9 tomato-filled peasant dishes from around the world

Can you imagine a world without tomatoes? We eat them all the time, both raw and cooked, fresh and tinned, chopped and puréed. They are a vital ingredient in many of our favourite dishes, and are available year-round in all their glorious forms. But it wasn’t until the sixteenth century that they made their way out of South America, and no one grew them commercially in the UK until the 1800s. In just over 200 years, tomatoes have become one of the most important ingredients in Britain. Not bad for something that was originally considered poisonous.

The Aztecs were growing tomatoes to eat as early as 700AD, but they were bright yellow and tiny. When they were brought back to Europe (either by Spanish Conquistadores or Jesuit priests – no one knows for sure), they were regarded as poisonous by the wealthy. One theory as to why this was places the blame on the pewter plates rich people would eat off; the acidity of the tomatoes would cause the lead in the plates to leech out into the fruit, poisoning whoever ate them. That’s why they were usually grown as decorative plants, until people realised the fruits were completely safe to eat and – most importantly – delicious.

As wide-scale tomato production kicked off, it was the poorer people of France, Spain and Italy that ate them the most (perhaps because they weren’t eating off pewter). The fresh flavour, high nutritional value and availability of them meant they found their way into many simple, nourishing dishes that have since become culinary icons. Once canning and tinning methods were industrialised, they became even more available, being turned into something to enjoy year-round. But we would never have fallen in love with tomatoes like we did if it wasn’t for the tasty dishes that showcased them. The nine below are some of the most celebrated, and while they may have evolved or changed slightly from their original recipes, they prove that it wasn’t just Europe that fell in love with this beautiful fruit.

Italy is the homeland of both tomatoes and cucina povera, a school of cooking that celebrates humble ingredients cooked simply, so you can find tomatoes being championed in almost every one of its twenty regions. The most iconic, however, has to be pappa al pomodoro, a soup from Tuscany that was originally created to use up leftovers from the day before. It’s a combination of tomatoes and stale bread, which act as a thick base for the soup, before being flavoured with garlic, basil and olive oil. Traditionally these soups would have been made by chopping up fresh tomatoes (the recipe has ancient origins), but today tinned Tuscan chopped tomatoes are almost always used.

Another soup born out of peasant traditions, gazpacho is an iconic Spanish dish due to the fact it’s served chilled. Originally from Andalusia, it was originally a mixture of stale bread, garlic, olive oil and vinegar, but when tomatoes became available in the nineteenth century they quickly became an integral part of the recipe. Today, gazpacho is prepared by blitzing together vegetables such as cucumber, pepper and onion with plenty of raw garlic, stale bread to thicken, tinned tomatoes, olive oil and white wine vinegar. It can be puréed until smooth or left chunky, but none of the ingredients should ever be cooked.

In France, a country known for its rich, buttery sauces, ratatouille offers something a little lighter and fresher. Originally from Nice in the south, it’s a combination of aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes, onions and peppers, fried in plenty of olive oil with lots of garlic and basil (or other fresh herbs). The type of tomato included depends on how you like your ratatouille; if you like it fresh and crunchy, then fresh tomatoes are sliced and fried, but if you prefer it to be more like a stew, use tinned peeled plum tomatoes – just make sure you drain them before adding them to the dish to stop it from becoming too jammy.