Continuing the ‘is there no end to the talents of the tomato‘ quest, today takes an unexpected turn… for the better….
First success: making a dull bottle of red come good.
Then failure: to make a decent bottle itself.
Now, a new high – a high 5.
Today I learnt tomato is naturally high in Umami, the 5th taste.
Of all the plant foods to provide Umani in Western tradition – tomato provides the most.
This accolade is due to its heavy load of Glutamates (a type of amino acid).
Heston Blumenthal forensically and fervently made Umami rich tomato sauce and discovered the high levels of glutamic acid from the inner part of the tomato are especially Umami giving.
A way of getting an Umami pop (and how I started down this tasty trail), Italian style, would be to hightail to Waitrose and purchase a tube of Easy Tasty Magic’s Taste No.5. A paste made from Umami rich tomato, parmesan cheese and porcini mushroom.
(It’s on sale from Monday. In the meantime your store cupboard probably has the ingredients to conjure up these Umami style British classics! )
