tomato
tomatl · jitomate · tomato
Cultural layer
Janet Long, De tomates y jitomates en el siglo XVI (Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 25, 1995)
The Oxford Companion to Food (Alan Davidson, 1999)
Indian Food: A Historical Companion (K. T. Achaya, 1994)
Solanum lycopersicum L. (Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, accessed 2026-10-16)
Route
PendingThe routes are written. They are not yet mapped.
This entry's cultural layer already names where it came from and how it moved. What it does not yet carry is that movement as structure: ordered waypoints with real coordinates, and a mechanism on each leg. Until it does, the layer stays an empty slot rather than a drawn line, because a map built from prose would be a guess with a projection under it.
1 of 409 entries carries a mapped route · nutmeg is the prototype
- Waypoints
Ordered places, each with its kind
- Coordinates
Real positions, with the gazetteer they came from
- Segments
From, to, and the mechanism that moved it
- Confidence
Documented, attributed or contested
- Summary
What the route argues, in a sentence
Names · co-equal, marked by how each one travelled
FoodwayPresent as a living food culture.
- tomatlEndonymNahuatl · Mesoamerica
- jitomateEndonymMexican Spanish (xitomatl) · central Mexico
- tomatoMarketEnglish · global market
Connections
61 bonds · 54 sourcedArtusi's salsa di pomodoro is built on a battuto with basil in it, and his plain sugo takes a few leaves.
Read in Artusi's La scienza in cucina, recipe 125, salsa di pomodoro, where basil goes into the battuto with onion, garlic, celery and parsley before the tomatoes, and recipe 6, sugo di pomodoro, which allows a few leaves. His evidence alone would place the pair lower; the forms that make it defining, caprese and the Neapolitan sauces, lie outside the regions he wrote from inside, so the score is not lowered on his account. Also confirmed in The Flavour Thesaurus at Basil & Tomato. The Flavor Bible, also cited, sets it in bold in the entry for tomatoes.
Confirmed in The Flavour Thesaurus at Soft Cheese & Tomato, where the book files cheese by category rather than by name: mozzarella is classically paired with tomato in a salad or on a pizza, best as real buffalo mozzarella or burrata, the lactic freshness mingling with the sweet-sour tomato juice and finished with olive oil and basil. Segnit describes the salad without calling it caprese. The Flavor Bible, also cited, sets it in bold capitals with an asterisk, a Holy Grail pairing in the entry for cheese, mozzarella.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition.
Glutamate from both sides, so this is accumulation rather than the multiplication that makes dashi work. Curing breaks the anchovy's protein down into glutamate and destroys the inosinate the fresh fish carried, and ripe tomato brings its own glutamate. Neither ingredient tastes of the other and together they read as depth rather than as fish.
Glutamate and inosinate content of foods: seafood and cheese (Umami Information Center, accessed 2026-09-13)
puttanesca Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition, where anchovies is set in plain type.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for thyme in the 2008 edition.
Both sides carry free glutamate rather than one supplying a ribonucleotide, so this is accumulation rather than synergy. Long ageing breaks parmesan's protein down to roughly 1.6 percent free glutamate, up to about 2200 mg per 100 g, and ripe tomato brings its own. The effect is additive, and it is why the pair reads as savoury without anything having been added.
Glutamate and inosinate content of foods: seafood and cheese (Umami Information Center, accessed 2026-09-13)
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition, where parmesan, pecorino, is set in bold.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for eggplant in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for bell peppers in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for zucchini in the 2008 edition.
Tabbouleh.
Confirmed in The Palestinian Table: Teta Asma's tabuleh, page 98, which Kassis calls a family variation rather than traditional tabuleh.
Tomato sauce, where the olive oil carries its flavour through the whole sauce.
Lycopene is fat-soluble and isomerises under heat, so cooking tomatoes in oil moves far more of it into circulation than cooking them without. Subjects eating tomatoes cooked in olive oil showed an 82 percent rise in plasma trans-lycopene, against no significant change without the oil.
Increases in plasma lycopene concentration after consumption of tomatoes cooked with olive oil (Fielding, Rowley, Cooper and O'Dea, 2005)
Read in Nosrat's Salt Fat Acid Heat, 2017, the Fat chapter: fat carries flavour, coating the tongue so that aromas stay longer, and the tomato sauce she learned at Chez Panisse, where the quality of the olive oil changed how the whole sauce tasted. The note before said the pair is nearly always eaten cooked, which neither book cited says. The Flavor Bible, also cited, lists the pair.
