The Tomato
A Fruit Among Vegetables
History of the Tomato
Ah the tomato, the Peruadorean berry so many of us love to the point of obsession (Estabrook). Once considered a weed in the maize fields of the Inca. The originally nut-sized fruit has been bred into countless colors, shapes and sizes. It has formed the foundations of cuisines around the world. It has become so associated with Italy that many of you reading this might want to deny the fact that just 500 years there were no tomatoes in Italy; seriously, no red sauce, at all. Native to the Andes and first cultivated by the people of south and central Mexico, the tomato was not a global food. Brought back with Columbus as evidence of the botanical bounty of his new trade route to Asia (Not Asia). Tomatoes were first planted as horticultural oddities. People feared them as they are a nightshade, related to hemlock and other old world poisons.
Red Sauce
The most magical of substances to me is red sauce. It is mythologized in movies and on TV. It is spoken about in hushed tones. It ‘s a secret of the elders, from the old country, and sacrosanct. For us muggles, it came in a jar. That jar never tasted like even mediocre restaurants. But over some well-worn stove, under roman stone arches, a bent, severe, old woman was conjuring something else, something that would be forever beyond the tines of my ever seeking pasta fork (I just use any fork). And then I tried to make it. And I did a pretty good job.
For the last 15 plus years I have been tinkering with it and here is what I have learned.
-
Description text goes here
-
Description text goes here
-
Item description
-
Description text goes here