Il passatutto ....... and the pleasures of making passata

Now here is a bit of technology that takes me back over 65 years, and sits belong side the steel mincer, which you clamped to the side of the table, and shredded the leftovers from the Sunday roast.

Today, most of us would use an electric food processor, but I still prefer this simple device, which is perfect for preparing peeled tomatoes for tomato sauce.

There are just three bits, which are a bowl, a bottom plate with holes like those in a colander, and a crank fitted with a bent metal blade that crushes the food and forces it through the holes in the plate.

So, nothing over elaborate, and nothing which can go wrong.  Although our last one which has lasted for over 20 years finally gave up on us after one of the small brackets came away from the bowl.

Like the new one it is from Naples, which is not surprising given that the Italian side of the family have been using them forever.  It is called a passatutto and can be used on a heap of different vegetables.

But when the family would gather to make their own passata they used a variation which is bigger and sturdier and fastened to the table.

My favourite is an old steel one with a detachable bowl which sat on top.

Today you can buy a host of differently shaped ones, some of which are powered by electricity, and boast plastic as well as steel parts.

But in essence they are all the same, and take me back to the stories of the 1960s and 70s, when the family along with aunts and uncles and cousins met up and worked through the day and into the night.

And the rest is a story for another time.

Pictures; il passatutto, 2021, from the collection of Andrew Simpson