From the book "The stories of the Italian chef". Peeled tomatoes with basil. The memory of the flavors of the past
In the underground cellar where the grandparents kept our preserves and home-produced wines in the cool and for a long time, surrounded by cemented brick walls from which dried sausages, cheeses and garlic heads hung, an enormous pantry housed a horizontal expanse on several shelves and vertical of glass jars, called "boccacci", containing peeled tomatoes with thin basil leaves that could be glimpsed timidly from the outside. The moment of the visit to the winery was the most awaited one of the entire summer spent in the countryside. When my grandfather asked my cousins and me to accompany him into the mysterious, strictly locked basement, we felt privileged.
In August, when we little ones saw a group of women in their fifties arriving accompanied by the freshness of their daughters' youth, we understood that it was time to prepare homemade peeled tomato preserves. A choral moment, lived intensely by all of us who witnessed the union of several families collaborating together with great compactness, armed with a lot of patience and joy, because once the preparation was finished, the women, including my grandmother, would have delivered the peeled tomatoes made at home to children, sisters, brothers and grandchildren.
The same women, gathered around the worktop, skilfully carved the skin of the tomatoes grown in the neighboring lands, carefully dipped them in deep aluminum pots filled with boiling water, then drained them and deprived them of the still hot skin. Once peeled, they were delicately placed in jars with the fragrant basil leaves from the garden, then washed, closed and sterilized for a long time. For an authentic flavor that takes me back to my childhood, I prefer in my preparations only peeled tomatoes that evoke the taste of my grandmother's. From quick cooking, I lightly mash them with a fork and use them above all to season my beloved pizza or the famous spaghetti with tomato sauce.
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