Nope, this is not a sequel to “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” featuring a giant red stalker, it is, in fact, a tip I picked up while watching a program by Heston Blumenthal (you know, the granite-jawed, bespectacled, celebrity chef of The Fat Duck fame) and one that I thought at the time was fabulously simple and really rather clever. So in case you happened to miss the program, allow me to pass on the easiest tip in the world to you (which after all, are the very best kind), and one that despite it’s simplicity, really will make a difference to your cooking.

Basically it’s all got to do with our plump and luscious red orb-ed friend the tomato and it’s rather elusive smell. I had always thought (and I bet you did too) that the scent of the tomato was in the fruit – after all, it seems like the obvious place to put it. But if you did think that, then you, like me, would be wrong because, surprisingly, the smell is in the stalk and leaves. Yeah, those rather woody, measly green bits, that we gaily turf into the bin (if they are on the  tomatoes at all when we buy them) without so much as a backward glance… Weird, huh?

Anyhoo, as you may know, much of our taste-buds actually work thanks to our sense of smell, which is why food tastes so rubbish when you have a cold (if you don’t believe me, hold your nose and put a tiny spoonful of cinnamon in your mouth. You’ll wonder when cinnamon suddenly became cement). So if you want to enhance the flavour of something, one way to do it is to enhance it’s smell. And that, dear peeps, is where this little tip comes in. Next time you buy fresh tomatoes try, if at all possible, to get ones that are still on the vine. Then once you’ve made your tomato dish (for instance, the relish that I posted here) put it in a sealed container with the stalks, and leave in the fridge overnight so that the gorgeous smell of ripe tomatoes can infuse into your little bowl of ruby lusciousness. Next day when you open it up, you’ll think little gnomes built a greenhouse in your Tupperware, as that wonderful, sweet, summery ripeness spills out and socks you in the shnoz! And when you put it in your mouth, that wonderful smell will translate into a rich, sumptious tomato-iness that’ll make you wonder if your taste-buds nipped off to Tuscany while you weren’t looking… Now, how simple was that?