The tomato is the indispensable ingredient that is part of
most recipes found on this site... but where did it come from?
The tomato is
a plant that has originated from central South America and the southern part of North America, the zone today
found withing the countries of Mexico and Peru. The Aztecs called it "xitomatl",
and more generally the term "tomatl" designated various fruits similar to each other, usually juicy;
this was in náhuatl, the language of the Aztec people, which is still in use today.
Tomato sauce became an integral part of Aztec cuisine. Some say that the tomato was an aphrodisiac, this would be the reason why the French once described
it as pomme d'amour, "apple of love". This designation is also present in Italy: in some
villages of from inner Sicily, is also indicated by the name of Puma-d'amùri (apple of love). It is said that after its introduction in Europe,
if Queen Elizabeth would have given Sir Walter Raleigh his way, tomatoes today
would have been baptized as apples of love (love apple)!
Similarily, in Italy the famous tomato recieved the name "golden apple", or pomodoro.
This term is still in use today to refer to tomatoes in italian language. And history has to agree that Italy did manage to turn this fruit
into gold!
The date of the arrival of the tomato in Europe is in the year 1540, when the Spaniard Hernán Cortés returned home and brought some specimens. Its cultivation and widespread distribution had to wait until the second half of the seventeenth century. The tomato landed in Italy in 1596, but only after this, finding good weather in the south, you will see its color change from its distinctive original gold color, which just gave the name to the plant in Italian, to the actual red we see now every day, thanks to selected grafting and biological engineering. If you are really searching more for spaghetti sauce recipes, you are welcomed click that link.