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.