Tomatoes can be hard for children to like. But it's not really surprising - they're grown for profit, and nowadays, heavy-cropping varieties that give even-sized, regular-shaped, tough-skinned fruit that will survive long distance transport are preferred. Sweetness, juiciness and flavour are not the priority. Delectable home-grown tomatoes show us just how much we miss.
So what can we do? In my opinion, a nursery on a budget could usefully concentrate on serving tinned (or carton) tomatoes. Although with less vitamin A and C than fresh ones, they are still nutritious and can be used in all kinds of delicious ways. I would serve only small amounts of raw tomatoes, ingeniously combined with other tasty ingredients.
Nutritional value
Tomatoes are so high in vitamin C that one ripe, 5cm-diameter tomato can supply all of a three-year-old's daily requirement (30mg). As they also provide vitamins A and E, they are therefore an 'ACE' food.
Tomatoes are also a premium source of lycopene, a carotenoid which is a powerful anti-oxidant. It is found in both fresh, cooked and processed tomatoes and is thought to lower the risk of cancer and heart disease. Tomatoes also provide calcium, iron and potassium.
However, tomatoes are watery and take up a lot of stomach space while supplying little energy. This is another reason for serving fairly small amounts of raw tomatoes, and going instead for cooked sauces and toppings where flavour, nutrients and calories are concentrated.
Tomato puree is especially nutritious; so is ketchup, although its sugar and salt content limits its use with young children.
Using fresh tomatoes
Buy only firm red (or yellow) ones and leave in a sunny place to sweeten. Never refrigerate tomatoes, as it spoils their texture. Cherry tomatoes are often nicest and they can make good finger-food.
As the skin is always the sourest part, peel larger tomatoes whenever possible. Put them into a bowl and cover with boiling water. After ten seconds, rinse them under the cold tap in a sieve. The skins should peel away easily.
Using a little subterfuge can mask acidity. For example:
- Sprinkle (preferably peeled) tomatoes slices with a speck of caster sugar.
- Marinate slices in olive oil and a drop of balsamic vinegar (or a pinch of sugar).
- Mix peeled tomato and avocado pieces with pieces of sardines tinned in sunflower oil.
- Pile slices on to pizzas or focaccia bread.
- Chop up and mix into baked beans.
- Bake lightly sugared and breadcrumbed tomato halves at gas mark 6, 200 degsC for ten to 15 minutes and serve as a vegetable.
Using tinned and carton tomatoes
Make into thick tomato sauce as below, then:
- pile on to pizzas
- serve with chicken, pork, white fish and mackerel
- serve with lamb, peas and rice
- serve with pasta or add to bolognese sauce
- pile on toast, top with grated cheese and melt the cheese under the grill.
Or, make into smooth tomato sauce as below, then:
- serve with white fish
- serve with cheese dishes such as macaroni/cauliflower cheese
- make tomato vegetable soup: a thick pureed soup of onions, carrots and celery, then add this sauce; perhaps add cooked haricot beans
- use this soup as 'gravy' in various dishes.
Tomato sauces
Tinned/carton tomatoes are ideal for these two delicious and versatile sauces.
For thick tomato sauce:
- Slowly fry lots of finely chopped onion in olive oil in a saucepan until soft but not browned. Tip in the tomatoes and mash down. Add some sage, thyme, a bay leaf, tomato puree and a dash of ketchup. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, to a thickened sauce.
For smooth tomato sauce:
- Put tinned (or cooked, chopped fresh) tomatoes through a sieve. Heat with a good dab of butter, a splash of olive oil, a good pinch of sugar and a speck of salt and pepper.
Tomato pizza
This is an exceptionally good pizza using brown (that is, semi-wholemeal) flour and lots of tomato.
Ingredients
140g plain brown flour; 60ml sunflower oil; 60ml milk; 15g fresh yeast or 8g dried; 1 ball mozzarella, sliced, or 150g grated Gouda; 50g grated Parmesan; thick tomato sauce as above, using 800g tomatoes and a large onion.
Toppings such as sliced peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, sardines/ pilchards, shredded ham, etc.
A baking sheet 25cm x 35cm or a 30cm-diameter pizza tray
- First make the base. Heat the milk in a small saucepan to just tepid and stir in the yeast.
- Cover; leave for ten minutes in a warm place, then add the oil.
- Tip in the flour and knead with the hands for three minutes to a soft, pliable dough, adding more milk if needed.
- Cover the bowl and put to rise in a warm place.
- When dough has doubled in size, punch it down, then roll out thinly on a lightly floured surface to fit the pizza tray.
- Pinch up the edge all round. Cover with tomato sauce, then with the mozzarella/Gouda, then the toppings, then the Parmesan.
- Bake for ten minutes on a high shelf in an oven pre-heated to gas 8, 215 degsC. Let cool for ten minutes to set the cheese.
Grow your own
Start at once if you want to grow tomatoes this year. Put sturdy-looking plants in a sunny, sheltered place in open ground or in 20cm-diameter pots filled with John Innes no3 compost.
Bush types are easiest and need no 'pinching out'. Otherwise, Gardeners Delight and Sweet 100/Sweet 1000 are luscious; tie these to 1m canes as they grow and pinch out all side shoots as soon as they appear.
Keep all tomato plants permanently moist. Remember that all green parts of tomato plants are poisonous.
Chief nutrients in tomatoes per 100g
Raw Tinned Puree
Vitamin A* 640mcg 220mcg 1300mcg
Vitamin C 17mg 12mg 38mg
Vitamin E 1?22mg 1?22mg 5?37mg
Calcium 7mg 12mg 48mg
Iron 0?5mg 0?4mg 1?6mg
Potassium 250mg 250mg 1150mg
* as carotene
Source: The Composition of Foods, MacCance
and Widdowson
