The sweet tomato of late summer is one of those treats that some of us wait all year for, and which some of us, like Robin, have more than they know what to do with which is why he's promised to ship tomatoes by overnight air to any of us whose tomatoes haven't ripened yet. We wish. The real truth is that even for those of us not yet blessed, right now the best tomatoes of the year are arriving in stores and farm stands (my apologies to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere) and that's why it's our Ingredient of the Month.
A Brief History of Tomato
Apparently it's not conclusive fact, but according to Andrew F. Smith's The Tomato in America, tomatoes are original to the west coast of South America. When the Spanish arrived, they fell in love with the fruit and took the seeds to Central America, Europe, the Carribean and the Phillipines. From the third, it's believed tomatoes migrated to the U. S. via the east coast, and from the fourth they spread throughout Asia.
Although no country's cuisine is more closely associated with the tomato than Italy's, it's apparently true that for a long time Italians believed tomatoes were poisonous and avoided them except as ornamental foliage. According to the Wikipedia entry on this fruit, the "earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources."
Health Benefits
A typical medium sized tomato has just 35 calories and 7 carbohydrates, and is fairly high in vitamins A and C. The news about tomatoes in recent years has been due to the presence of lycopene which is contained in the tomato's red pigment. And although the big buzz seemed to surround a Harvard study indicating that eating tomatoes at least twice a week lowered the risk of prostate cancer in men significantly, other studies have been indicating that lycopene may reduce the chance of developing lung, breast and stomach cancers, too.
Cooking releases the lycopene, but raw tomatoes are not without benefit, and oils used in dressings assist absorption.
Buy, Eat, Cook
But hey, some of us need no urging. Indeed, tomatoes are my personal #1 favorite food in the world, the food I can least imagine having to live without. Even a bad tomato is better than none at all, though between the hot house tomatoes of winter and the heirlooms of summer, there's nowadays there's no reason to settle for bad tomatoes even if they're not as good as what comes from the garden with the taste of the vine still lingering on the skin.
So, August. Tomatoes. Buy, eat, cook. Give them your full attention. Think of some tomato recipe you've always wanted to do, and do it with fresh tomatoes. I've long dreamed of a tart tatin kind of thing made out of semi-dehydrated tomatoes. Never had one, but no doubt someone's already figured out some form of that, and attempting it myself is going to be one of my missions over the next few weeks. If anyone has any recipe for same to offer, I'd love to hear from you.
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