Tomatoes!

What can I say, I just love to write about food. Italians love tomatoes. I feel like tomatoes are an essential in everything we eat here. Like tomato pizzas, tomato sauces in the pizzas and pastas, tomato salads and tomato bruschetta. They are delicious, but tomatoes here are particularly fresh and tasty. There is no record that Italy is a better place to grow tomatoes, but maybe the Tuscany area has great soil and environment for agriculture, resulting the best tomatoes I have ever had in my life. As an important part of the Mediterranean diet, tomatoes are considered not only tasty, but also extremely beneficial for health. So what’s so good about these tomatoes?

The secret is lycopene. This is a carotene (I guess…the name came from carrots? They are fat-soluble, unsaturated hydrocarbons that is responsible for the pigmentation in the fruits and vegetables), which can help with cancer treatment.

 This is the chemical compound that gives tomato the red color, and a great antioxidant. Lycopene can help protect against prostate cancer, breast cancer and artery diseases etc. In addition, it helps to reduce cholesterol level, protects against lipid serum oxidation, just tons of benefits.  It is a phytochemical that can only be generated in plants. As an unsaturated hydrocarbon, lycopene contains 13 double bonds, and 11 of them are conjugated. It must be pretty good at trapping those free radicals!  Moreover, this compound is actually easier to be absorbed by human body when it is processed into juice, sauce and paste because it is enclosed in the fruit tissues, which makes it hard to absorb it just consuming the fresh fruit. The odd part is, unlike the antioxidants in a lot of vegetables and olive oil, when heated, the chemical form of lycopene will be altered to be easily absorbed! Also, the absorption is better when oil is added. Isn’t tomato just the perfect vegetable? It’s healthy eaten raw and cooked! Because normally, cooking vegetables will degrade the nutritional benefits of them so I sometimes feel bad cooking them. I really don’t like salads and I prefer my vegetables stir-fried. Learning that tomatoes are actually healthier when cooked will oil, that makes my favorite Chinese dish- scrambled eggs with tomatoes one of the best things in the world!

About the taste of tomatoes, people have this perception that the good taste of tomatoes is based on its great balance in sugar and acids; however, this interesting research in university of Florida shows that the taste of tomatoes is also based on the aromatics present in the tomatoes. Although it is hard to determine which aromatic is resulting in the taste, it is proved higher sugar content will make the tomatoes taste better. When tomatoes get cold, for example, putting them into the fridge diminishes the flavor because the enzymes that assemble the volatile compounds stop working and the flavor just evaporates. So I guess we should finish the tomatoes at its freshest. As usual, another recipe of this delicious pasta salad that's easy to make!

Seashells with Basil, Tomatoes, and Garlic

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• About 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 1/4 pounds (1 qt.) small cherry and teardrop tomatoes
• 3/4 pound medium seashell pasta
• 1/2 cup shaved parmesan cheese 
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

• Preparation

  1. 1. Combine oil, garlic, and 3/4 tsp. salt in a large bowl. Chop 1 cup of the tomatoes and add to bowl. Cut remaining tomatoes in half and stir into mixture; let stand about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. 2. Meanwhile, cook pasta as package directs in a large pot of salted boiling water.
  3. 3. Drain pasta, saving 1 cup water. Toss pasta with tomato mixture, then with cheese and all but 1 tbsp. basil. Mix in a little pasta water if needed for a looser texture. Sprinkle remaining basil on top and season with salt.
  Resources:
  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=delicious-tomato-chemistry
  http://chemistry.about.com/cs/biochemistry/a/aa050401a.htm
  http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/carotene
  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/seashells-basil-tomatoes-garlic-50400000121917/