Sauce Day with Nonna: Have, Had and Will Have

Sauce Day

1Every September, the Romano family turns the backyard into a sauce kitchen for one long Saturday. Nonna Pia has led Sauce Day for more than fifty years. This year, Delia has turned ten, so she is finally old enough to help at the stove instead of just washing jars.

2By the time Delia woke up, her uncles had carried six crates of plum tomatoes from the truck. Nonna had set up the long table under the maple tree, and her cousin Gino had filled two big tubs with cold water. Delia rubbed her eyes. "How long have you been awake?" she asked. "Since sunrise," Nonna said with a wink.

3First, the family washed the tomatoes and dropped them into boiling water for a minute so the skins would slip off. Delia pinched off skin after skin until her fingers were orange. "I have peeled more tomatoes today than in my whole life," she announced. Gino laughed. "You have peeled about forty. Nonna has peeled about four hundred."

4Next came the noisy part. Uncle Marco turned the crank of an old hand mill. The mill kept the seeds behind and let the smooth red pulp pour into a bowl. Then the sauce bubbled in a huge pot with salt and fresh basil, and clouds of steam rose into the cool air. Nonna stirred it with a wooden spoon that she had used since she was a girl.

5By late afternoon, Delia's arms ached, but she felt proud. She looked at the rows of jars cooling on the table. "How many have we filled?" she asked. Nonna counted. "Sixty-two. By the time the sun sets, we will have filled eighty."

6That night, Delia wrote in her notebook: "Today I have learned three things. Tomatoes are slippery. Basil makes the whole yard smell like summer. And by next September, I will have practiced enough to run the mill myself."