Whether just sprinkled with a little salt or sliced and dribbled with olive oil, a fresh ripe tomato tastes like heaven. Pure luxury wedded to utter simplicity. Whether made up cold into salads or grilled or fried, whether stewed or baked, or transformed into a sauce or a sorbet, tomatoes satisfy all culinary tastes. Yet as a food in Europe it has not been around for very long.

After Hernán Cortés conquered Mexico and destroyed the once powerful Aztec empire, he sailed home to Spain in 1528. On board he not only had vast amounts of gold but also tomatoes. They were small and yellow, originated from the plain around Vera Cruz on the Gulf of Mexico, and were called “tomatl” (swelling fruit) by the Indians. As medicinal and edible plants they were a feature of the Aztecs’ daily life. The Spanish named them tomates but found little use for them. Their leaves had a pungent odour, their taste was slightly sour, and occasionally people got an upset stomach from eating them in a green, unripe state. But since their flowers and fruit were so pretty they quickly became an important addition to the popular exotic ornamental gardens and leafy enclosures of the period, where lovers secretly trysted.

Gradually the South American tomato found its way into the kitchens of the Holy Roman Empire – in Spain, Portugal, Italy, North Africa, as well as in the Slavic and Germanic regions of Europe ruled by the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs. With new strains and mutations it altered its shape and colour, and became bigger and redder. Particularly in the Kingdom of Naples (present-day Italy) the new plant and its fruit achieved great popularity. By the end of the 17th century Italian cooking was no longer conceivable without the tomato. Its Italian name pomodoro (= golden apple) is a reminder both of the plant’s provenance in “Eldorado”, the Mexican land of gold, and of its original skin colour, yellow.

Over 10,000 (!) tomato varieties are known to exist worldwide, but only a few hundred are grown commercially. Today, the tomato is second only to the potato as the world’s most frequently eaten vegetable.