Passata (a chunky homemade tomato sauce) captures the flavours of summer in a bottle, each one bringing a richness and sweetness to cooking in the colder months. Here’s how to make your own.

Passata is just as fun to make too and can become a new family tradition because it’s best done in big quantities.

There can be mess all over the kitchen—tomato seeds, basil stalks and garlic skin—but you can count on a delicious smell wafting through the house.

Your bottles of passata can then be used as the base for many delicious sauces and Italian recipes—or even to cook Middle Eastern-style eggs or shakshuka (pictured above).

Grow your own ingredients

Canberra gardeners have a climate that’s well suited to growing tomatoes, basil and garlic—the three essential ingredients for passata.

Tomatoes and basil need warm weather. Plant seedlings or seeds after the last springtime frost has past. Roma tomatoes work best for passata because they’re easy to peel and sweet.

Garlic is a cold-weather garden favourite. Plant garlic mid-autumn, before the winter solstice. It will mature in the cold weather and most varieties are ready for harvest in November or December.

Recipe

This recipe has its origins in Tuscany, where my husband spent a summer working, learning to speak Italian and learning to cook with Italian flair.

The quantities below are designed for home gardeners with a modest crop. It can be easily tripled or quadrupled if you decide to buy tomatoes in bulk from a commercial grower.

What you need

12 medium-sized tomatoes
6 cloves of organic garlic
5 large sprigs of basil
2 tablespoons of Australian olive oil
1 small red chilli
1 teaspoon of cooking salt
½ teaspoon of caster sugar

Step  1: Choose your tunes

A soundtrack of Italian opera is the secret, unwritten ingredient for incredible passata. Before you get started, find your favourite album and turn up the volume.

Step 2: Prepare the tomatoes

Score the top of each tomato with an X and plunge them into boiling water for about 10 seconds.

Pull the tomatoes out one, by one. As they come out, peel off the skin. Place peeled tomatoes into a bowl.

Step 3: Get the flavour happening

Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves. Remove basil leaves and finely chop the stalks. Place the finely chopped garlic and basil stalks into a heavy-based saucepan, along with the olive oil.

Cook on a medium heat, until the garlic has just browned.

Step 4: Create your passata

Add the peeled tomatoes to the saucepan, then turn the heat up a little. Let the tomatoes cook, while they are whole, for at least 10 minutes. Stir the pot as the tomatoes cook, to make sure the garlic and basil stalks don’t brown. Then take the tomato mixture off the heat.

Using a potato masher, crush the tomatoes to create a sauce-like consistency. There will still be small chunks of tomato, creating passata with character.

Step 5. Finish off your flavour

Return the passata mix to a medium heat and add in the whole chilli, salt and sugar.

Lightly boil for up to 30 minutes, to reduce the liquid and intensify the flavour.

Finely chop the basil leaves and add these to the passata.

After a few minutes, test the passata’s seasoning.

Add more salt or sugar, as needed.

Step 6. Bottle up the goodness

Place hot passata into sterilised bottles.

Re-purposed bottles are fine, just sterilise them using your oven or microwave.

Step 7: Share the love

Share your passata bottles with the people who like to listen to your favourite Italian opera