Score unexamined
Balsamic supplies the sweetness and acidity a poor tomato lacks.
Read in The Flavour Thesaurus at the opening of the Tomato chapter, and the gloss corrected: Segnit does not give this as a Modenese tradition. She gives it as a repair, advising that money otherwise wasted on premium but stingily flavored tomatoes is better spent on a bottle of high quality balsamic vinegar, which will furnish the sweetness and acidity the tomatoes lack.
Guacamole.
Read in Los clasicos de la cocina mexicana, page 12, a quarter cup of chopped ripe tomato in the guacamole clasico; the cited Diccionario Enciclopedico was not the book in hand.
The ackee and saltfish saute.
Read in Willinsky's Jerk: Barbecue from Jamaica, 1990, page 78, codfish and ackee, which she calls almost Jamaica's national dish: the diced tomato sautéed with the oil and scallions before the ackees and flaked codfish go in.
Chipotle in adobo.
Read in Los clasicos de la cocina mexicana, page 119, the adobo salsa built on tomatoes with the chipotles, and page 86; the cited Diccionario Enciclopedico was not the book in hand.
Obe ata and stew bases.
Nigerian food research
Tomato in the Dominican sofrito and in Charito's Puerto Rican recado.
Relocated in Gran Cocina Latina: Dominican sofrito, page 57, made with tomato sauce, and the recado of page 58. The book gives no Cuban sofrito recipe.
Obe ata with okporoko.
Nigerian food research
Buljol: flaked salt fish with tomato, onion and Scotch bonnet under hot oil.
Read in the Rousseaus' Caribbean Potluck, 2014, page 151, buljol, which the book calls traditional Trini salt fish: flaked salt fish mixed with tomato, onion and Scotch bonnet, hot oil poured over, coriander added. It is dressed, not sautéed. Also read in Willinsky's Jerk: Barbecue from Jamaica, 1990, page 78, codfish and ackee, which she calls almost Jamaica's national dish, where tomato goes into the sauté.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition, where pepper: black, white is set in bold.
Roasted feta, the Thessaloniki meze: feta under tomato, pepper flakes and olive oil.
Read in Kochilas's The Glorious Foods of Greece, 2001, page 218, roasted feta, a slab of tin-aged feta under thin slices of tomato, boukovo and olive oil, baked in foil; the cited My Greek Table was not the copy in hand.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for bacon in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for sardines in the 2008 edition, where tomatoes and tomato sauce is set in bold.
Squid stuffed with rice and olives, braised in tomato and dry white wine.
Read in Kochilas's The Glorious Foods of Greece, 2001, page 337, squid stuffed with rice, Kalamata olives and parsley, braised in diced tomatoes and a cup of dry white wine; the cited My Greek Table was not the copy in hand.
Mole amarillo: green beans and chayote in a sauce of tomato, tomate verde and dried chillies.
Relocated in Los clasicos de la cocina mexicana, page 68. There are no ejotes a la mexicana in this book; the cited Diccionario Enciclopedico was not the book in hand.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for saffron in the 2008 edition.
Dakshini murgh: the roasted fenugreek seeds going in over chopped tomatoes.
Relocated in Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking, page 58; the cited Indian Cookery, BBC 1982, was not the copy in hand.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for capers in the 2008 edition.
Summer succotash, and a Louisiana duck and shrimp gumbo: okra with tomatoes in both.
Read in Sherman's Turtle Island, 2025, pages 152 to 153, summer succotash: onion and garlic in sunflower oil, with an optional fish pepper, then sweet corn, Cherokee Trail of Tears or other green beans, okra, which he calls a gift from Africa that found another home in the South, and tomatoes. Also pages 144 to 146, Jeffery Darensbourg's duck and shrimp gumbo, thickened with sassafras and okra, and his rule that tomatoes and okra both belong in gumbo.
Aunty Thelma's fisherman's stew: palm oil and onions, then blended fresh tomatoes and hot peppers.
Read in Aribisala's Longthroat Memoirs, 2016, 'Fish Soups and Love Potions': Aunty Thelma's fisherman's stew from the creeks of Cross River, which starts with palm oil and chopped onions sautéed until they break down, then blended fresh tomatoes and hot peppers, smoked catfish, crayfish and shellfish, and a little ground ogbono stirred in near the end; served with pounded yam or hot gari. Her 'Institution of Stew' grinds tomato, pepper and onion for the Yoruba stew but does not name palm oil, and her critique of a British recipe counts chopped tomatoes in a Nigerian soup as a mark of not knowing it.
