pomodoro

Although it's hard to imagine Italian cuisine without them, tomatoes didn't arrive in Italy until 1596. There are two possible explanations for their curious name in Italian (pomodoro means 'golden apple'); one is that in the 16th century, a round red fruit would, by the definitions of the day, be called a golden apple.

The second is that tomatillos (Physalis philadelphica) from Mexico which are also members of the nightshade family, were introduced at the same time as tomatoes. Tomatillos never caught on in Italy, but the name was remembered as something Italians didn't like.

The first recorded mention was in a letter from the steward of Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I de’ Medici, who wrote to his wife, decribing how he presented the ‘golden apples’ to Cosimo and his wife, who ‘looked at one another with much thoughtfulness.’ Neither dared to taste one.

Because of their poisonous nightshade kin, tomatoes (like potatoes, peppers and aubergines) would take decades to become even a small part of Italian cuisine. They first caught on around Parma, and only later in the south, notably in Naples (chef Vincenzo Corrado is recorded experimenting with them in the 1770s for the Bourbon court).