It’s the late August Bank Holiday of 2026 and, at last, we have had rain. Good weather for digging and clearing the allotment. Looking back over the growing season, my early crops, broad beans and asparagus, were good, but the hot, dry summer was difficult, Successive plantings of lettuce, both seeds and little plants, stood no chance against the slugs, snails and mice. Runner beans were a disaster. However, radicchio is thriving and the tomato and cucumber plants were generous. I have been cutting down the tomatoes after harvesting stems heavy with ripe fruit.

I began by thinking I would use the tomatoes to make a simple purée to freeze but came across a recipe in Elizabeth David’s Italian Food and have followed it to make the most delicious sauce.

Chop about 1 kg of ripe tomatoes and put them a saucepan with a carrot, a small, onion, a little parsley, a stalk of celery (I used celery seeds and a little shoot of lovage), all chopped. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.*

Simmer until the carrot is soft and the tomatoes are ‘almost a purée’, then sieve.

Return to the pan and cook until thick if a sauce is required or use as it is to make soups or add to casseroles. I plan to use a second batch to make butternut squash and lentil soup.

Elizabeth David’s book was first published in 1954. The last sentence in her recipe reads:

‘ Before serving it with meat, fish or any kind of pasta, add, when they are available, a couple of fresh basil leaves.’

How different things were then when our only reference to basil was Keats’s poem, Isabella, or the Pot of Basil.

• ED also added a pinch of sugar which I could ignore.