Posted
by Tom King
July 9, 2005 at 11:21 a.m.
Tomato
Old World The plant family of the Solanaceae (the nightshade family), includes peppers, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, petunias, mandrake, belladonna, deadly nightshade and datura. The Solanaceae are of great global economic importance--consider tobacco and petunias. Solanaceae are hairy, rugged plants, steeped in mysticism. Don Juan used the seeds of Datura (thorn apple, loco weed) to take Carlos Castaneda to a separate reality. Italian women of the 18th century squeezed the juice of belladonna berries into their eyes, to dilate their pupils--in Italian, bella donna means beautiful woman."And shrieks, like mandrakes', torn out of the earth, That living mortals, hearing them, go mad." ('Romeo and Juliet', iv.,3)German folklore claims that witches used plants like mandrake and nightshade to summon werewolves, a practice known as lycanthropy. The common German name for tomatoes translates to "wolf peach", and because of this it was universally avoided.Because so many of the Solanaceae are poisonous--if not lethal, then hard tripping--it's no wonder that, as food, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplants were initially regarded with suspicion.New World "Vavilov was a renowned Russian scientist who conceived the idea that if one wants to locate the very center of origin for any crop species, look for the area which still has the highest diversity of that crop.: By that logic, one would look closely at the Western coast of South America, in present-day Peru, where eight species in the tomato genus still grow wild in the Andes Mountains. The current range of wild tomato relatives extends from the northern tip of Chile on the south, to Ecuador on the north, and reaching inland from the Pacific 100-200 miles, also including the Galapagos Islands."The French called the tomato pomme d'amour (Apple of Love), the Italians pomidoro (Apple of Gold). Before that, in pre-Columbian times, the Nahuatl people of Mexico named the tomato xicotomatl. "The Spanish explorer Cortez conquered the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, later to be renamed Mexico City, in 1521. The earliest mention of the tomato in European literature is found in an herbal written by Matthiolus in 1544. He described tomatoes, or as they were called in Italy,pomi d'oro (golden apple), and wrote that they were "eaten in Italy with oil, salt and pepper". This provides evidence that the first tomatoes to reach the Old World were a yellow variety, and that they were introduced via the Mediterranean. Red tomatoes were said to be introduced to Italy by two Catholic priests many years later." Sam Cox.Botanically, tomatoes are a fruit. This is because a fruit is the edible part of a plant that contains the seeds, while a vegetable is the edible stems, leaves and roots of a plant. In 1893 the Supreme Court, defining a vegetable as "an edible plant usually eaten with the principal part of a meal," decreed the tomato a vegetable.According to art myth: Andy Warhol's mother served tomato soup for lunch for twenty years:Although it ranks only 16th as a source of Vitamin A among fruits and vegetables, and 13th as a source of Vitamin C, it rises to third as a provider of both, because we consume so much of it. And although the average tomato is 93.5% water, it also contains magnesium, niacin, iron, phosphorous, potassium, riboflavin and thiamine. Overall, the tomato is rated number one among fruits and vegetables as a source of vitamins and minerals in our diets. It is also easy to digest and low in calories, only 35 in a five-ounce tomato. A typical tomato truck holds 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, which is about 300,000 tomatoes.The world's largest food fight is the Tomatina in Spain: 20,000 people, 150,000 pounds of tomatoes, three hours.Florida is the largest producer of tomatoes in the U.S., about 50% of the annual fresh tomato market and nearly the entire domestic market in the months of December through May. California is second in fresh tomato production, first in processed tomato production.The average American consumes about 18 pounds of fresh tomatoes per year. At retail, tomatoes rank third in vegetable sales, following potatoes and lettuce. Factoring in processed tomatoes (ketchup, pizza), the consumption figure rises to 22 pounds per person. According to Guinness, the largest tomato on record was grown in Oklahoma, weighing in at 7 ¾ pounds.Most likely due to French influence, the Creoles of New Orleans were the first in the United States to use tomatoes in cooking. Next World "In the 1980s a project was undertaken by Calgene Fresh, Inc. using