• Ortolana Sauce with Eggplant and Papaccella Pepper, glass jar with cream label, IndispensabileBio, Campania
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IndispensabileBio CAMPANIA

Ortolana Sauce with Eggplant and Papaccella Pepper

Ortolana Sauce with Eggplant and Papaccella Pepper

$14.50
$14.50
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Datterini, long eggplant, papaccella pepper. The whole vegetable garden in one jar.

Ortolana means from the market garden, and that is literally the recipe. Heirloom Datterino Caramella tomato as the base, then long eggplant and papaccella peppers, cooked down with olive oil, garlic and basil.

Thicker and more substantial than a plain tomato sauce, and hearty enough that a plate of pasta dressed with it needs nothing else.

Papaccella napoletana. The squat, ribbed, deeply sweet Campanian pepper, recognised as a Slow Food Presidium. Fleshy enough to hold its texture through cooking, which is why it belongs here rather than a bell pepper.

Agricoltori custodi. Eccellenze Nolane is a cooperative of custodian farmers in the Vesuvian area, growing recovered local varieties that industrial agriculture gave up on.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT

  • Three vegetables, not just tomato with something added
  • Papaccella napoletana, a Slow Food Presidium pepper
  • Heirloom Datterino Caramella tomato from ancient Vesuvian seed
  • Thick enough to be the whole sauce, not a starting point
  • No animal ingredients

HOW TO ENJOY IT

  • Warm it, drain short pasta into it, add two ladles of pasta water, toss for two minutes
  • On bruschetta and crostini
  • Layered into a vegetable lasagne or baked pasta
  • As a side to grilled meat or sausages

SPECIFICATIONS

  • Producer: Eccellenze Nolane (IndispensabileBio), Nola, Campania
  • Origin: Campania, Italy
  • Ingredients: Datterino Caramella tomatoes, long eggplant, papaccella peppers, extra virgin olive oil, whole sea salt, garlic, basil
  • Allergens: None declared
  • Net weight: 280 g (10 oz)
  • Storage: Cool, dry place. Refrigerate after opening.

🌿 Hand-harvested | 🌱 Heirloom seed | 🇮🇹 Made in Italy

Made by Eccellenze Nolane. Imported and curated by Terra Sacra.

Educational information only. Not intended as medical advice.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Are these ready to use, or do I need to cook them first?
Ready to heat — not to cook from scratch. Warm the sauce in a pan, add freshly drained pasta with a cup of the cooking water saved, finish everything together for 60 seconds with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. The pasta finishes cooking in the sauce. The starchy water does the binding. No long simmering needed — that would just drive off the flavor that was already built correctly at the source.
What is Piennolo del Vesuvio — and why does it matter?
Piennolo del Vesuvio DOP is an heirloom cherry tomato grown on the volcanic slopes of Vesuvius. Thick skin, very low water content, exceptional sugar-acid balance, and minerals from volcanic soil that no other growing region can replicate. Traditionally harvested in August and stored in hanging clusters through winter, slowly drying and concentrating as they go. In a sauce, Piennolo is immediately recognizable — brighter, more structured, more complex. This is the kind of tomato that makes you understand why Italian cooks talk about tomato varieties the way wine people talk about terroir.
What actually separates a great Italian sauce from a mediocre one?
The ingredients list. A great sauce has three or four items: tomatoes, olive oil, salt, a herb. That's it. Added sugar means the tomatoes weren't good enough. Starch thickeners, citric acid, or stabilizers mean the same thing. When a sauce also names the tomato variety on the label, you're looking at a producer confident enough in their raw material to stake their identity on it.
How long does an opened jar keep?
4–5 days, sealed, in the fridge. No preservatives means these behave like freshly cooked tomato sauce — not like something engineered for a six-month pantry life. Reheat gently in a pan. That's it.

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