Mike Colameco's Real Food SAN MARZANO TOMATOES

[Music] hey where are we you know you know we like to do these shows where we go I find a product I love and we go to where it comes from you know we went to the Beaujolais Harvest a couple years ago olive oil Harvest same year I think San Marzano Tomatoes what is a San Marzano tomato we hear this word thrown around all the time it's the most priced tomato out there everyone agrees it's a great tomato so I figured the only way to find out what it really was to go to this part of Italy during the Harvest that's where I am stay where you are we're gonna be right back we're in the village of Sarno which is sitting I don't know 10 minutes from Mount Vesuvius which is an active volcano that volcanic soil and the activity of it has made this soil around here incredibly mineral Rich the grounds were at the fortune it's really like a labor of love and one of the other things that makes these tomatoes so magical is if you look at look at the soil how dry it is this is it hasn't reigned here in I don't know 90 days it's incredible there's a if you look up on that Mountainside there's a fire been lots of fires down here in this region all summer long it's the summer of 2007 it's been really hot and really really dry right beneath this soil just a couple of feet there's water natural water that's where the water comes from the water table's that high and that's the other thing that makes this this place magical so what we have is a dop tomato the Italians have recognized this region San Marzano so there's really two things the San Marzano region produces San Marzano style Tomatoes then the dops are the ones that are that style of the correct species grown here hand-picked and canned a certain way so it's really sort of the ultimate lifting It Up level wise you know we're going to see tomatoes canned we're going to see what makes them so special and let me just walk in here and show you some nice tomatoes watch your step I mean here's just a beautiful cluster I can pull this one up these are towards the bottom because they look just like the pictures on the cans they've got that beautiful elongated shape here again is another oh pick one off you know beautiful example this is a ripe tomato and you know what I'm going to do let's just take a bite [Music] it's perfect almost sweet tiny bit of acid but really almost no acid component and an enormous amount of Flesh if you look at this I know it almost look at a bit tomato but it's almost all flesh the seed part's very minimal so skin lots and lots of thick flesh the whole way through a little bit of seed in the middle an incredible tomato so this is one of the things that makes the San Marzano Tomatoes Amazing one of many the soil the climate how they're harvested you're gonna see these are all hand-picked to be dop they're hand-picked an astounding product you'll see them Candy by the time you're done you can know more about these than most Italians trust me [Music] people have to recognize a little bit that fruit vegetables very much like growing grapes olives very much like wine if you think of it that way then you can think of turwar which is we're talking about here about seasonality some seasons are better than others some years are better than others and about how all of this the Sun the soil how the plant is treated really affects the finished product hey you thought we were just talking about tomatoes huh [Music] we talked about high how high the water table is here I mean this is you could shoot in there I mean this is right where the soil level is and this is cold potable spring water two feet below the soil [Music] that's his wine he made it all right I've been adopted here by Angelo I'm down this down the street down the street from the Tomato farm and he invited me and this is just a little tiny Vineyard that he keeps behind his house and we're right next to that little natural spring spotted tomato some olive oil I'm not sure anybody in New York is going to get this but it's amazingly delicious this is a stale bread dipped in spring water it's kind of a half Ripe Tomato drizzled with olive oil a little bit of sea salt amazing olive oil and it's like magic this is kind of way you come here because you eat stuff like this in someone's backyard I mean I only just throw them in some restaurants and it's stunningly good The Good Life inside [Music] [Music] welcome to day two we actually got a good night's sleep last night so this is this is a good thing where the Tomato Factory in Solan you're here in sarano where they're processing San marzanos yesterday we saw the fields today we're actually seeing the tomatoes processed so I mean this is really tomato packing 101 you saw the fields you saw the tomatoes they got accepted where we were at the other plant they get shipped here and now we're gonna really see how a tomato gets canned these are beautiful San Marzano Tomatoes follow them into this Factory you'll see all right this is the initial washing process the tomatoes are coming out as we saw them out of those crates this is where they get separated initially from any stems any non-tomato material and this is the initial wash the first of two [Music] thank you [Music] forgive me for sweating but we're in a factory