Medium-sized vine tomatoes from Jardin Rabelais — the same French grower behind the cherry tomatoes elsewhere on the site, but a different product. These are full-sized vine tomatoes, sold on the truss, hand-picked at ripeness and delivered the same day they are harvested. The vine is not decorative — a tomato left attached to its truss continues to receive small amounts of moisture and volatile compounds from the stem after picking, which helps maintain flavour and fragrance for longer than a tomato cut loose.

The flavour balance in a Jardin Rabelais vine tomato sits in the middle ground between a sweet snacking tomato and a sharp cooking variety — firm enough to slice cleanly, sweet enough to eat raw, and with sufficient acidity to hold its own in a cooked sauce without needing sugar to correct the balance. This is what makes a good all-purpose vine tomato: it does not specialise in one direction at the expense of the other.

The difference between a tomato grown for flavour and one grown for logistics is measurable. Commercial vine tomatoes bred for long shelf life and transport durability tend to carry a thicker skin, less juice, and a higher proportion of the structural pith relative to the seed gel — which is where most of the flavour compounds concentrate. Jardin Rabelais grows for flavour, which means thinner skins, more juice, and a shorter window of perfection. Use within a few days of delivery.

Store at room temperature on the vine. Refrigeration suppresses the enzyme activity responsible for producing the volatile compounds that give tomatoes their smell — once chilled, those compounds do not fully recover even when the fruit is brought back to room temperature.

Producer: Jardin Rabelais — south-west France. Established 1989.

Ingredients: Vine tomatoes.