Eat my words: a great waft of summer

30th June 2011

The Times

We should all take advantage of the glut of tomatoes and, like farmers in Abruzzo, make passata

The English tomato season is at its height — and how wonderfully different they can be from the watery, ethylene-ripened balloons from Holland we were eating all spring. All this week we’ve snacked from a pile of gorgeous heritage varieties, “lost” tomatoes with storybook names — Tiger, Green Zebra, Marmonde, Coeur de Boeuf. They are scarlet, green, orange and a deep maroon ribbed with lime like some mad interior decorator’s fantasy.

These all came from the Tomato Stall, of the Isle of Wight, that will despatch a 5kg sample box overnight, and at a special price for Times readers — see below. The smells are rich when the tomatoes sit in the sun, a great waft of summer. The smaller tomatoes have sat in a bowl like cherries, glowing enticingly — the level goes down with each visitor.