Big red: an ever-useful ingredient (+recipes)

A deconstructed Caprese salad is just as tasty as the traditional layered version. Photo / Janna Dixon

Big red tomatoes probably started their life being small, yellow and rough-skinned. This South American native began to travel the world courtesy of Spanish colonisers who first took them to their Caribbean claims. Next stop was the Philippines and then into South East Asia, from where the tomato continued to spread in popularity.

Thanks again to the Spanish, they were introduced to Europe in the 1500s. At first considered to be poisonous (they are a member of the deadly nightshade family), they were used as decoration. This thinking changed somewhere along the line, as in France they gained aphrodisiac associations.

Years of hybridisation have yielded the tomato we know today, and this ever-useful ingredient has inveigled its way into the world's kitchens.

Yes, a tomato is botanically a fruit, as are eggplants, cucumbers, courgettes and pumpkins, but we know it as a vegetable and use it as such. We eat it raw, cook it, bottle it, can it and turn it into pastes. Most home gardeners grow it. I do with various success, now only bothering with well-known cultivars after seeing the heirloom varieties succumb to pests and disease.

Available all year round, tomatoes are best eaten fresh in summer. The rest of the year you will get better flavour from a can.

Deconstructed Caprese salad

In a frantic moment while catering a function, the idea of slicing, layering and arranging a classic Caprese salad went out the window. Time was of the essence and so I "deconstructed" it. Layering tomato slices with basil leaves and mozzarella slices looks very pretty, but this more rustic approach has made this salad a winner. Leftovers the next day become even more flavoursome as the basil infuses into the tomato and mozzarella. It will look a bit wilted but it tastes great.

You do need to use ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and outdoor-grown basil to achieve the full glory of this dish.

1 Pick the basil leaves off the stalk, rip any very large leaves into pieces and make a bed of basil in the bottom of your bowl.

2 Slice the tomatoes crosswise and layer across the basil leaves.

3 Drain the fresh mozzarella ball and break up into shreds, scattering across the tomato layer.

4 Before serving splash olive oil across the salad and season with cracked pepper and sea salt.

* Grant Allen has been a professional cook for 30 years. He works as a caterer in Auckland. Check out Grant's Facebook page here.