Is there anything more delicious than a flavourful and juicy tomato? Add a drizzle of good olive oil, a sprinkle of sea salt and you’ll have all five tastes in one perfect mouthful.
Tomatoes are often thought of as being in the vegetable family due to their savoury flavour, but they are a fruit – or more precisely, the edible berry of Solanum lycopersicum. This is a actually a member of the nightshade family, along with potatoes, aubergines, peppers and even tobacco.
Originally from South America, where they grew wild in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, tomatoes were first cultivated by the Aztec Empire in Mexico (1300-1521) and brought to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors. Tomatoes were part of the widespread transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, commodities, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and Europe – known as the Columbian Exchange named after Christopher Columbus.
“Nowadays every nation’s cuisine thinks they have ownership over tomatoes,” says chef and cookbook author Claire Thomson. Indeed, from Spain and Italy to the rest of Europe, throughout the Middle East and China (now the world’s biggest grower), Oceania and back to the Americas, tomatoes are firmly established as a year-round ingredient. But where do we begin our search for the perfect tomato?
It might come as a surprise to learn that at least 10,000 tomato varieties exist, a similar estimate to the number of grape varieties out there. They come in all colours, shapes and sizes, and fall into categories such as heirloom or heritage, hybrids, modern and classic tomatoes.
Lance Turner, the founder of Tomato Revolution, is on a mission to preserve heirlooms and develop new varieties by crossing regular leaf and potato leaf varieties to unlock new flavours and textures. He illustrates what an heirloom tomato really is: “True heirlooms often come with wonderful historic stories,” he says. “Cherokee Purple is an excellent example. The seed was sent to Craig LeHoullier (a leading tomato expert in the US) by J D Green in the early 1990s. Mr Green wrote him a letter explaining that the seeds came from very good tomatoes he was given by a woman who received them from her neighbours. The neighbours said that the variety had been in their family for 100 years, and that the seeds were originally received from Cherokee Indians.” Essentially heirlooms are tomatoes grown from seeds that are passed down through generations and have been bred through open pollination.
One misconception Turner wants to correct is that a mixed selection of colourful tomatoes suggests they are heirlooms. “If they are all perfectly shaped and smooth, they are likely just colourful hybrids,” he specifies. “True heirlooms are bumpy, misshapen and sometimes downright ugly.” Therefore, phrases like ‘badly bruised leg’ – used to describe the appearance of the Brandywine heirloom – should not put you off from trying this renowned tomato beloved for its balanced, rich, succulent and tangy flavour.
Hybrid varieties are grown from the seeds of two different varieties that have been deliberately crossed for their beneficial characteristics. Successful hybrids will possess an optimum mix of desired traits; yield, flavour, disease resistance, skin thickness, ease of care, plant size and so on. There is nothing inherently bad about a hybrid tomato, rather it’s those that are grown on a commercial scale – and are therefore bred more for appearance, shelf life or disease resistance – that provide those traits at the expense of flavour.
When looking for the perfect tomato it should be juicy and fresh, displaying a balance of sweet, sour, umami and bitter tastes. Adding salt enhances these flavours and releases the juices. Warming them also concentrates their deeper flavours.
As a very general guide on the colour and flavour relationship, yellows tend to taste more mild, delicate and sometimes tart, while red and pink tomatoes offer up what most of us think of as a classic or standard tomato flavour: acid and sweetness in balance. Darker hued tomatoes (brown, purple, black) can offer even more savoury depth, more intensity with longer lasting balanced flavours and sometimes milder acidity.
“While there are true green varieties (like Green Zebra and German Greens) even underripe green tomatoes can be enjoyed for their crunch and freshness,” advises tomato-author Thomson. “Keep tomatoes out of the fridge, the best is for them to be at room temperature,” she says, and whatever you do, “don’t buy them wrapped in cellophane or they will be void of flavour.”
“For me the colour is not as important as the actual variety, Thomson says. “The dish I’m making will dictate the size and variety required. For a thinly sliced carpaccio salad you’d want a large tomato like the French ribbed variety, like Coeur De Boeuf, but if cooking and peeling is required, a plum tomato like the San Marzano is best.” When fresh tomatoes are in season they will be ideal for salads like panzanella and Caprese, soups like gazpacho, or prepared into chutneys and salsas to give a flavourful kick to other dishes.
“When you get a glut in the garden, it’s time to get creative,” advises Thomson. “They go with what they are in season with so can even be combined with stone fruit such as peaches in a salad.”
Summer is also a good time to preserve them to enjoy their warm depth of flavour in the winter months. However, even winter varieties exist like the Spanish Winter Raf tomato. “It has a thick greenish skin that gives a crunch but still with plenty of good flavour and juice,” says Thomson.
Most importantly, we food lovers must continue to plant, grow, buy and cook with as many different varieties as possible so we can continue to enjoy all the different flavours and textures tomatoes have to offer.
