When you think of Italian food, you probably think about pizza, bruschetta, or spaghetti. But tomatoes aren’t native to Italy. So where do these associations come from? And how these staple Italian dishes come to be?
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Delishtory brings you a tasty exploration into our favorite food obsessions. It’s delicious, it’s history – it’s Delishtory!
Kae Lani Palmisano is an Emmy Award-Winning television host, food and travel writer, recipe developer and home cook who loves to explore the journey that food takes to get to the plate.
Delishtory is a production of WHYY.
27 Comments
I ♥ 🍅 .I love green tomatoes on 🥪 Thank you for this episode I thoroughly enjoyed it yum!God bless you in Jesus name 🙏🤍
theft by Europeans , then spread throughout Europe
as long as it's not too spicy i'm happy with all tomatoe dishes.
i loooove bruschetta – wild to think that fancy folks just had tomatoes as decoration 😮
Tomato fried egg is a Hong Kong staple food
Poison apple sauce… That's how I'm going to call it from now on.
I don't consider most foods containing tomatoes as being "Italian" (unless they include pasta and DEFINETLY NOT pizza). If it contains tomatoes it is Mexican/Native American.
I think you left out the fact that Americans popularized things like pizza and carbonara when we liberated Italy. Past Present covered this portion very well. Even things like tiramisu is very recent. The cookies used to make it hit store shelves in the 80s, I think.
BLT ALL THE WAY!!!!!!
I love how "enslaved people" is mentioned in the same breath as tomatoes, potatoes, chocolate! Talk about unsentimentality. Well done, maam!
I'm very perplexed about "Europeans not liking spicy tastes": I knew that black pepper, ginger, cloves and cinnamom, all spices that give a marked "hot" spike to food, were known and used in Europe since the Roman times, and especially by the upper class.
I think the same interesting questions might be asked of chilis and all of the Asian cultures that prominently include them in their national dishes, including Korean kimchi, and Thai curries. Or even the Irish and the potato.
Sliced tomato, fresh off the vine; toasted white bread, a touch of mayo, salt, & pepper. Best. Lunch. Ever.
Hunger
Yes, the tomato, cocoa, potato, coca and tobacco all originated in the Americas. The Spanish brought it around the world.
Please…LASAGNA!
01:28. Be careful with general claims. On November 25, 1542, the Emperor Charles V of Spain abolished the enslavement of natives by a decree in his Leyes Nuevas (New Laws). The way the situation is said gives the impression that the Spanish did to the American natives what they and other nations later did to the Africans. As usual, things are complicated.
Italians on the internet in shambles right now knowing their beloved ingredient is American.
christopher columbus. ‘Nuff said.
A fresh garden tomato (heirloom if available), sliced, salt & pepper, thick sliced crispy bacon, homemade mayonnaise on lightly toasted hearty bread. Great without the bacon too. Extra points if served with fresh corn and green beans. 🤤😋
The info is good and interesting. But, not meaning to be a stickler however, the date Pizzeria Port’Alba opened is 1738 – at least according to their web site and the sign on the door and building. Small but significant bit of info.
fresh, ripe tomatoes dusted with coarse sea salt and ground pepper. That's all. Heavenly
asd
One of my grandmothers thought that cucumbers were poison unless you squeezed all of the juice out. She'd put a towel on a plate, put the cukes in, then a plate on top, lastly heavy books. They couldn't be eaten until the next day. We all just ate the floppy cukes without a word. 😂
Everyone should thank south and central american farmers. Every time anyone eats potato chips, they should thank american farmers.
Worth noting that basil was also a latecomer to Italy! The plant is native to India, and first began to be grown in Italy in the medeival era. (Likewise, India has the Mediterranean to thank for cumin.)
MARAMING SALAMAT SOUTH AMERICA!!! 🥰