The Great Italian Tinned Tomato Taste off and a recipe for ‘white’ tomato sauce

I wrote this article for The Guardian. It seems to have caused a bit of controversy…600 comments and counting. I’ve been reading below the line and howling my head off with laughter. I’ve been called ‘part of the 1%’ because I’m prepared to pay almost a fiver for a jar of tomatoes. Check out the Guardian facebook page for even funnier remarks.

On the best tomatoes for canning:

For preserving it’s best to use a firm fleshed tomato with few seeds and little juice that can withstand the canning process. Neopolitans believe the best tomatoes are grown around Naples, aided by the volcanic soil of Vesuvius.

• Roma are a generic plum tomato frequently used outside of Italy.
• Dattarini, named after dates for their shape and sweetness, are small tomatoes from Sicily
• Corbarino, from Corbara in Campania.
• San Marzano tomatoes, originally from Naples, are the most well known. Look for the Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) label because there are many imposters. 
• Torpedino is a mini version of San Marzano.

Here are the raw scores:

Waitrose Own Brand: 4/10 ‘fine for a curry’
Cosi Come red: 5/10
Cosi Come yellow: 7/10 ‘colour puts me off’ said Dino.
Heinz: 3/10
Napolini: 3/10
Tarantelli: 4/10
Strianese: 5/10
La Carmela: 5/10 from gastronomica.co.uk ‘Great packaging’ 
Cirio: 4.5/10 ‘sweet’ ‘tastes like a leather book’ according to Joe. These did better cooked.
Giovanni Paudice: 5/10
Metelliana:4/10 ‘tastes as metallic as the name’ ‘disappointing’
Ocado Own Brand: 1/10 ‘crime against humanity’
Mr Organic: 3.5/10
Antonella: 7/10 These are from natoora.co.uk ‘very good’
Puma Conserve: 5.5/10
Gustarosso: 3/10
I sapori di corbara: 9/10 raw
I sapori di corbara sua eccellenzia: 8.5/10 but the winner when cooked.
Agrigenus San Marzano: 7/10
Agrigenus slow food with heritage tomatoes:7/10

What did I do with the rest of 21 open tins of tomatoes? I cooked up a massive tomato sauce which I boxed up for the freezer.

‘White’ tomato sauce with pasta recipe

Serves one greedy person or two moderate eaters

3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
Water from jarred plum tomatoes
a Sprig of fresh basil
1/2 tsp of good sea salt
150g of good pasta

In a good saucepan (I use a copper saucepan from Mauviel, this really makes a difference to cooking sauces) heat up the olive oil, add the garlic, soften, then add the tomato water, the basil and the salt.
Cook for five or ten minutes while the pasta is cooking.
Drain the pasta and mix it with the sauce.

Spending on what goes in your mouth

Depending on what I’m cooking, I’ll buy a cheaper supermarket brand (especially as I live nowhere near Chelsea where the winning tomatoes are sold) especially if it’s just for a curry or chilli where the pure taste of tomato is masked.
My interest lays in food and drink, so that’s what I spend my hard-earned dosh. I come from a background where my family spent their money on interesting travel and food, while some of their friends forked out for first class hotels, designer clothes, handbags, posh cars, a big TV – things I would regard as ‘status’ buys. Spending over £50 on a handbag that might get stolen or over £20 on sunglasses that you will lose is a waste of money for many but everyone has their own priorities. What goes in my mouth, my body is very important. In Italy and France people spend a far higher proportion of their income on food than the British.
Good food is too cheap in this country although that doesn’t help the thousands of people on the breadline. Farmers don’t earn very much and that is why many of them are simply giving up. Last year I visited Featherdown Farms where the farmer no longer bothered to sell his potatoes, which were of high quality, because it wasn’t worth it by the time distribution, transport, cut taken by the supermarkets was counted. The mark up in supermarkets on fresh fruit and vegetables is around 45% whereas junk food is sold with a profit of pennies. It’s all wrong, all topsy turvy.
Do you think we spend enough on food? Is spending a fiver on a jar of tomatoes absolutely ridiculous?