it's Naples it's August it's about 120 degrees where I am but this is the way you want to do these shows on that conveyor belt that's how you make peeled Tomatoes they go through a steam bath a hot steam bath that cooks them briefly up those little conveyors where those little fingers take the skin off once they get to the top of that they make that little turn around that elbow come up to these conveyor belts where on each of these lines we have six women this is the final QC any tomatoes that are broken smashed slightly green have spots that that missed the first exam that miss the camera Optical exam this is where they get thrown out they only want perfect Tomatoes here so that's what these women are doing is sorting the final check here so that the San marzanos that end up in the can that are these tomatoes that are the dop are absolutely Flawless whole unblemished tomatoes and you've got four lines running full production Six Women per side this is the last we're going to see those Tomatoes basically prior to them going in the cans [Music] thank you notice the Interiors of these cans these are what they call 28 ounce or half kilo cans they've got a white glaze on them that's really important because that protects the tomatoes from contacting with the tin plate so there's no detinning if you've ever had canned tomatoes if you put your finger and you taste them and they taste metallic because tomatoes have acidity and they react to the tin plate in the cans this white glaze is very very new and it keeps that process from happening so the tomatoes are sweet in the field sweet when they're cooked sweet in the can and sweet when you buy them [Music] oh [Music] all right we're outside now and I've almost stopped sweating it was like Dante's Inferno in there man this machine behind me is a retort this is how we're able to do modern food this gets the tomatoes one hour at 95 degrees internal temperature so they're cooked inside the can everything you eat that's canned comes through one of these I can't connect the dot Center better you got the picture we saw the tomatoes growing we saw the soil we saw them picked how they get to the factory from the factory everything including you ever wonder how that little Basil Leaf gets put in your Tomatoes how do you know a couple of ladies put them in there it's amazing well those Tomatoes come here get canned through the reefs where it sit two weeks once they're out of incubation they're labeled packed put on pallets pallets could come here shrunk wrap onto hook and I'm sitting behind this is a 20-foot container this container will be full it'll take 21 pallets which contain 100 cases each and this is how they get to America this container gets sealed gets on the back of a boat in the harbor of Naples boom two two and a half weeks later it's important Newark wherever it goes that's out San Marzano tomatoes get to America it's a great story and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did making it welcome back from Naples was that fun or what yeah I have to tell you one of the pleasures of doing this show is to be able well let me put it this way to effectively communicate food as narrative as story you really have to go to the source you know if you're talking about armeniac as we did six years ago go to the south of France when they have the Olympics fired up and they're turning that odd wine into that amazing distilled liquor if you want to talk about wines like Beaujolais go during the Harvest but you've got to be there during those windows we filmed the olive oil Harvest a couple seasons ago so these San Marzano tomatoes to me to chefs they're always the gold standard I mean they're every great kitchen if they're using a canned tomato as opposed to a fresh they're using San marzanos the best pizzeria in Manhattan Pizzeria napolidana down in the East Village the guy's in nut he's like you know he's the pizza crazy guy you know he has Italian flour Sicilian sea salt you know the guy that always runs out what to use San Manzano dop Tomatoes when I was a kid that's what I ate growing up I mean I remember I don't know why my grandmother when she when tomatoes are out of season and she wasn't using fresh tomato was that's what she used was Ken San marzanos and imported Italian pasta so I just remember that flavor now you fast forward you know 40 plus years and when I was a chef that's what I bought for my kitchens I see them in a lot of the great New York kitchen so I wanted to get the story what is it about San Martin tomatoes and of course not surprisingly it's just like everything else it's about Teri wow it's about place where San marzanos grow that epicenter that town of sarano sits right between Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples which is where that volcano ran off this is volcanic soil and volcanic soil has a real unique quality to it the wines they make there have a flavor from it that water table that was so high remember when we were filming there out in the field and you could see the water was just you know two three feet below the ground and and clean Clear Water that's what makes these tomatoes so special and I I think for me the like wow moment was the first day we shot I was we flew into Rome I got picked up at the