with joy as they grow, giving anyone who asks for some, a generous portion. 
Fresh basil is amazing. One of the best ways to use basil is to pop a few leaves into a sterilised bottle ready to be filled with ruby red tomato salsa. This summer is the time to try and make your own tomato salsa or passata, and believe me you wont beat the taste of homemade  Italian style tomato sauce in a pasta dish or tomato paste on a fresh pizza base with some hot salami you made in Winter. Give it a go with our simple instructions from our Salsa Time post.
Basil Soldier - Home Grown Plants

Making salsa can be simple!

For under $43.00 you will get a sturdy and robust unit complete with tools and caps to help you make your batch of tomato sauce and more! We even give you Mamma’s secret recipe inside the Tomato Sauce maker kit. Just click here.
Tomato Sauce Making Machine
Keep in mind we also have larger electric sauce making machines too if you want to make it less labour intensive, especially when making large batches of salsa. The electric mincers all have the option to upgrade to an extra passata making attachment to extract the salsa really nicely from the ripe blanched tomatoes. 
Like salami making, everyone has their own way of making it and their own tricks. But one thing for sure is that almost always a stalk of basil finds its way into the mix!
The basil leaves are as green as the ripe tomatoes are red and the contrasting colours look like a vibrant Van Gogh painting of fluorescent colour. My Mamma’s basil is so green it almost looks like a fake plastic plant!
Basil Soldiers - Home Grown Plants
Why not try and make your own, its super simple and we have all the instructions you need enclosed in our Multi use tomato salsa maker, including a straining bag to drain your blanched tomatoes in and tomato metal beer bottle caps for bottling your salsa into glass bottles. The handy machine is even fantastic to purée fresh berries for jam and squeezing juice for drinks. Think of the awesome Bloody Mary you can make fresh and almost healthy- well I did say almost...
Anyway if you get the chance check out an Italian garden and go see the green basil soldiers all lined up perfectly like a little green army ready to march off the garden bed and into your tasty tomato salsa. 
Maybe you can try a tasty dish by the name of  Pasta all’ Amatriciana  which is one of our classic pasta dishes that has a flavoursome tomato salsa base, and features fantastic cured pork cheek.. called guanciale - come and pick some up today - or make some with us in our Italian Cured Meats Masterclass - or get our recipe in our book Rump to Rafters - as always buon appetito! Stay tuned for more meaty secrets coming up! 
Happy Salsa Making - oh and a word of advice ...don’t wear white on salsa making day! 

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