Fresh Ingredients

Why do fresh ingredients always look better in Italy?

It is because they leave the stalks and leave on? Is it because not every piece has to be perfectly formed, or it doesn't make the cut? Or is it just that fruit and vegetables are more vibrant under the Italian sun?

I know that tomatoes are redder and more flavoursome at home, partly attributed to the volcanic soil but also to the fact that tomatoes aren't picked green, cold stored and then gassed to bring out the colour as is so common elsewhere. Imagine, Italians just let the tomatoes ripen on the vine. It's pure genius and something that Mr C0les and Mr Woolworths should request of their growers.

Lemons are always purchased with lengths of stem and shiny green citrus leaves still attached. Even once I get my lemons home I take some small delight in seeing those bumpy, irregular yellow 'limone' sitting in a bowl, their leaves a delightful contrast.

I'm convinced that fruit and vegetables aren't meant to be sold in supermarkets. Put them out on a cobble stone street, stacked up in wooden crates, sometimes displayed with precision, other times with a haphazard elegance that comes with years of practice. It just seems to much more natural than under the neon glare of lighting and in the articially controlled atmosphere of an air conditioned supermarket.