“How many versions of fresh tomato sauce can there be?” Catherine, the generous winner of a charity auction to help me with the research for this column, asks when I tell her what recipe we’ll be making. On the contrary, I tell her, I’ve had my work cut out to narrow the selection here down to a mere seven, not least because the simpler the dish, the more argument there is over how it should be prepared, especially in a place as passionate about its food as Italy.
Happily, I’ll have a lot of assistance, because Catherine has raised yet more money for Hospitality Rides (a fundraising initiative for two very worthy industry charities, Only a Pavement Away and the Licensed Trade Charity), by selling tickets to get other people to do my job for me, effectively. In an attempt to sweeten the deal, I tell my assembled minions (all hospitality professionals, though none, sadly, Italian chefs) that, according to Emiko Davies, this raw sauce is “quite possibly the best way to enjoy really good, ripe summer tomatoes – as well as making the most of spending as little time in front of a hot stove as possible”. Then I make them chop an awful lot of tomatoes in the service of perfection.
