Sughi di Pomodoro

When most people think of Italian cooking, and especially pasta, they see red; that is, they are convinced that everything Italian is covered with tomato sauce. As you will discover in this book, the great beauty of Italian cuisine is that it comes in so many colors and flavors. In fact, in looking over the history of food preparation in Italy, one finds that the tomato is a relative newcomer. It arrived after Spanish conquistadors brought it to Europe from Peru in the sixteenth century. Before that, pasta was cooked in meat broth or was sauced with cheeses, meats, and herbs. Many old recipes, such as those for pappardelle sulla lepre (hare sauce) and lasagne, used animal blood as a liquid before being replaced by the tomato. Though the tomato was written about in Italy during the 1550s, when it was called the pomo d’oro (golden apple), Italians did not really start eating them for another 200 years. Using the perspective of history, in a tradition of cooking that goes back thousands of years, the tomato can probably be considered an ingredient in Italian cucina nuova.