So nice to see that even a humble tin of tomatoes can be educational, as witnessed by this delightful example. This is the learning route:
1. Go to Asda because it’s there
2. Buy tinned tomatoes, because you never know when you might need them
3. Buy one can of Tarantella Tomatoes, because the label’s nice
4. Look for a handy link about Tarantellas and tomatoes on the web to pad out this weblog entry
5. Be gobsmacked as I find this magnificent page on Italian music [update in 2009: sadly offline now] , including the Tarantella
6. Find out that Naxos has released a CD by Alessandra Belloni called Tarantelle & Canti d’Amore, which, given the dearth of tarantella CDs in my collection, will be next on my Amazon wish-list.
7. Wonder how long it would have taken me to find out the information above on the web, had I not added the word ‘tomato’ to my search term “tarantella”.
8. Decide to see if I can match the picture on the can (left) to one of the 19th century prints in the RAD library, and then do a joint history of the tomato and the tarantella, since the history of recipe-travel is another pet subject of mine.
