Let’s hear it for the Ragu Tomato 

Three cheers for genetic engineering.  These breeder guys have finally come up with something that makes a ton a good sense.  Not that we needed another tomato mind you.  God knows there are at least 700 varieties of tomatoes on the market now from little ones the size of grapes to big lunkers the size of soft balls.  And they come in various shades of yellow to orange and red and purple and even in striped colors.  We even have choices on the shape we want from oval to round to square shouldered to pear to whatever.  But in the end, they all pretty much taste the same; that is until they built the Ragu Tomato. 

The Ragu is no ordinary tomato.  It is a genetic marvel to say the least and the impetus behind developing it was based on the fact that nobody knows how to cook any more.  Ever since home economics was dropped from the high school curriculum the culinary talents of this country have been going in the toilet.  People no longer have a clue how to use spices.  Everything is now pre-packaged for our “convenience” so we don’t have to stress out over which spice to use with what meat.  Take for example the recent holiday that just passed.  St. Patrick’s Day was just a few weeks ago and how many people do you suppose cooked corned beef for dinner.  I’ll bet several tons of the stuff was sold at the stores and included in every package of corned beef was a little spice package for us to drop in the water when we boiled the hell out of our corned beef.  The corned beef people knew that left to our own vices, most of us wouldn’t have had a clue which spices to use and therefore probably would have opted for Polish Dogs, even though Polish Dogs aren’t even remotely Irish.

Take a stroll down the meat counter at Costco and you will see many examples of stuffed this and that where all the seasonings have already been blended together so that all we have to do is just pop it in the oven, set the table, pour ourselves a glass of wine and enjoy.  Well, the Ragu Tomato has gone one step further.  You don’t even have to cook it to get a balanced meal.  Just sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on it and pop it in your mouth and you have just consumed the equivalent of a spaghetti dinner minus the beef.  Here’s how they did it.

Knowing how “spice challenged” most of us are these days, the geneticists took it upon themselves to splice the genes from some thyme, garlic, marjoram, onion, rosemary, oregano, basil, savory and sage with our good old Early Girl tomato.  I have no idea how they do this but I don’t imagine it is in a Cuisinart blender.  But however they do it, the end result is that when you grow the Ragu tomato you are growing a pre-spiced tomato.  All those yummy Italian flavorings have been bred right into that red orb so you don’t need to add any more spices.  Like I said, it’s ready to eat just the way it comes off the vine.  Of course, you can still customize your Ragu tomato sauce by adding a little extra onion or garlic or basil because we all know you can never use too much basil or garlic.

Now, the next maneuver these breeders did was sheer genius.  We all know that pasta is made from flour.  To be more specific, it comes from wheat flour which of course comes from wheat. And tomato sauce and pasta go together like peanut butter and jelly so why not splice a gene from wheat into the cocktail.  And that is exactly what they did.  The result of course is a spaghetti and marinara sauce tomato, all rolled into one tidy round globe the size of tennis ball.  There’s no need to boil water or heat up sauce and the clean up is a snap.  All you have to do is slice a few of these little guys, add some parmesan and away you go.  And they are perfect for packing in the old lunch box.