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This Once-a-Year Chore Connects Me to Queens — And My Italian Heritage
And it ensures the taste of summer all year
I first jarred tomatoes as a young girl, when my WASP mother and her Irish American best friend decided that they wanted to take on the tradition of making passata — the basis for sauce — passed on by their Italian husbands’ ancestors. While technically passata refers to uncooked tomatoes, this word is used by many home cooks for their finished jars.
Many years went by, and while I have always made my tomato sauce from scratch, I used canned tomatoes — imported from Italy, of course. Each summer, when I heard about friends jarring tomatoes in earnest, I thought to myself, “Next year.” However, after the passing of my father in 2006, I became determined to keep up with as many family traditions as possible, and while tomato preservation was not something we did much together, the thought of doing it made me feel a strong connection to my Italian heritage.
So, that first time, about 12 years ago, I wandered in ignorance into a local nursery, determined to process enough jars to get us through the winter. It was then, seeing shoppers load case upon case of tomatoes into their SUVs, that I realized I was pretty clueless. I decided to buy just two cases of tomatoes to start, and mentioned to the cashier that…
