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The Humble Tomato

The tomato, known as the symbol of the Sun is a major source of vitamins and sugar. Other than being healthy, it makes meals visually attractive because it can be red, green or yellow. Like the potato, the tomato originates form South America. It was originally grown in Peru and in Mexico, where the word tomato derives from a word in the Nahualtl language, “Tomatl”.

In the course of the 16th century, it crossed the Atlantic aboard conquistador ships and cam to Europe, where it got a new name the tomata. During the Spanish rule of Naples, the tomato was considered to be a medical plant and introduced to Italian cuisine as such. Italians showed affection to the tomato by giving it a new name, the golden apple (pomodoro) Outside Italy the tomato was considered poisonous and spent almost three centuries as a decorative plant.

It was not until the mid 18trh century that it started to be considered as a grocery in other parts of Europe. Owing to the modernisation of the agricultural industry and improvements of the watering system in the course of the 19th century, the use of tomato as food spread dramatically.

There are surprisingly many different kinds of tomato: black, grape, orange, tomato with tiger strips, reddish brown, sour yellow, white cherry-like tomato and there are more than 600 kinds of the healthy red vegetable we know today.

The tomato is a plant on the poisonous ‘nightshade’ family, as are its close cousin’s tobacco, chilli, peppers, potato and aubergine. After the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. They also took it to the Philippines, after which it migrated to Southeast Asia and the entire Asia continent.

The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe, it grew easily in the Mediterranean climates and cultivation began in the 1540’s. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources. The tomato plant was not grown in England until the 1950’s.

Even though it only became widely eaten two hundred years ago, today the tomato is the most widely consumed vegetable on the planet. Global production exceeds 70 million tons a year. The heaviest tomato ever grown was one of 3.51 kg (7lb 12oz).