Getting saucy on Italian Sauce Day

The end of 'Looking for Alibrandi' got it all wrong. Sauce Day is not a day of Italian tunes, people wearing head scarves and families embracing happily.

It's a little more like La Tomatina... there are tomatoes thrown, tears, tantrums, fights and that's all before the first espresso. Then the stench of rotten tomatoes lingers on your skin and hair.

The paving looks like a Japanese Whaling Ship (no animals were hurt in the production of thick juicy sauce). Nonno (grandfather for non-Italians) gives a mean eye when he thinks you're not boiling the bottles properly. Nonna mutters that Kevin never checks the tomatoes properly. Sister S is being Sister S and thinks its a laugh. My very Australian husband thinks it is the best fun.

What am I saying? It's a hard slog, but it's tradition. I'm a sucker for tradition. So if ya gotta do it, then do it with some style.

Saturday was our annual #wogsauce14 day. Yes. We made a hashtag for our very Italian day. #saucy was also a runner. If you're making sauce, hashtag your day too.

For those interested to know the process, which does change from family to family is to... wash the bottles, wash bunches of basil, wash the tomatoes, sort the tomatoes (cutting out any bad bits), boiling the tomatoes until the skin splits, squashing and draining the tomatoes to remove excess water (the less water the thicker and yummier the sauce), then you pass the tomatoes through a machines that separates the skin from the flesh, pass the skin again through just to make sure, pour the sauce with a basil leaf into the jars, lid the jars, place into big drums and cook for 20 minutes to seal the jars, stand to cool... and hey presto, in a flash you have sauce. Intermixed with this were espresso breaks, a tasty lasagna and a tiramisu Nonno forgot was at the back of the fridge.

All the while Mini Me was whinging having been given a parting gift of the flu from her one hour from the incubator of disease. Sorry, day care.

See it's not easy, but the end result was 450 bottles of sweet, sweet, thick sauce for me to enjoy throughout the year.

Now what to make with my tasty sauce.