Italy's Golden Apples: Pomodoro!

You say toe-mah-toe, I say toe-may-toe, but Italians say pomodoro!

The pomodoro is such an important part of Italian cuisine, you'd think tomatoes were indigenous to Italy. But they're not. They're not even indigenous to Europe. They're from the Americas and it wasn't until Spanish explorers brought back tomato seeds to Europe, Europeans (much less Italians) didn't have a clue what tomatoes were.

Ancient Aztec Tomato Calender. (J/K)

Next time you sit down for a Sunday sauce meal,  you have Mexicans to thank for the sauce. Make that you have the Aztecs to thank. They were, after all, the first Mexicans and they were the first to cultivate tomatoes, which were indigenous to their part of the world.  You might even have Aztecs to thank for your dessert, depending on what it might be. Those Aztec/Mexicans were also the first to cultivate the coco plant. You know, the plant that gives the world chocolate.

The word, "tomato," is derived from the Aztec word, tomatl, which became the Spanish word, tomate. So, how did tomatoes go from tomatl to tomate to pomodoro? More interestingly, how did Italians settle on pomodoro, which means "golden apple," for the Italian word for the juicy, red, fruit? Well, I'm going to tell you. (But you probably already figured that out.)

One theory is that the Spanish brought back tomatoes as well as tomatillos. Many varieties of tomatillos are yellow, not red. So, the theory states that people thought yellow tomatillos looked like golden apples and the name stuck.

Another theory says that, back in the 16th century, calling something "gold" or "golden" added power and value to it and that apples, golden apples, are associated with certain old myths that would make calling tomatoes, "golden apples," something more important in the world of naming fruits and vegetables.

Rigatoni Pomodoro! Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!

If you think Italians took to tomatoes like ducks to water you'd be wrong. Dead wrong. In fact, many Italians originally believed that eating tomatoes would kill them. That's because tomatoes are part of the nightshade family of poisonous plants. Belladonna, which means beautiful woman in Italian, is a famous poison that is part of the same family of plants tomatoes belong to.

Somewhere along the line, some Italian must have figured out that tomatoes weren't poisonous. Maybe he or she sliced one, drizzled some olive oil on it, sprinkled on a few spices like basil and oregano, and added a slice of mozzarella cheese?  (I only use that example because I eat tomatoes that way quite often.)

Regardless of how it happened, Italians soon embraced the pomodoro in big ways.  It became Italy's national vegetable-like fruit and found it's way into so many of the Italian dishes we all love. You know, like our  Sunday (non-Mexican) sauce or gravy. So next time you're eating some rigatoni or some other pasta with your Sunday-best sauce or gravy on it, you might not only want to say, "grazie,"  you might also want to say, "gracious" to those Spanish-speaking peoples who are responsible for bringing the tomato to our kitchens and tables.

If you'd like to watch Chef Pasquale Sciarappa make'a d'sauce from'a d'scratch, old school style, kick back and enjoy this video.  Chef Pasquale says, "If you wanna make'a d'sauce, you gotta sweat. No sweat, no sauce."