Tomatoes? Ketchup? I say it’s all spinach …

Tomatoes are like a Hamlet thing for me. On the one hand, I don’t like them. On the other hand, ketchup is one of my favorite condiments.

Tomatoes themselves are full of contrasts. What are they really? A vegetable? A fruit? Botanically, they’re considered to be a fruit, but for culinary purposes they are usually treated like a vegetable.  

Fruit or vegetable, it’s really all spinach to me. I find tomatoes in their natural form to be kind of slimy and unappealing. I don’t like the way they feel in my mouth. My mouth repeatedly rejects them, keeping me from enjoying the ripe and juicy tomatoes that grow on local farms here in late summer. As a result  of my disdain for the tomato, my caprese salads often consist of only mozzarella and basil. 

And yet my fondness for ketchup and tomato soup can be described as a full-fledged love affair. When I was as young as 3 years old, if anyone asked what my favorite food was, I never hesitated to exclaim, “Ketchup!” I didn’t care that ketchup was considered a mere condiment; I just thought it made everything taste better. I used to put ketchup on pasta, meatloaf, tacos, macaroni-and-cheese, quesadillas, plain white bread and sandwiches (all sorts).  

I was 4 years old when I found out that ketchup is made out of tomatoes. It took a lot of convincing at that point by my parents to ensure that my relationship with ketchup did not head toward a nasty break-up. 

Despite my strong feelings about tomatoes, I didn’t really know that much about them until I started to research this article. What I found intrigued me. 

The first documented sighting of a tomato was in 1595. 

They are considered members of the deadly nightshade family; they were thought to be poisonous because of their red, shiny skin. When people discovered it was safe to consume them, they began to grow and eat them all over the world. By the mid-18th century, tomatoes had reached the United States, coming in through the Carribean islands. 

They became particularly popular with cooks from the southern states. 

Though people do like to eat them raw, apparently my instinct for only wanting to eat them in a cooked form is correct: Our bodies can only absorb the healthy lycopene found in tomatoes if the tomatoes have been cooked. 

Lycopene is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants and can help prevent prostate cancer and diabetes and can protect us from the damage caused by harmful UV rays. 

Caprese salad  à la Dede

1 ripe tomato, 1 ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, pesto sauce, fresh basil leaves

First, give the raw tomato away to someone who likes tomatoes (usually parents are good for this kind of “sharing”). Second, cut the mozzarella into slices that are about a quarter inch thick and arrange them on a platter. Put a teaspoon of pesto sauce in the center of each slice and garnish with a basil leaf.

For extra flavor, you can add a drizzle of good olive oil, some lemon zest and a sprinkling of freshly cracked black pepper and some coarse salt.