Ripened to a marvellous blazing red in the sun, the tomato is one of the cook’s most essential provisions. Ideally, one should have in the larder at all times, both fresh and in cans (fortunately, are one of the very few vegetables that take happily to being canned). The tomato used to be considered unhealthy and was not eaten raw for many centuries after it arrived in Europe from its native South America.
Spain was the first country to use tomatoes in cooked dishes, and the rest of Europe followed suit, but it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century. Even then they do not seem to have been highly regarded.
Today, however, there is no better salad than a tomato salad, preferably scattered with fresh basil leaves, which have a great affinity. The Italians often add slices of mozzarella, a fresh cheese that goes well. As for a dressing, a good sun-ripened tomato needs only olive oil, since it provides its own astringency, but a duller one needs vinaigrette. Tomatoes should never be allowed to sit about in their dressing because this will turn them soggy.
Buying and storing tomatoes
The best tomatoes are those that have been allowed to ripen slowly on the vine, developing their flavours in the warm sun. Buy bright red, ripe for immediate use: for use in the near future, choose those a paler red colour-after a day or two in a cool spot they will be a vivid red. If tomatoes have been picked when green but after reaching maturity, they are called ‘mature green’ and will redden well if kept in a drawer or in a brown paper bag (they will ripen faster with a red tomato keeping them company, exuding its ethylene gas, which is responsible for the colour change) or on a light but not sunny windowsill. Tomatoes picked when green and unripe will never turn red naturally, and are best used for making pickles and chutneys.
The large, ridged tomatoes, deep red or orange and green and often quite misshapen, tend to be the best, with rather fewer seeds than the more ordinary globe tomatoes, grown to a uniform size and often with very little flavours. Cherry tomatoes can be used whole in salads, while the richly favoured plum tomatoes, with relatively small seed clusters and pulp that is inclined to be dry, are perfect for sauces and purees.
Fleshy tomatoes, such as beefsteak or beef tomatoes, are best for sandwiches because there is less liquid to turn the bread soggy. Slice them across rather than downwards.
Golden-yellow tomatoes are like red tomatoes in every aspect except colour and make a pretty salad when mixed with the reds or on their own.
Cooking with tomatoes
The traditional tomato dishes include soup, which may be delicate and creamy or rich and strong, perhaps favoured with basil or chives; with stuffing’s of cooked seasoned rice mixed with lamb, currants, onion and garlic or with breadcrumb bound filling of olives, herbs or mushrooms and fragrant tomatoes Provencal, simply grilled with a sprinkling of herbs, garlic and olive oil. A la Provencal invariably means the presence of tomatoes in a dish and just as Provencal cookery relies on tomatoes, so does Italian cookery, using them liberally in a vast number of dishes with pasta and pizzas with poultry and meat and in soups and vegetable stews.
Many recipes require tomatoes that have been concussed skinned seeded and roughly chopped. In the case of Italian plum tomatoes the skin may come off perfectly easily but most tomatoes need a quick dip in boiling water first.
Tomatoes are also an outstanding source of vitamin C, biotin, molybdenum, copper, potassium, manganese, dietary fibre, vitamin A, vitamin B6, folate, niacin, vitamin E, and phosphorus.
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