TOMATOES AND SOME RECIPES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16625, 6 January 1922, Page 9

TOMATOES AND SOME RECIPES.

Tomato time is a good time for housekeepers who know how to take advantage of it to the full, for the culinary uses to which this smooth, glossy fruit can be put are innumerable. In Italy, indeed, it is one of the most important of the cook’s assets, especially in modest households, all the year round.

There is, for instance, tomato soup, one of the simplest that can bo made. The tomatoes should be scalded and their skins and pips removed ; the same result can be obtained by putting through a sieve after cooking, but the flavour is more delicate if the seeds axe removed before. Boil the pulp in about half the quantitv of water needed, and, a few ininutes before taking off the fire, add an equal quantity of milk, with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to prevent curdling ; flavour with salt and pepper, a,nd serve with dice of fried bread. Another soup, without milk, can be made by boiling the pulp in the full amount of water required, thickening with cornflour, and flavouring with salt, pepper and a. little sugar; some people, like also the addition of a taste of mustard.

Tomato “ pappa ” or mush is a favourite Italian peasant dish, and a good way of. using up. stale bread. It consists simply of bread and tomatoes boiled till soft in sufficient. water to make a mush, with the addition of olive oil, salt and popper. Tomato pudding is a variation of this mush; alternate layers of bread and. tomato being laid in a pie dish with a little butter, salt and pepper between each layer. The top is then sprinkled with breadcrumbs, and th© whole baked in the oven. Green tomato fritters are excellent. For these, perfectly green unripe tomatoes are required. After being sliced they should be laid on a dish or 6ievo to drain, as tho juice, if not drained off, gives a bitter flavour. Hie slices are then dipped in batter and fried.

Tomato jam is made by scalding and removing the skins, and then adding an equal weight of sugar, and some lemon rind and juice, the exact proportion of lemon to the pound depending on individual taste. This jam is delicious in flavour, and of a clear reddish amber tint. But th© tomato not only has its value during the months when it can lie gathered fresh every day. but also, preserved in various ways, during the winter : and every good Italian housewife or cook applies herself in summer and a util inn to the preparation of an abundant supply. One method of conservation is to heat the tomatoes in a. cauldron over the fire until thoroughly soft, and then press the pulp through a. strainer, thus extracting all the juice, which retains the flavour of the fresh fruit. This juice is poured into flasks, with a tiny pinch of salicylic acid powder in each to prevent the contents from turning sour. A little oil is then poured into the neck of each flask to keep out the air, and tho flasks, tightly corked, are put by for winter In addition to this liquid sauce there is also the ‘ ‘ Conserve di pomodoro.” or tomato con servo, to be made . Dry rice tomatoes are partially cooked and then passed through a. sieve. The pulp thus obtained is mixed with salt, and any chopped herbs that may be wished for flavouring; it is thou set back on tho fire and cooked until much of tho moisture hns boiled away and a paste is left. This paste is spread out, protected from dust and flics by a gauze covering, dn,y after day under < the midsummer sun, until more and 1 more of the moisture evaporates, and j a stiff dark crimson paste remains, | which is rolled into balls (usually dipped in olive oil to prevent their hardening too much) and stored in covered thia pasta.

is dissolved in a little hot water or broth and added to tho soup or gravy it is to flavour. The small scarlet tomato, resembling a plum in shape and size, is preserved in another way, being strung up in loops and garlands and clusters, and suspended from the kitchen beams and rafters, lending a touch of lovely colour to the dim interiors of the peasant houses. Some have an especially pretty way of tying them in bunches upon bare twigs and branches, which, closely jetted with the bright bead-like fruit, resemble, as they hang, branches of red coral.