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thank you all for the replies and ciao to Anna and Chiara Cla, Hi feathers and goldie. I do make lots of this sauce. It`s my favourite pasta sauce. I have been using plum toms, but the last sauce I made wasn`t as tasty. Maybe I got a bad batch. I just love tomatoes!

Anna - ciao from Milano ! The tomatoes you mean are called Plum tomatoes in English. Are Paccino tomatoes DOC ? I spent a holiday there, the best tomaotes I've ever eaten. Jax - try cherry tomatoes as Anna says, they are lovely with a little salt,origano & oil for a bruschetta, for a sauce we quite often use good quality tinned ones (plum tomatoes) if fresh aren't in season.

Here (in Frascati) we use the long ones (can't remember what they are called now in English), to make long cooking time sauces- and the little cherry pacchino toms are great if you are making one of those really quick oil/garlic/toms types of sauce, and the lovely large round fat ones we use for stuffing, great with rice.

I think your best bet really, at this time of year in particular, is a tin of good quality plum tomatoes.

I must admit though that I got some good English tomatoes from M S this weekend. You can tell if theyre gonna be tasty by giving them a good sniff. If you cant smell anything....dont bother. However, if they smell like they did when you were a kid (I hope you get what im saying), then give them a go.

I don't know which tomatoes are the best for tomato and basil sauce,but I think you should use your favourite tomatoes.I wouldn't recommend salad tomatoes (the ones in supermarkets that taste acidic) but I really do think the choice for taste is yours,unless somebody does know the best for flavour for this recipe.Sorry,waste of time really aren't I!?