FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Before the Tomato

Tomatoes are available throughout the year and in every corner of our vast country. Today -- and even in the dead of winter -- there is always a bountiful supply. And with new technologies they certainly look like good tomatoes, but they are often mere imposters of the real thing -- true summer tomatoes that are ripened on their vines and grown within the region they are consumed. I wonder, sometimes, what the world must have been like prior to these "technological advances" that enable a person to purchase foods with no regard to season. Certainly there were no grocery stores the size of airplane hangers with towering pyramids of out-of-season foods on display to tempt us; these foods are usually shipped in from distant climes and/or picked green and artificially ripened. It was a simpler world no doubt. During the winter months one did not expect to eat foods such as tomatoes unless they were dried or canned. Fresh tomatoes in the off months simply weren't an option. Such luxuries were highly desired and anticipated, and lucky for us that time is now.

While the tomato is actually a fruit by botanical standards, it is generally thought of and eaten as a vegetable. In fact, in 1893 the tomato was ruled a vegetable by the United States Supreme Courts, a ruling that was evidently created for trade purposes. The tomato is one of the world's most popular vegetables and has greatly changed some of the most influential cuisines. The U.S. is still the largest producer of tomatoes in the world, and on average we consume 18 pounds fresh and 70 pounds processed tomatoes per person each year. Tomatoes are also the most popular vegetable for backyard gardeners, more than 25 million people in our country plant tomatoes in their gardens each year. The popularity of tomatoes should come as no surprise; they are extremely easy to grow and are one of the most versatile vegetables. Besides the obvious options such as raw in salads, and cooked in soups and sauces, they can also be used in sweet confections, such as tomato ice or sorbet. Actually, in the first half of the twentieth century tomato soup cake was a common treat, not unlike carrot cake I suppose. The real paradox, though, is that while tomatoes have been consumed by the peoples of South and Central America for millennia, and are ubiquitous in cultures around the globe today, they were considered poisonous when first encountered by European explorers. This misconception, no doubt, was most likely caused by their relation to the deadly nightshade plant (a botanical category that includes potatoes and eggplant, which were also at one point considered poisonous). And also some early skeptics are said to have mistakenly consumed the leaves of the plant instead of the fruit. If this is true the tomato's early reputation would have been appropriate because the plant's leaves and stem are toxic.

Tomatoes played a major role in the "Columbus Exchange," a phrase used in historical and anthropological circles which makes reference to the foods exchanged between the new and old worlds during the first European explorations of what would later become the Americas. Thus, it wasn't until the fifteenth century that Mediterranean countries -- whose cuisines utilize tomatoes extensively -- ever saw their first tomato. It then took more than a century before they were actually eaten; because tomatoes were originally thought to be poisonous they were used as ornamental plants only. Before the arrival of the tomato in Europe the food there was drastically different. Gazpacho, for example, is said to have existed in Spain for more than a thousand years, but prior to the fifteenth century it didn't contain tomatoes and wasn't red, it was originally green with fresh herbs, or white with garlic and breadcrumbs. A version of this ancient white gazpacho still exists today and is referred to as ajo blanco (white garlic). Italy did have pasta but not with tomato sauce. It was generally tossed with spices, nuts, herbs and chicken -- methods and seasonings borrowed from the Greeks and Arabs. And the famous Mediterranean soups such as bouillabaisse, soupe de poissons, kakavia and zuppa di pesce also existed, but they were probably white and, more likely than not, thickened with egg and lemon as with the Greek avgolemono. Today, of course, it's almost impossible to imagine these cuisines without the tomato. Eventually brave souls began to eat and cook with tomatoes and discovered their culinary versatility. The Italians called it pomo d'oro, or golden apple because many of the early varieties were indeed yellow or golden in color; the Italian word for the tomato today is pomodoro. The romantic French, on the other hand, originally referred to tomatoes as pomme d'amoure, literally apple of love, because they considered it to have aphrodisiac properties. The name "love apple" stuck and was referred to as such by both the French and English well into the 19th century. The Spaniards, though, adopted the name tomate, which they still use today. Tomate is actually a derivative of it's original Aztec name, tomatl; the name was eventually adopted by the French, as was a variation in the English language, hence our current wording as tomato.