Moqueca baiana.
Read in Manuel Querino, A arte culinária na Bahia, 1928, page 16, moqueca de peixe fresco: tomato in the sauce, under azeite de cheiro or olive oil, both preferred. Cascudo, also cited, has not been checked for this pairing.
Accara dipped in sosu kaani, the tomato and scotch bonnet sauce.
Searched in Senegal, 2015, page 101, accara, eaten with kani, as the Wolof saying the book quotes has it: you must stand the heat if you want accara; page 229, the book's own kani, tomatoes cooked down with Scotch bonnet. The book calls the sauce kani.
The breakfast plate.
Confirmed in The Palestinian Table: the opening of the Breakfast chapter, labaneh beside sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.
Score unexamined
Salada de palmito.
Confirmed in Gran Cocina Latina: shrimp and hearts of palm salad, page 550.
Methi dishes.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for pasta in the 2008 edition.
Mole amarillo: chayote, green beans and courgette in a sauce of tomato and dried chillies.
Relocated in Los clasicos de la cocina mexicana, page 68. There is no chayote a la mexicana in this book; the cited Diccionario Enciclopedico was not the book in hand.
Sauce base.
Confirmed in Kitchen Butterfly, 'Garden Egg and Ugba Sauce with New Yam' (2015): a blended tomato, onion and chilli mixture goes in after the garden eggs.
Bengali sabzi.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for chorizo in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for tomatoes in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for cheese, ricotta in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for beans, white in the 2008 edition, where tomatoes and tomato paste is set in plain type.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for beans, kidney in the 2008 edition.
Guisado: vegetables on a base of fried garlic, onions and tomatoes, seasoned with bagoong.
Searched in Memories of Philippine Kitchens, 2012 edition, page 117: the guisado of the author's childhood, a base of fried garlic, onions and tomatoes, then shrimp and a vegetable, seasoned with shrimp juice, fish sauce and sometimes bagoong. The cited 2006 edition was not the copy in hand.
A modernist, compound-led pairing rather than a traditional one.
Tomatoes carry the strawberry furanone, identified in them by Ron G. Buttery's team in the mid-1990s and present also in raspberry, pineapple, beef, roasted hazelnut and popcorn. Concentrations run highest in homegrown tomatoes at the height of summer, so the compound the two share is strongest exactly when a tomato is at its best.
The Flavour Thesaurus (Niki Segnit, 2010)
The mechanism is read in The Flavour Thesaurus at Tomato & Strawberry, which reports Buttery's identification of the strawberry furanone in tomatoes and the claim by some chefs that the two are therefore interchangeable. The pairing is read in the flavor-network paper's supplementary data: tomato and strawberry share 72 flavour compounds, twenty-third among tomato's 856 partners, where the median shares 6; across the paper's 56,498 recipes they appear together 13 times, where about 189 would be expected by chance. Compound-led, and not what cooks combine.
Mehshi silq, the vegetarian stuffed chard: tomato in the rice stuffing with allspice or 7-spice.
Read in Helou's Feast, 2018, page 406, vegetarian stuffed Swiss chard (mehshi silq bil-zeyt), Lebanon and Syria: diced tomato in the rice stuffing, seasoned with allspice or the 7-spice mixture. The chard is not cooked in a tomato broth.
Bonds are drawn from culinary literature and origin-tradition references, tiered by source. Origin means a reference from the place. Witness means the pairing is the place's own and the reference documenting it was written from outside.
The score is cultural weight: how central a pairing is in the tradition that documents it. It is not a prediction of how two materials behave in a formulation and not a measure of chemical affinity. The scale is ordinal, because centrality is a judgement rather than a measurement: 1.0 where the pair is the dish, 0.9 a fixed named form, 0.8 a canonical dish, 0.7 recurrent across many dishes, 0.6 common, 0.5 attested, 0.4 marginal or compound-led.
Each score is set against a named dish and carries that dish in its note. Where a score has not been examined it says so, because an inherited figure and a researched one should not look alike.
The dish is named by a reader who knows the cuisine and cites a source appropriate to it. It has not yet been confirmed inside that source page by page, so a note records what supports a score rather than what has been checked in the book.
Studio Culinar-E, "tomato", Pantry Archive, Studio Monk-E, 2026. https://studioculinar-e.com/archive/tomato
/archive/tomato
Bonds are tiered by source, origin-tradition references first.