airport drove down to Naples work exhaust I don't sleep on these flights and um we get we get down there and I say it's a beautiful day I said let's film we're gonna film we got it we'll shower up have an espresso and go out in the field because it was gorgeous head out to the field and I'm in that field and I'm pulling a tomato off the vine and I just remember taking a bite out of this tomato and I bit it and it was that long shape that kind of cocoon and when I bit it I looked at it and it was all flesh skin was thin as could be that CD watery Center was almost non-existent it was like like that of the next one that's what makes these Tomatoes of course the flavor and the flavor is a function of micro climate again in terroir an environment that microclimate and then that breed of tomato are just astonishing the best cooking Tomatoes there are and then add to that for the dop for the Tomato that gets that stamp it's not just a San Martin region it's the best of the San Martin region it's the one without the blemishes it's the ones that aren't green because you pick tomatoes that are slightly less ripe and tomatoes though they don't make it to be the dop so the dop or the creme de La Creme it's the Rolls-Royce of tomatoes um and I I had to see it with my own eyes that's kind of what I'm saying in a long-winded way was we really had to go there and we had to go in August this year when they were harvesting to see it and I got it wow great tomato incredible microclimate right by Naples so what are we going to cook we saw a lot of seafood you know Naples is a bay big Port Town saw a lot of seafood we ate a lot of seafood there I was at Shorty's 32 great restaurant downtown New York City Josh Eden's the chef he did a skate in a tomato sauce with bacon and onions braised and I thought wow this is not how I cook skate at all I always saute mine the same way so we're going to braise a beautiful piece of skate in the San Marzano Tomatoes skip the bacon a little bit of Capers a little bit of fresh oregano I've got a halibut cheek we're gonna serve that with the two some escarole some really nice pasta really simple Italian style you know that sort of Neapolitan Style seafood dish utilizing the San Marzano tomato really the gold standard for the Tomato world and I'm going to show you how easy it is real effective 15-20 minute meal and even though those Tomatoes cost a little bit extra they're worth every penny the dish is going to be great stay with us and you'll see how we do it and these are these beautiful one out of here you know it's nice to be at the factory and see these and you can see that's just I mean that's that's as gorgeous a canned tomato as you're going to say unless you like popping it in my mouth Perfect all right um let me get a pan Hots and all I'm doing with this these Tomatoes it's just I mean you can also eat them out of the can like this and there's kind of a misconception I think with canned tomatoes about cooking them that you have to cook tomato sauces a long time you don't canned tomatoes a cooked tomato there's no real reason to cook at any great length of time and if you want with this tomato sauce you could add a little onion you could add a little hot pepper I just want to keep this really really simple I'll meet you at the stove in a second here all right I've got a pan see how hot she is I don't want it too hot and I don't want that garlic to burn just a little olive oil a little bit maybe a couple tablespoons of garlic and all you can see now take a shot of that sir you could hear that and do that cooking and all we're doing here is just letting this garlic turn really you know this is real typical just light golden brown and that's it because it's chopped so fine a lot of that garlic flavor just spreads out into the oil so it's no need to cook it past just the lightest golden brown otherwise garlic tends to get a little bitter I'm not going to use this whole look at these Tomatoes aren't they beautiful that's just a a little bit of that great tomato juice because that comes right out of the same San Marzano tomatoes now we're just going to break them up a little bit pinch of salt a couple of Capers I don't need all the vinegar just a few capers in the sauce because I love Capers and Seafood and I love Capers and tomato sauce we're just gonna let this simmer there's no reason to cook this too hard this is going to cook for maybe 15-20 minutes maximum it's just simmering I'm going to do the escarole I'm gonna drop the pasta in a couple of minutes and then once I start with the fish this is going to go over the top but this does not have to cook long I'm going to pull a little bit of this just a little bit I don't want to put too much it's this nice fresh oregano I'm also going to put a little bit of this in the tomato sauce and of course we'll finish the whole thing with chopped parsley the way we always do I'm going to chop this garlic up this is for the escarole just make sure when you're buying escrow that you buy nice tight crunchy heads I mean it's a real it's a rough green you don't have to worry about it too much I like to wash it make sure I get any sand sometimes it tends to be Sandy you know it's it's a leafy green that grows like lettuce close to the ground and then