[Sca-cooks] Officially Period...the tomato

[Christiane]

Katherine asked:
>
>So Mattioli also mentions tomatoes boiled in oil, followed by instructions
>to use sun softened tomatoes as medicines, which made me wonder when the
>habit of drying tomatoes in the sun became common.  Could they have been
>stored/preserved that way?  
>
There is one way today that tomatoes are conserved in Sicily: the famous super-concentrated paste called "strattu."

http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=P-EST

I've gotten a few jars of this from All Things Sicilian.com, and I have to say, the flavor of it is AMAZING. But Alfred hasn't gotten any of this in for quite awhile, and it makes me sad.

http://sicilyscene.blogspot.com/2007/02/strattu.html

I'd love to make it, but unfortunately, the climate where I am (Pennsylvania) isn't right for making it; but I bet it would work in Arizona or other desert places with lots of sun, lots of heat, and no humidity (which is Sicilian summer when the sirocco isn't blowing).

And I don't think that strattu is period, either. Otherwise you'd be finding it in recipes. It takes a helluva lot of tomatoes and time to make strattu. I've read that in the past, shopkeepers would sell it by the tablespoon full.

Adelisa