Tomato Concasse

Another of Amalia's delicious dishes was handmade eggplant-fresh mozzarella ravioli with a "simple" sauce of tomato concasse. I put quotation marks around "simple" because I'm almost always too lazy to go through the process of making it when it's called for in a recipe. But if your sauce consists of nothing but tomato concasse, you may as well try it. It's creme de la tomato, all rich pulp, no seeds or peel.

Here's how it's done. Bring a small or medium pot of water to the boil. The level of water should be just high enough to totally cover the tomato(es). Score the blossom end of the tomato (opposite of the stem end) with an X. Once the water is at a full, rolling boil, drop the tomato(es) in for 10 seconds, no more. Scoop them out and run under cold water or drop into ice water. At the X you made, begin to peel the tomato skin off. This should now be very easy. If it is not, drop the tomato back into the boiling water. Once the peel is off, slice the tomato in half at the equator. Squeeze all the seeds out, the chop the pulp as you like. Music to chop pulp by: General Public "Hand to Mouth". Their 1980s ska-dipped new wave pop will leave you hungry for more. Add salt and pepper. Enjoy.