Eloise HorsfieldTHE French called them ‘love apples’ for their aphrodisiacal powers, and the Spanish use them in pretty much every dish.
So it is great news that scientists have found cooked tomatoes to contain a powerful cancer-fighting nutrient.
A University of Portsmouth study found that lycopene, found in highest quantities in processed tomatoes with oil added – basically the Spanish staple tomate frito – can intercept cancer’s ability to grow.
It has indeed been known for years, but most commercially grown tomatoes are tasteless. Spain should ‘cotton on’ to taste as the determining factor, then by all means produce them in place of current crops.
Somewhere between Portuguese ‘tomate da rua’, big, ugly, and skin delicate, but juicy and gorgeous……and Sicilian/Corsican vine tomatoes, there has to be a magic cross breed opportunity to give flavour and whatever health benefit.
Then you need good animal manure to plough in, but that is in short supply and the ‘industry’ relies upon chemicals!!