![]() ![]() ![]() It was not until ten years later that tomatoes were named in print by Mattioli as pomi d'oro, or "golden apples". The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who suggested that a new type of eggplant had been brought to Italy that was blood red or golden color when mature and could be divided into segments and eaten like an eggplant-that is, cooked and seasoned with salt, black pepper, and oil. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first to transfer a small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, in 1521. Bernardino de Sahagún mentioned Aztecs cooking various sauces, some with and without tomatoes of different sizes, serving them in city markets: "foods sauces, hot sauces fried, olla-cooked, juices, sauces of juices, shredded with chile, with squash seeds, with tomatoes, with smoked chile, with hot chile, with yellow chile, with mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, hot chile sauce, with "bird excrement" sauce, sauce of smoked chile, heated, bean sauce toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce, sauce of small squash, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce." Spanish distribution Bernardino de Sahagún reported seeing a great variety of tomatoes in the Aztec market at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City): "large tomatoes, small tomatoes, leaf tomatoes, sweet tomatoes, large serpent tomatoes, nipple-shaped tomatoes", and tomatoes of all colors from the brightest red to the deepest yellow. The Aztecs raised several varieties of tomato, with red tomatoes called xictomatl and green tomatoes called tomatl ( tomatillo). The large, lumpy variety of tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes. : 13 The Pueblo people are thought to have believed that those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of divination. The exact date of domestication is unknown by 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas. However, the ripe fruit contains a much lower amount of tomatine than the immature fruit. The leaves and fruit contain tomatine, which in large quantities would be toxic. This was exacerbated by the interaction of the tomato's acidic juice with pewter plates. ![]() It was regarded with suspicion as a food because botanists recognized it as a nightshade, a relative of the poisonous belladonna. In France, Italy and northern Europe, the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant. The Spanish first introduced tomatoes to Europe, where they became used in Spanish food. The first evidence of domestication points to the Aztecs and other peoples in Mesoamerica, who used the fruit fresh and in their cooking. These wild versions were the size of peas. The wild ancestor of the tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium, is native to western South America. lycopersicum: the oldest surviving tomato fruit and leaves. (Determinate, or bush, plants are annuals that stop growing at a certain height and produce a crop all at once.) The size of the tomato varies according to the cultivar, with a range of 1–10 cm ( 1⁄ 2–4 in) in width. Indeterminate tomato plants are perennials in their native habitat, but are cultivated as annuals. They are vines that have a weak stem that sprawls and typically needs support. Tomato plants typically grow to 1–3 meters (3–10 ft) in height. Numerous varieties of the tomato plant are widely grown in temperate climates across the world, with greenhouses allowing for the production of tomatoes throughout all seasons of the year. While tomatoes are fruits- botanically classified as berries-they are commonly used culinarily as a vegetable ingredient or side dish. They are consumed in diverse ways: raw or cooked, and in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. Tomatoes are a significant source of umami flavor. From there, the tomato was introduced to other parts of the European-colonized world during the 16th century. The Aztecs used tomatoes in their cooking at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and after the Spanish encountered the tomato for the first time after their contact with the Aztecs, they brought the plant to Europe, in a widespread transfer of plants known as the Columbian exchange. Its domestication and use as a cultivated food may have originated with the indigenous peoples of Mexico. The Nahuatl word tomatl gave rise to the Spanish word tomate, from which the English word tomato derived. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The tomato ( / t ə m eɪ t oʊ/ or / t ə m ɑː t oʊ/) is the edible berry of the plant Solanum lycopersicum, commonly known as the tomato plant. ![]() Tomatoes: whole, halved vertically and halved horizontally ![]()
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