biotechnology to tweak the tomato genetics to inactivate the gene responsible for softening the tomato during ripeness. These tomatoes turned red, but remained firm indefinitely:. They called this cultivar Flavr Savr because vine-ripening supposedly gave it better flavor. It hit the produce sections of stores in the U.S. during 1993. The Flavr Savr tomato represents one of the greatest public relations blunders of the decade. Industry executives severely underestimated the public's concern over biotechnology, and failed to anticipate the backlash from consumers over this new and potentially risky technology applied to human food. Although evidence suggesting any danger over genetically engineered food is lacking, consumers are nervous about any potentially unknown and unforeseen side effects. The Flavr Savr tomato was soon removed from supermarket shelves, and has never been reintroduced." Sam Cox."Lycopene is the compound that gives tomatoes and certain other fruits and vegetables their color: People who have a diet rich in tomatoes, which contain lycopene, appear to have a lower risk of certain kinds of cancer, especially cancers of the prostate, lung and stomach." American Cancer Society"In a 1995 Harvard University study conducted with 47,894 men, researchers found that eating ten or more servings a week of tomato products was associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer by as much as 34 percent." [link http://www.eatright.org/Print/92_8300.cfm]Eat Right[/link]
and 3 others
Comments
Lawrence.com does not necessarily agree with comments posted below - responsibility lies with the relevant user alone. Read our full policy.
lazz (anonymous) says…
Another Awesome Foodays, Mr. King.
How about a nice easy recipe for a nice easy red sauce?
My father, as was the case with other Italian kitchens I've seen, used canned tomatoes, to great effect. But I've never really been able to reproduce it. Dealing with seeds, for one ...
Would really enjoy a nice bachelor-friendly red sauce recipe, if you'd care to share anything Tom.
Personally, I have to say I sort off like the cans of ready-made sauce by Del Monte, generally on sale at Checkers for about 78 cents for the big can ... I add some onions, some Provencal spice, maybe chop up some olives, seems to do well.
Tomato sauce, good pasta, a class of inexpensive wine can repair a lot of harm inflicted by the modern world ...
tomking (Tom King) says…
Lazz:
You can't go wrong with arrabbiata sauce: good olive oil, garlic (lots!), red chile flakes (lots!) and crushed canned or fresh tomatoes--cooked no more than an hour--you want to taste the freshness of the tomatoes, not cook them down into an acidic glop. Arrabbiata literally means "angry" or "annoyed", which refers to the chiles. Make a big batch--it freezes very well. Toss it with pasta (penne is best), and sprinkle with plenty of chopped fresh parsley--the cool green of the parsley is a nice contrast to the sauce's heat. Or add capers, black olives and anchovy for a righteous Puttanesca. A little parmesan, wine, a salad and bread...
edie_ (anonymous) says…
This is the coolest entry I've read on l.com in a long time. It makes me savor food so much more to know its history and folklore. Nightshades are particularly intriguing. For a long time I believed both tomatoes and potatoes originated in the Old World. Did you know that when they were trying to get potatoes to catch on in Russia they guarded the crops at night so that the people would covet them? Then the guards took extended breaks and the peasantry stole the crops and began cultivating them.
Anyway, beautiful tribute to one of my favorites!
tomking (Tom King) says…
Edie darling,
Now that's a comment. The Dutch used covetry to induce tulipomania.
Always better when you know the before.
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
LOVE it...More more more.
On sauce - a New York Italian (whose parents were from there) taught me a sauce that takes all day, but is wonderful. For tomatoes, he used canned plums, and yes he sieved out the seeds (eventually). Another part of it was to stud a whole olive with cloves (!?) and just throw that in whole (it cooks down and you eventually remove it). Tomatoes and potatoes are two of my favorite staples....and to think they're both related to the deadly nightshade...hmmm.
lazz (anonymous) says…
"stud a whole olive with cloves"?
you lost me there. ???
"sieved out the seeds, eventually"
see, that was my big problem when I made my Dad's recipe -- the seeds. Just couldn't get them out, and when I sieved with anything small enough to stop the seeds, I couldn't get any of the tomato skin/meat through, either. Completely at a loss there.
