General

The tomato’s story did not begin in Italy. It began in the Andes, small and defiant, growing wild long before it ever met olive oil. The Aztecs called it xitomatl  — the navel fruit — for its rounded shape and the dimple at its base, and in the markets of Tenochtitlan it appeared in every shape and colour — large, small, serpent-shaped, nipple-shaped; red, very red, yellow, almost gold. The pulp was crushed with chiles and ground squash seeds, worked into sauces and ladled ov