In our organic vegetable garden at Casa Ombuto  cooking school in Tuscany we have so many baby Aubergine, masses of chilies and this year has also been a bumper crop for zucchini. In a couple of weeks we will have hazelnuts, walnuts, fennel bulb and figs of course. Can’t wait for those, I can almost taste them now!!

But at the moment we have tomatoes coming out of our ears. They are so sweet and absolutely delicious. We eat them for lunch, thickly sliced like a steak or just as they are, straight from the basket that just keeps on being filled up .

Beautiful. Too many for even us to eat, so Chef Paola has been kept busy making and bottling tomato sauces for the winter.