I by no means know which tomatoes (recent, tinned and so on) to make use of for what. Assist!
Rob, London E11
You’re actually 5 choices, Rob: recent, tinned, passata (pureed and sieved tomato sauce), focus (or puree) and sun-dried. Let’s park sun-dried tomatoes, as a result of, as Jacob Kenedy, chef-owner of Bocca di Lupo in London, notes, they’re extra a “standalone ingredient, so eat as is or chop and put by one thing”. Recent, nonetheless, are in season now, and their high quality will depend upon the place you reside and the place you’re shopping for them. “If I’m in a scorching nation, the place they’ve actually good tomatoes, I have a tendency nearly solely to make use of recent, whether or not they’re for a salad, sauce or stew,” Kenedy says. Within the UK, nonetheless, “it’s tougher to get these flavoursome tomatoes, particularly on the grocery store”.
There are, in fact, eventualities the place solely recent will do. Sophia Massarella, who’s behind Polentina in east London, places “good, fats, juicy Sorrento tomatoes from Campania” to work in pomodori col riso (tomatoes filled with rice and herbs), salads (“panzanella is superb made with these, bull’s coronary heart or heirloom British tomatoes’’) and sauces. “Over the summer time, I at all times make a sauce with recent and tinned tomatoes for parmigiana,” she says, explaining that the tinned carry “a little bit of savoury, whereas simply recent alone could be too candy”.
Primarily, Kenedy says, for those who’re cooking and decreasing a sauce, “except you’re extraordinarily fortunate and may get actually good recent tomatoes, or develop your individual, you’ll typically be higher off with one thing from a tin, jar or tube”.
In the case of tins, there’s a frequent faculty of thought that complete plum tomatoes are one of the best guess. Massarella agrees: “Use peeled complete ones, as a result of their texture stays nicer, and you may at all times crush them up later, anyway.” Kenedy, in the meantime, reserves complete tinned tomatoes for when he desires them to “just about disappear right into a dish”, in any other case he goes for chopped – however not those combined with, say, herbs or garlic: “Keep away from these just like the plague, as a result of they’re cooked to shit and style muddy.” Both approach, he recommends cooking them proper down: “In the event that they’re for tomato sauce, till the oil rises, or till they’re fairly dry – you’ll be able to at all times rehydrate them with water.”
Deciding between tinned and passata, in the meantime, is extra a query of texture. “Passata is easy, so for those who’re making soup, you received’t must mix it,” Kenedy says. “And for those who’re making a sauce and need it to have little bits in, go for tinned.” The primary factor to recollect about passata is that it’ll add bulk and dilute no matter it’s you’re cooking, so for those who’re extra available in the market for a kick of tomato flavour with out the liquid – in a stew situation, for example – go for focus as a substitute.
The world of tins and tubes is, admittedly, huge, and takes some navigating. “In the event you’re in a grocery store, you could be guided a bit by value,” Kenedy says. “In a smaller retail surroundings, ask the individuals who work there, which is what I do.” Based on Massarella, a protected selection can be the Antonella model from Sardinia, although they do come at a premium (£2.80 a tin, versus about 60p for grocery store own-brand ones): “Their tinned tomatoes and passata are incredible and have a pleasant acidity, so that you by no means have so as to add sugar.” Candy.
