Making homemade sauce the Italian way

Anyone who loves Italian cuisine knows that when it comes to the best of the best, it’s all about the tomato sauce, or as they call it in “the boot,” the gravy.

The Baldino family spend one day a year at the end of the summer making tomato sauce in the driveway of their Oyster Bay home. And you can smell the aroma throughout the neighborhood.

Carmela and Philip have lived in Oyster Bay for 38 years. Carmela immigrated to America in 1959 from Durazzano, Italy with her four sisters. She married Philip, who immigrated in 1953 from Molinara, Italy, in 1964.

“I began making sauce when I was 11 years old in Italy,” Carmela said. “When I was small, I used to wash the tomatoes, clean the jars and put the basil in.”

It was important to the couple to carry on the tradition of making tomato sauce and to ensure their family knew how to make it the right way.

How do they make it?

Making tomato sauce is serious business. The process begins at the Baldino home at 6 a.m. with 20 bushels of plum tomatoes. Much time is spent separating the good from the bad before the tomatoes are put into large plastic tubs to be cleaned. Then they are transferred to 30-gallon aluminum pots, along with a great deal of salt to boil until they split. Carmela said everyone — and there are many assorted Baldino extended family members involved in making the sauce — makes certain the tomatoes do not stick to the bottom of the pot where they boil for 35 minutes.

Then the tomatoes are pureed in a mill, not once, but twice. Philip, at the helm, wears a hard hat each year while working at the mill to protect himself from the hot sauce which often splatters while being crushed.

More salt is added before the crushed tomatoes are transferred into very large pots to simmer for a half hour. Rob Baldino, one of the grandchildren, said it’s important to stir the sauce every three to five minutes so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. And yes, his arm gets tired, but he said it’s worth it.

Once the sauce is ready, an assembly line is formed. First, fresh basil is placed in each mason jar, which is resting in a hot tub of water to avoid cracking. The sauce is carefully poured in each jar but never all the way to the top. Then the lid is put on and sealed.

But that is not the end of the process.

Holding the jar in a towel, each is turned upside down so the sauce touches the top of the lid. It’s then brought to a crate in the garage and wrapped upside down in a blanket. Four days later it’s taken out to be stored on shelves in the basement or in the kitchen, where the jars can remain for years. Carmela warned to never store the unopened jars of sauce in the refrigerator.

Once all the homemade sauce is tucked away and the equipment is cleaned it’s party time, with the main course spaghetti and meatballs, of course.