Tom, help a poor man who loves to cook but knows no skills or terms -- when you say a "can of crushed tomatoes," do you mean you buy them crushed in the can, or you open a can and then crush them? And what exactly do you mean by crushed? If I use fresh toms, what to do about the seeds???
And garlic --- chopped? Toss in a skillet first with some olive oil? or straight to the sauce?
thanks gang for being patient with somebody who should have paid a lot more attention when his Italian-chef father was cooking ...
OtherJoel (anonymous) says…
This blog coincides with my first ripe tomatoes of the year. Since I was a kid, summertime has meant fresh tomatoes off the vine, eaten in slices as a side dish, with nothing but a little salt for flavor. It just doesn't work with the store-bought ones.
I like a little olive oil, chopped onion, mushrooms, oregano, basil, and fresh peeled and chopped tomatoes simmered for ten minutes or so over angelhair. Doesn't help the seed issue, but it makes for a pretty good and easy lunch.
I also sometimes make a "college student" sugo with canned tomato sauce, olive oil, brown sugar, garlic powder, and a little cayenne. Just season to taste and simmer for a few minutes. It's just about the cheapest and easiest sauce you can make, and it certainly is not the ideal form in which to consume this fine fruit, but it doesn't taste too bad and it helps keep up my lycopene intake in the winter.
Every attempt at a "real" sauce from scratch has not worked out so well. I either buy a good canned sauce and tinker with it or use the above methods.
tomking (Tom King) says…
Lazz,
What's this aversion to the seeds? They aren't poisonous. Eat the seeds with confidence, Lazz. But if you really want to get them out, you split every tomato, fresh or canned, in half, and remove every evil seed BEFORE you start cooking. You maniac.
lazz (anonymous) says…
OK fine, I'll eat the damn seeds. I ask because when I asked my dad for his recipe, he just off-handedly mentioned to run the tomatoes through a strainer to get the seeds out, and then when I tried I found it impossible ... and then when I cooked the damn sauce, the seeds just looked out of place. I know he didn't have them in his sauce, and ever since this has become one of the defining mysteries of my life ...
so go ahead, stomp on my Quest. I shall eat the sauce with the seeds. But I won't stop seeking an answer!
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
First - stud the onion = take a whole raw (peeled of paper skin) onion. Take the un-ground clove spike (they look like little tiny baby sticks, with a ball on the end, like a Royal Scepter or something) and put a handful of them (sharp end first, ball sticking out) into the onion. So, it will look like an onion with little brown clove studs all over it. The real sauce varies according to tastes. Some like it hot (ala the chili peppers) some like it sweet (ala brown sugar...shudder). I like it fresh, with lots and lots of garlic.
Tom, a cople of food lore items - can you check them out and confirm or debunk? They kind of relate to the "topic" at hand... 1. Garlic (and onions) get sweeter as they cook down. SO, the longer they cook, the sweeter they get (till you overcook and do the burning thing). That is why putting SUGAR in a red sauce becomes less necessary if you use enough well cooked garlic and onion! 2. Tomatoes get saltier as they cook (which is why I never salt a red sauce until it is totally cooked...so I can see how much more salt is needed).
Another quick, and easy, Italian dish... Vege style....
Take any vege you like (aspargus is good, but you can use almost any vege - e.g. eggplant, zuchinni, cauliflower, even carrots...) slice pieces the size you want to eat. { I like just using fresh aspargus). Then, saute your veges in olive oil, with bite sized sliced onions and garlic, till it is the texture and doneness at which you like to eat your vege's. If you like them (which I do) add in some sliced mushrooms also. Then towards then end of sauting those items (on medium to medium-high heat) throw in some fresh tomatoes (cut into quarters or smaller), and toss just to heat. Top with the FRESH (usually white) cheese of your choice (grated or shaved) such as Romano, mozzarella, parmesan, feta, even blue. Serve over freshly cooked pasta (capellina, angel hair, is my favorite). You can throw in some crunch too, if need be, by tossing on a handful of nuts (such as toasted pine nutes, candied walnuts, or spiced pecans). If you simply can't live without meat, most stores now carry generic Italian sausage, which can be browned on the side, and added as a side dish (for the carnivores). As for measurements - use the quanity of each you want to eat of each..and for oil, enough to keep it from burning or sticking, but not so much you are deep frying the food in hot oil!
