Kelda Wallis, Author at Casale Volpe

We had phase one of the landscaping completed around the house last summer, but it wasn’t until late July that we had the first veggie bed in place, ready to be planted. Granted, it’s pretty late for a lot of summer vegetables, but with the heat of the summer I thought it was still worth a go.

No Italian orto is complete with a glut of tomatoes growing in it, so I planted a mix of San Marzano and Tonda di Mensa. Whilst some of them did ripe (and believe it or not, are still ripening even now), I have kilos of unripened green tomatoes just sitting there.

Not one to waste any food, ever (especially home-grown), after a chat with our lovely friend Giovanni, he passed on his wife’s recipe for preserved green tomatoes, along with a jar she’d made to sample. Upon opening them and taking the first mouthful, both Mike and I were hooked. They’d do well as an antipasto with fresh pecorino cheese, but I think they’d also work well with fatty meat like lamb chops, or even as a condiment to a good homemade burger.

I’ve already made one batch with 2kg of toms, and I’m now part-way through another slightly larger batch that will keep us happy throughout winter and early spring and do well for the odd Xmas gift for local friends.

It’s a dead simple recipe – all you need is a little time.

Green Tomatoes Preserved in Oil Recipe

Ingredients
2kg of green tomatoes
Fine salt
250ml white vinegar
250ml water
4-5 cloves of garlic
2-3 fresh red chillies
2-3 teaspoons of dried oregano
750ml olive oil, plus a little more for topping up the jars

Wash and finely slice the green tomatoes and layer them in a large bowl with a sprinkling of fine salt in between each layer.

Push them down with a large plate on top and something to weigh them down. Leave them in a cool, dark place for 24hrs.

Drain all of the bitter juice that’s been extracted from the toms – you can also squish them somewhat with your hands to get any excess juice out. Pat them dry with a clean tea towel and then pop them back into a large, clean bowl – once again in layers. Mix together the 250ml each of white vinegar and water and pour this over the tomatoes, ensuring they’re all covered. Pop the plate and weight back on them and leave them for another 24hrs.

Drain the tomatoes and, once again, squish any excess liquid out with your hands. Pop them into a clean, dry bowl and add in the chopped garlic, red chillies, oregano and the 750ml of olive oil. Mix thoroughly and let it sit at room temperature for approx. 3hrs so the flavours get to know one another.

Sterilise your jars (I filled 6 x 550ml jars, to give you an idea of volume), and then whilst the jars are still warm, pop the tomatoes in, packing them in tightly and leaving around 2-3cm at the top. Lastly, top up the tomatoes with a little extra olive oil so they’re fully covered by around 1cm and them pop the lid on tightly.

Store them either in the fridge or a cool/dark room or garage. They’re ready to eat 2 weeks after jarring, will keep for 6 months, but eat within a week or two once the jar is opened.

June here in Le Marche sees the start of the summer sagra/food festival season, where all the village and towns around here celebrate all that is great about their local food and produce.

Each sagra is slightly different, and can go on for one, two, or even three nights. They typically focus on one key dish, but then offer a whole range of local food on top of that. Typical sagras are pizza and beer, parpadelle pasta with hare, fresh water crayfish, gnocchi, vincisgrassi and tortellini.

The serious business of cooking

Village centres are decorated, stages are set up for live music and dancing, and the all-important benches and tables are set out, where everyone sits and eats together. There’s a menu displayed and then some queuing (a favourite pastime of us Brits) to order your food and drink, when you pay and get your receipts (a favourite pastime of Italians). You then queue up again at another hut or stand, hand your receipt over and get given various plates of seriously delicious food.

Then it’s time to find a free spot on a table to share with the village locals, and eat. Considering the sheer scale that even the smallest of sagras has to cater for – all with local volunteers, including young children who seem to relish the responsibility – the food is without fail, top notch.

Tortellini, Olive Ascolane, lamb spiedini

Our little village of Sant’Angelo in Pontano here in Le Marche had a tortellini sagra, and it was an absolute blast. Everyone was out; children of all ages, old folk, plumbers, doctors, cooks, teachers, ex-pats, holiday makers. There was a live band that produced what can only be described as a flock of middle-aged locals deftly doing the foxtrot and quick step, and then seamlessly (apparently without any discussion among the 40-50 people dancing) moving into a line dance when the music tempo changed.

The foxtrot

If you’re thinking about heading to here on holiday, look out for the posters on the side of the roads that tell you which sagra is where and when. We’ll also do our best to keep an up-to-date list available for our guests.

Wherever you are in Italy, they’ll definitely be a sagra near you, and there’s no better way to get a real insight into village life and the love of local food.

A word of warning: make sure you go to a sagra with a serious appetite. You won’t be disappointed.

Author: Kelda Wallis

Green Tomatoes Preserved in Oil

Food Festivals in Italy