A Suffolk pub has started serving a pizza with a turnip base amid a shortage of tomatoes in the UK.
Tesco has become the latest supermarket to follow Aldi, Asda and Morrisons in introducing customer limits on certain fresh produce as shortages leave supermarket shelves bare.
The UK’s biggest supermarket has introduced a temporary buying limit of three items per customer on tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers as a precautionary measure.
Responding to the restrictions in Parliament, MP Therese Coffey suggested that Brits turn to turnips in order to help ease the shortage of fruit and vegetables across the United Kingdom.
“It’s important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country”, she said.
“A lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar, but I’m conscious that consumers want a year-round choice and that is what our supermarkets, food producers and growers around the world try to satisfy.”
A pizzeria in Suffolk has come up with a novel dish based on the vegetable in response.
Oak Fired at the Royal Oak pub has created a “tongue in cheek” pizza, with a topping that incorporates locally sourced turnips, Stilton cheese and spring onions.
Speaking to East Anglian Daily Times, restaurant co-owner Paul Jackson said: “We do think we have come up with a cracking new pizza.
“The cost of tomatoes, tomato puree and even tinned tomatoes has sky-rocked, just as seemingly everything has.
“So as a reaction to Mrs Coffey’s comments about eating turnips instead of tomatoes, I thought I would make a tongue-in-cheek styled pizza with a turnip base.
“On Friday night we made a few and offered them to some regular guests to try and it was actually really well-liked.”
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