It only took 200 years to completely change the public identity of the Italian culture
Context: The first tomatoes were nothing like the tomatoes we all know: they were small, transparent and yellow, way too acidic when unripe, and watery and too soft when they were ripe. Not the ideal flavor or texture people expected to be. In simple words tomatoes did not charm the crowds, and for a long time people never got beyond using them as a decorative plant.
It was in France, where the tomato got its nefarius fame. Rich families were the ones who could afford to buy the fruits of the new world, and they did … to just show off. Often cooked and served in containers made of pewter, an alloy made of mostly lead and tin, tomatoes became a major hazard for public health. The acidity of the fruits, reacting with pewter, caused intoxication and death from lead poisoning. Sometimes being rich does not help. Because tomatoes belong to the deadly nightshades family (botanically known as Solanaceae) like the poisonous mandrake and belladonna, the association with them became the gossip of that time. Soon rumors crossed the French borders to spread everywhere in Europe. Sadly, Solanum Lycopersicum or wolf peach, became the infamous genus name Europeans decided to give the tomato. It was like saying “stay away from it”.
Finally, in the late 1500, tomatoes made it to Italy and long before they conquered Europe, they conquered it. Wait! Italians knew about the poisonous rumors about this new fruit. Superstition, suspiciousness, skepticism, fear were the sentiments that were preventing rich people to eat them or even worse…cook them. On top of that, in 1544, the Tuscan herbalist Pietro Mattioli had the magnificent idea to brand tomatoes as poisonous in his book Herbarium. This added fuel to the fire. “Let’s know more before we eat them” was the wise decision that was made. And Italians had to wait the 1700 and to be in Naples. In simple words it took centuries before tomatoes were finally accepted as a food product.
Neapolitans are concrete people, and they could not accept the theory that eating tomatoes would have sent directly to the Creator! “Guys! The same people who created this ridiculous myth that tomatoes are poisonous are the same people who believed that the Earth was flat!” Fair enough right? Tomatoes started to be cooked in humble terracotta (clay) pots and served in clay or wooden dishes. It was clear that being poor paid! Miraculously, there was no chemical reaction with clay or wood and nobody died. Naples proved that tomatoes were edible if handled properly and from the 1700, when the first tomato sauce got performed there, tomatoes became Italy’s pride in more than 320 heirloom varieties. This ode to tomato is also an ode to Naples and to its farmers, as our most famous and world known cultivar in Italy is the San Marzano, from the Agro Nocerino, at the foot of the Vesuvio mountain.