Tomato-free pizza on the menu as chefs choke on the price of fruit and veg

theguardian.com:

Get ready for tomato-less pasta sauce and white pizza. Italian restaurants across Britain are having to ration tomatoes, increase prices and in some cases remove the pomodoro from their menus entirely as costs soar.

The price of tomatoes has increased as much as fourfold in the past year,from £5 a case to £20 a case, according to the Federazione Italian Cuochi UK (FIC UK), a chefs’ association.

The price of canned tomatoes has doubled, it said, from £15 a case to £30. The cost of that insalata staple the iceberg lettuce has also soared, from around £7 a box to £22.

Tomatoes are among the species worst affected by the UK’s fruit and vegetable shortage, which has left supermarket shelves empty. The government has blamed bad weather in southern Europe and north Africa. High electricity prices have also hit supplies of produce grown in greenhouses in Britain and the Netherlands.

Enzo Oliveri, FIC UK’s president, said that following issues with rising costs and Brexit, now was a “very difficult” time for Italian restaurants, and warned that some may go out of business. “I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

His members normally source their tomatoes from Italy, Spain or Morocco. “But because there’s everywhere a shortage, there’s no tomatoes coming from any place,” he said.

Oliveri is working with tomato suppliers to secure quantities of high quality canned and crushed tomatoes, but these are also seeing shortages.

Some restaurants, Oliveri said, are adapting by moving their menus away from the ingredient, and instead offering “white” tomato-less pizzas and pasta dishes.

Chefs are using cheeses such as ricotta, or vegetables including courgettes or aubergines as a base and to thicken sauces. “White pizza, white