make sure you spin it dry or drain it really well I'd actually turn this in a towel a few times and we're going to do this just just the last thing before the fish so I guess at this point it's time to start sauteing fish I'll meet you on this side all right this is just a little bit of that fresh oregano tomato sauce you can see it's got that beautiful color Capers garlic San Marzano Tomatoes that's it now I'm gonna get this pan hot and with the skate we're just going to a little salt a little olive oil we're gonna put the skate in the pan this is the side I want to serve up eventually so just by having I'm putting this in the pan first a couple of turns from a pepper mill and leave it alone for a minute while that's happening I've got this pot of boiling water out back here see that salted water always for pasta we like salted water I'm gonna put a little bit of this again this is our just a nice Italian this is an organic pasta you can see the water react whoops that was a good shot you get that on the camera and when you first put the pasta in give it a stir because that's the only time I worry about the starches [Applause] [Music] all right escarole really simple as can be again olive oil and garlic sound redundant well kind of building blocks of Italian cuisine see the Garlic's beginning to get golden brown and goes my escarole not too much I'm just going to let that wilt and all I want this to do is just Wilt you don't have to cook this far in fact I like it if it has a little bit of crunch to it just like that's going to carry over I'm just going to leave it in the pan set the pan off to the side get ready to cook my hell of a cheek For the Halibut cheek I'm just going to use a little mixture of olive oil then I'm going to finish it with a little butter at the end because I want yeah that's hot a little salt and then this doesn't take long to cook looks like a big scallop doesn't it I can't resist we're going to add a little bit of butter to this pan just to let that fish finish just face the fish a little bit in butter butter and olive oil he can't go wrong all right done this is I always like to finish these dishes with just a little bit of rough chopped flat leaf parsley because it just tastes so good just baked in a beautiful San Marzano sauce and we're just gonna toss that pasta so it picks up that sauce one second Joe stay where you are I don't have a big surfing spoon here so I'm gonna have to do it like this we're just going to put a little pasta on the side I'm not using cheese in here because I don't think it's too appropriate but if you like cheese I suppose you could I've got the Capers going the pasta going I know this is Grandma's style but the escarole nice and dry rounds out the plate and this Cod Chic I love a cheek I mean just going to set this right on top parsley on everything this is why I always should hire a food stylist because I'm so bad at plating food but I don't really care I mean if you've been watching the show for any of the last seven years you know that this isn't my forte but if it tastes good that's what matters to me so this is going to taste great let's just take apart I've got this skate down here I'll take a piece this is beautiful this is one of my favorite fish this is really was for years considered a junk fish so delicious again I got this idea truth from Josh Eden's at Shorty's 32 his little restaurant 32 seat restaurant downtown I'm going to do this a lot now with skate braised in tomato sauce let's just take a little piece of this just to contrast it total different texture a little butter this great piece of halibut cheek the Oregano's in there it's beautiful you could go with pasta you could go with bread less girl I know it looks like a mess but it's delicious so real simple Italian food seafood pasta grid San Marzano Tomatoes Capers little oregano some garlic how simple is that this whole meal didn't take 20 minutes I mean really we were waiting for the pasta at the end so pasta took like 12-14 minutes to cook the real cooking time of this was that time you make the tomato sauce a couple minutes ahead day ahead whatever making batches and freeze it you don't even have to you know do much to it but being there being in San Marzano seeing those fields you know tasting we had the wonderful wine while we were there that say the same thing that volcanic soil there's a wine from that region that's an ancient wine called Greco de tufa Greco because of the Greek time in there in that part of the world and that Greco de trufo one of the characteristics of it is this almost sulfuric volcanic just wonderful style and all this stuff works together and it's really about it's about terroir it's about region it's about microclimates and in this case of San Martin Tomatoes it really is a magical varietal of a tomato grown in the perfect place for it to grow it doesn't get much better hey thanks for watching Naples was a blast can't wait to go back this time hopefully I won't be working so hard stay tuned for the next one and eat well at every occasion see you next time [Music] thank you

Channel: Mike Colameco's Real Food

Views: 1,166

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Id: kUjnnbFJNKE

Length: 25min 4sec (1504 seconds)

Published: Sun May 07 2023