I never know which tomatoes (fresh, tinned etc) to use for what. Help!
Rob, London, England, UK
You’re looking at five options, Rob: fresh, tinned, passata (pureed and sieved tomato sauce), concentrate (or puree) and sun-dried. Let’s park sun-dried tomatoes, because, as Jacob Kenedy, chef-owner of Bocca di Lupo in London, notes, they’re more a “standalone ingredient”. Fresh, however, are in season in the UK now, and their quality will depend on where you’re buying them. “If I’m in a hot country, I almost exclusively use fresh, whether they’re for a salad, sauce or stew,” Kenedy says. In the UK, however, “it’s harder to get those flavoursome tomatoes, especially at the supermarket”.
There are, of course, scenarios where only fresh will do. Sophia Massarella, who is behind Polentina in east…