Loving the love apple

Despite the mild temperatures here (it was the warmest January on record), it's still undoubtedly winter. There's snow on the ground and, although the skies are a brilliant blue, the cold makes its way through your leather gloves and burns your hands. Enough to inspire a pot of chocolate-spiked beef and kidney bean chilli for Super Bowl Sunday.


But there comes a time when you need the taste of sunshine, and despite my convictions against eating food out of season (don't tell the macro police!), I succumbed to some tomatoes all the way from Mexico. Crimson orbs of heady summer warmth. Perfect when tossed with pasta and parmagiano - left raw (merely doused in some peppery extra-virgin olive oil and a few scant drops of balsamic vinegar to bring out the sweetness). For a few minutes in my apartment, as my skin dried out in the central heating and I watched squirrels play in the snow, it tasted like summer.