Minimalist Tomatoes

Greetings from "a dark, homosexual land."

Here's a simple but effective recipe which is greater than the sum of its parts and has recently become a staple.

Take some good tomatoes, the kind labelled "Grown for Flavour" (What other reasons are there to grow tomatoes? For companionship? For their fine singing voice? And why don't they label the other tomatoes "Grown to Maximise Profit"?)
Anyway....
Make two cuts into the top, to form a cross, cutting down to about 1/3 of the height of the tomato.
Into the cuts, slip a couple of fresh basil leaves and a small sliver of butter.
Arrange tomatoes in a baking dish.
Bake at about gas 6/ 375F/ (I'm guessing now) 150C for about 1/2 hour, until they go wrinkly.
Serve with good bread.

*** The Thing ***

1) Sorry to go on, but....
GM Foods. May be a good thing. May be not. Point is, we have no way of knowing without an impartial government. Take the regulations which govern the segregation of GM crops from non-GM. They originally stated that GM oilseed rape had to be segregated from regular rape by a distance of at least 500m, to prevent cross-pollination. Then the producers talked the government down to 200m. Now, maybe this is quite reasonable.
But, hang on a minute. I've seen rape growing wild in the centre of Glasgow, well over 500m from the nearest field. One has to conclude that the regulations are merely a sop to keep the public happy, and have nothing to do with a scientific test procedure.
So...if the government and producers are really so confident ...why not test them properly?

2) Another gem of misinformation, this time from whatsisname, the Agriculture minister that was outed. "Researching new crops which might feed the third world is a moral imperative." By the same argument, presumably so is cancelling 3rd world debt.

I 'ad that Mary Shelley in the back of my cab once.