The sun is sizzling and our palettes are craving cool, uncooked dishes. Fresh tomatoes are an essential ingredient in any cooling summer salad.

Although technically fruits, tomatoes are mainly used as a vegetable. Italy and Spain have made the tomato their own, although it originally came from South America and travelled to Spain with the Conquistadores (imagine Italian cuisine without Napolitana Sauce or pizzas without their tomato base).

Tomatoes come in all shapes and colours, ranging from tiny cherry tomatoes to huge, short-lived ox-heart tomatoes. They are used green in pickles and Asian cuisines and are dried, pickled, tinned and made into sauces and condiments. It’s impossible to imagine Western cuisine without the addition of tomatoes.

A perfectly ripe tomato, eaten fresh and in season, is one of the great wonders of the culinary world. If you have not tasted a perfect tomato then you have not tasted at all. Vine-ripened tomatoes are wonderful, but don’t expect hydroponic varieties to have anywhere near the depth of flavour of tomatoes grown in soil.