At our primary home in Hingham, I spend as much time as possible outside, either walking our wonderful Australian Shepherd, chopping wood from felled trees (some of which we used in our recent kitchen remodel) or spending time cultivating our herb and tomato gardens.
As for the tomatoes, we have grown a number of varieties over the years. However, another outdoor passion of ours is making regular use of our backyard pizza oven, which means great sauce is key.
(our backyard pizza oven)
And for great pizza and pasta sauce, one variety of tomato is the best: San Marzano. This is the varietal that has dominated our garden for years as a result.
San Marzano tomatoes, with their elongated shape, thin skin, and thick flesh, are highly prized for their sweet taste, low acidity and lower water content than other varietals. It just makes for a beautiful sauce that our friends love.
Beyond making sauce, we have enjoyed both hot and cold soups as well as terrific variations of bruschetta with these tomatoes.
Why grow our own? Because buyers need to be careful: a huge percentage of canned tomatoes claiming to be San Marzanos are frauds, apparently.
But buying genuine plants or seeds near you is relatively easy, it turns out.
(our herb garden)
For us, 2024 was fantastic for the best sauce tomato crop. Very warm and dry conditions are optimal in producing sweet paste with popping tomato flavor – and without the need to add any sweeteners during cooking.
Last year’s sauce, in contrast, was thin and watery due to a lack of consistent sunshine and too much rain.
We recently tasted this year’s batch in our woodfired oven: 10 out of 10!
As for what comes out of that pizza oven, we gravitate toward simple pies. Starting with our homemade sourdough crust, topped with sauce, smoked mozzarella, peppers and onion marinated in balsamic vinegar with thyme, and occasionally adding some grilled chicken.
Back to the sauce. On a one-by-one basis, I would be willing to let you in on the double secret, closely held family recipe, but something inside says I can just post it here publicly.
Interested? Just send me an email at bruce@granite-wealth.com or follow and direct message me on Linkedin or Twitter.
Buona cena!
