From Raffaele’s terrace, a volcano rises on one side while the Bay of Naples billows on the other. With soil rich in volcanic minerals, year-round natural sunlight and salty sea breezes, his Cuore del Vesuvio tomatoes grow in exceptional conditions.

There’s just one problem.

The summers, as we’ve experienced ourselves this week, have been getting hotter in Torre del Greco, shortening the harvest season. So, to adapt, Raffaele moved his growing higher into the mountains.

Last year, we visited his farm to see how he had responded to these increasingly intense temperatures. Raffaele settled on a site with ex-lakebed soil, a nearby well, and breezes that carry both mountain air and coastal salt. You can taste all of it in the tomatoes: dense, sweet and deeply savoury.

Our founder, Franco, grew up eating this variety and was struck by the extraordinary complexity of Raffaele’s tomatoes when he first tasted them back in 2008. Part of that flavour comes from Raffaele’s careful approach to irrigation. As with cucumbers, melons and other tomato varieties, controlling water intake is crucial. He waters minimally, keeping the plants alive while stressing them just enough to concentrate sugars and nutrients in the fruit.

Slice one open and you’ll find a full, meaty texture with a really high flesh-to-seed ratio. The scars and cracks that mark the exterior are not defects, but signs of the tomato's characteristic thin skin and the sugars that rise to the surface – a testament to the intensity of flavour within.

When sourcing ingredients for his menus, Ben Rand from Bubala seeks out varieties that capture the imagination. Or better still, tell a story. 

At the restaurant in King’s Cross, he prepares a summer dish for us choosing Cuore del Vesuvio as the hero ingredient, dressed with a green harissa dressing, garlic crisps and oregano. 

“It's a fairly simple dish to put together,” says Ben. “The Cuore del Vesuvio Tomatoes are amazing, and every year we look forward to them coming back around. We don’t cook the tomatoes, we just slice them and add a little salt. That’s really all they need.”