Many moons ago I was in a one star Michelin in Reggiolo owned by chef Gianni D’Amato, and unfortunately after the earthquake he closed his business and changed to a small more casual restaurant in nearby village.

I’ll never forget walking in his kitchen and seeing a pot of tomato sauce, it had the most intense red colour, mind-boggling. At the time I thought it was the tomatoes, and it was the key to making a more intense red sauce.

I was reminded to never deploy any kind of mixer to puree or break up the sauce., i.e. a Vita Prep, Bimby, etc. If you do, you risk changing the structure by importing air and breaking cell walls, depleting the colour and creating an orange hue.

I use ripe tomatos (Corbarino Tomatoes) grown in southern sunny Italy and picked at peak ripeness and then preserved straight away retain their deep red color. Corbarino is a variety of tomatoes from the Monti Lattari area of Campania, and we have been to farm Maida, a fantastic farm using hand power of the locals: https://www.gustiamo.com/pomodorini-vine-tomatoes-by-maida-farm/

Please only use a hand food mill, a funnel fitted with a hole-punched bottom plate, and a hand crank. The raw tomato into the funnel and hand crank it around and around, and its blade crushes the tomato through the lower part of the food mill.