As for the seed problem... Lazz...just get a sieve which has holes one size smaller then the tomatoe seeds. Anything bigger will pass through..or that's the theory anyway.... If you must know, I think the old timers seived food 2-3 times, through gradually smaller sieves/mesh, in order to get it to the right consistency. OR just food process the HELL out of it, and the seeds will be liquified!
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
Oh, I forgot, on the vege dish. Fresh basil leaves really help perk it up. You can use oregano also (but I was taught that is an herb best used for pizza or calazone). And dry will work. But, as always, fresh is better!
edie_ (anonymous) says…
If you're repelled by seeds, hail the less seedy ROMA.
The commercial sauces are always made with more sugar than I like. I want to taste that nightshade! Enough of that...this year I'm rebelling by canning up the beautiful little jewels in my yard myself.
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
I think Roma's are best too, for cooking sauces. Tis the only type I use for Italian food. Canned or fresh. Less seeds, more meat.
lazz (anonymous) says…
awesome! Thanks!
On the topic of red sauce ... Checkers recently put in one shelf of "gourmet" items, including a small selection of pasta. I bought a few bags of linguine, brand name "Venecia." oh my god was it incredible. Wasn't that expensive --- $1.30, I think. I bought was much of it as they kept in stock, but I noticed they've recently stopped re-stocking it. Don't know if they are just out, or if they aren't getting it again.
Anybody else know this brand, and if so, where we can get it locally?
What are favored brands of pasta? I frankly like American Beauty OK, but it's just that ... OK.
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
I make my own egg pasta when I've time. It's real easy, but a tad time consuming:
Here's the recipe (by heart - so you KNOW I have made it a lot):
3 cups white flour, mounded into a mountain shape, on clean kitchen surface, with a "well" (deep hole) then created in the center (use a cup or bowl).
6 eggs (whole) broken into the center hole now found in the flour mound
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup water (add last...and only as needed).
Beat eggs into flour gradually. Add enough water to make a springy dough, not too wet or sticky. Flour your hands. Knead (fold the dough over and over onto itself) till dough is springy and elastic (flour gluten does its thing). Let sit about 10 minutes. Then cut into small balls (about 3-4" across) and wrap each ball with plastic. Let them sit about 30 minutes. Then, with more flour being used to keep things from sticking to each other, roll each dough ball (one at a time) to the desired thickness (or use a pasta machine if you have one). When it's to the thickness you want (or can best achieve) use a knife (or pasta machine) to cut into the shapes/noodles you want.
Set aside to dry some more, and/or toss into boiling salted water when it's time. Cook till it's to your al dente taste. Drain off hot water. Don't rinse with water, or oil them, unless you're using the pasta sheets for lasagne, as the sauces stick better to the noodles/pasta when the starch is still on them! So, for best results, toss pasta with sauce, then serve!
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
P.S. Before anyone tries that recipe, I need to double check the number of eggs vs flour. I typically make double/triple batches, so my memory on single amounts is not that great. Most recipes tell you to use less eggs, so I may have screwed that up! SORRY....
OtherJoel (anonymous) says…
I know, ladylaw, that the use of garlic powder is a horrible offense - I still have some bad habits from college to break. I'm good at the cheap and fast dishes, but when it comes to real cooking, I have a lot to learn, I know. One day I will attempt a red sauce from scratch again.
Most of the time I get in the mood for pasta, I want it then and there, so I make something that tastes OK and can be on my plate in 20 minutes -- but admittedly isn't really outstanding the way a good batch of homemade red sauce would be.
tomking (Tom King) says…
Go ladylaw! Your pasta recipe looks fine--a little eggy, but that much richer. I'm happy to learn you're a pasta maker.
