It’s not easy getting a decent tomato in this country. I haven't had a regular supply since my neighbours who grew their own moved away (how thoughtless).Tomatoes sold still on the vine sometimes have more flavour than the pre-picked kind. Sometimes.
But the standard of taste is so generally low that I usually just buy on the basis of cost.
Tomatoes in the UK are pricey. Just how pricey was hammered home the other day when I needed a couple of tomatoes for a recipe. (All right, to tart up a potato dish before serving it, actually.)
So I splashed out on a couple of speciality Marmonde tomatoes from Waitrose.
They certainly looked nice. Unfortunately they didn't really have any flavour.
And these two modest sized tomatoes cost more (£1) than a punnet of my usual tomatoes: Sainsbury’s Basics All Shapes, All Sizes, which are presently retailing at 81p for 450g.
The Sainsbury’s tomatoes are my current tip for the best deal. They make a splendid pasta and pizza sauce (recipe here).
Their flavour isn’t exactly superb, but they are about as good as the expensive Marmonde ones from Waitrose, at least on this occasion.
Maybe I can get my new neighbours to start growing them...
(Image credits: The groovy looking tomatoes at the top (actually Marinda) are from Natoora; the Sainsbury’s punnet is from My Supermarket. The Waitrose Marmonde is from the Waitrose website.)