Lazz--American Beauty isn't too good. Try Barilla brand, or, if you're feeling flush, DiCecco--both imported, the best supermarket pasta available in the US . Cook al dente (to the tooth--a little bounce). Remember, pasta is the dish--sauce is just a flavoring. And if I hear about you putting oil in the pasta water, I'm coming to your kitchen and employing your seed-extracting tweezers to do something morally and culinary reprehensible to you.
OtherJoel--garlic powder has its applications. Fresh garlic, however, is always worth the work.
tomking (Tom King) says…
Addendum to ladylaw: Members of the allium family, particularly onions, are high in complex natural sugars (Fructose, sucrose and glucose, primarily), as well as quercitin (an extremely healthful antioxidant flavinoid), and sulfur compounds (make you cry). Heat evaporates water and enhances the sugars...therefore, you are correct: caramelizing alliums (cooking garlic, onions, shallots and leeks low and slow), makes them sweeter, which means less sugar necessary in the sauce. But why do we add sugar to tomato sauces? Because we have cooked so much water out of the tomatoes that the acids prevail. Hence a bitter sauce, hence sugar to counteract. If the tomatoes are lightly cooked, the acids remain in balance and no sweetener (other than the natural sugars of alliums), is needed.
lazz (anonymous) says…
Oil in the pasta water! NEVER! I can't believe you'd even think me capable of such atrocity ... sheesh ...
tiredandsalty (anonymous) says…
Would a big variety of cherry tomato dry well, or are they not meaty enough? Oh, and I got some pickled cherry peppers and some pickled green tomatos I want you to try....Will bring them up to the merc this week.
tomking (Tom King) says…
tiredandsalty: they dry, but fade to nothing. Better to give cherry tomatoes a roast in a hot oven (450), until they start to caramelize--then use them in pasta or chill for salads.
Your pickles sound great. I'm no longer at the Merc.
rednekbuddha (Kelly Powell) says…
Hey Tom....Tired and salty was me. I didnt know I still had this name. Sorry to hear your'e not at the merc anymore(or congrats if your'e somewhere better).
I'm up to my elbows in cherry toms. They dont pickle well once they reach a certain point, so we have to let a bunch ripen. But we have 85 plants so we are getting tons of green ones.
Heres a question. Ive been making both red and green hot sauce, and Ive got the suspension right but it is rather opaque.....should I run the mix through a china cap before suspending it, or do you think that would be too wasteful?
Would love for you to try my pickled stuff, and would be glad to throw you a few jars....should I give them to the journal world or is there a more convienent place to send them?
thanks,
Kelly
TrinidadGarcia (Ricky Garcia) says…
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a 1978 film that attempted to parody horror themed B-movies.
The plot concerns tomatoes suddenly turning homicidal and attacking humans. The fruit also gain the ability to grow to enormous size and eventually carry out large-scale assaults. Most of the film's special effects, if they can be called that, are actually tongue-in-cheek as they consist of simply (and obviously) rolling the fruit down an incline.
As with classic 1950s horror films, such as The Blob, the successful mechanism for defeating the tomatoes turns out to be rather simple. Its discovered that playing of a rather bad rendintion of a rather bad song-"Puberty Love"-is fatal to the tomatoes. One rather large tomato protected himself by wearing earmuffs, but the hero successfully defeats him by holding up the sheet music to the song.
This same method for defeating enemies was used in the 1996 film Mars Attacks!
-wikipedia
i heart tomatoes.
tomking (Tom King) says…
Tired &salty/Redneck Buddha/Kelly: I'd say the crew at Lawrence.com would be mighty appreciative of some home-made pickles, down there in the basement. Save a jar for me--email me via the blog. An old Mediterranean trick that works, relying on a natural astringent rather than processed alum: put a fresh grape leaf (commercially packed but rinsed well, in a pinch), at the bottom of each jar of pickles. Keeps colors dense and texture crisp.
All those cherry tomatoes: flash-blanch and freeze for winter doldrums.
Where have you been, adventurer?
tomking (Tom King) says…
Trinidad: tomatoes love you.