L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 36 L'Italo-Americano T o m a t o e s m a y b e a m o n g t h e most ubiquitous i n g r e d i e n t s i n our cuisine, but they are a gift from the New World. It was the Spaniards who, very likely, first intro- duced the plant to Europe and, during its first years of diffusion, it was considered e x c l u s i v e l y o r n a m e n t a l : those red, juicy fruits were b e l i e v e d t o b e p o i s o n o u s and were classified as such by herbalist Pietro Andrea Mattioli in 1544. In spite of it, tomatoes were to become an essential ingredient in all kitchens, an addition to any type of dish. It didn't take long to understand it, as this exotic "golden apple" (this is what pomodoro means, lit- erally), tastes like the sun and has the fresh, summery scent of the fields where it grows. The first to go against scientific belief and eat it with gusto were the people of our South, who discov- ered not only that tomatoes weren't poisonous, but also tasty, especially when fried. Between the end of the 16 th and the beginning of the 17 th century, tomatoes became an object of study f o r t h e a l c h e m i s t s , w h o thought they had aphrodisi- ac properties. By the 18 th c e n t u r y , o u r p o m o d o r o became a staple in the cui- sine of southern Europe and it wasn't a stranger on the tables of the Brits, neither. In the history of Italian cuisine, tomatoes go hand in hand with another iconic ingredient, pasta. Both of them acquired food royalty status when they met, their embrace resulting in what m a n y c o n s i d e r t h e m o s t famous Italian dish in the world, pasta al pomodoro. Here, tomatoes primarily become sauce: il sugo, we call it. I l s u g o i n I t a l y i s s y n - onym with tradition: each family has its own recipe, each grandmother her own philosophy about how long it should cook, whether you need to add sugar, onion, basil… Italians could enter- tain you for hours talking about it. Then, of course, you have la salsa: the toma- t o b a s e y o u u s e t o m a k e your sugo. When it comes to la salsa and its origins, things can g e t a b i t h a z y . M i n d , i t into salsa. T h e o r i g i n a l s a l s a d i pomodoro Italian-style was, however, to be consumed fresh: you made it, you ate i t . I n o t h e r w o r d s , y o u couldn't stock it up in the p a n t r y , a n d t h a n k t h e Olympian gods for it every time you didn't know what to make for dinner. In fact, if it wasn't for a Frenchman, that may still be a dream. T h e f i r s t j a r o f t o m a t o sauce was created in 1796 by Charles Nicolas Appert, who understood how placing h e r m e t i c a l l y c l o s e d g l a s s jars in boiling water could make their content (vegeta- bles, fruit and sauces) last m u c h l o n g e r . A p p e r t couldn't know it yet -- the scientific explanation to his discovery came some time later -- but heat deactivates the enzymes causing fresh food to spoil, allowing it to last longer. Canning was a true revolution: food didn't only last in time, but was also easier to transport and store. The first Italian to appre- ciate Appert's ingenuity – and to understand it could b e a g r e a t i n v e s t e m e n t – w a s P i e d m o n t e s e shouldn't really surprise us, because most Italian dishes, especially those rooted into p o p u l a r t r a d i t i o n , h a v e uncertain origins. But toma- t o s a u c e i s s o M e d i t e r r a n e a n , s o Neapolitan even, we would find it difficult to believe it came from anywhere differ- e n t t h a n t h e c i t y o f P a r t h e n o p e . H o w e v e r , i t seems the first to transform tomatoes into sauce weren't the Neapolitans, but farmers from the Parma province, in E m i l i a R o m a g n a : t h e y would let them dry under the sun, and then turn them Francesco Cirio who, in 1856, opened his first can- n i n g f a c t o r y i n T u r i n . However, his first product w a s n ' t t o m a t o s a u c e , b u t peas! Just a handful of years later, in 1867, Cirio present- e d h i s d e l i c a c i e s a t t h e Paris' World Exposition and began selling interna- t i o n a l l y . I n 1 8 7 5 , t w e n t y years after he had begun his canning venture in Turin, he opened his first factory to can tomatoes in Naples: it was a success, so much so Cirio canned tomatoes are still famous today. In moving operations to Naples, Cirio demonstrated to be a good business man: C a m p a n i a w a s n ' t o n l y a region that produced toma- toes aplenty, it was also the p l a c e w h e r e p e o p l e h a d begun having tomato sauce with their pasta before any- w h e r e e l s e . I n t r u t h , Neapolitans had been using another type of tomato and meat sauce, ragù, for their vermicelli, as Alexandre D u m a s w r o t e i n h i s D i c t i o n a r y o f C u i s i n e . However, it took so long to make it, it wasn't something one could have on a daily basis: Cirio's canned toma- t o e s , o n t h e o t h e r h a n d , were perfect to do just that. A l l t h i s t a l k i n g a b o u t t o m a t o e s a n d w e h a v e n ' t said a thing about how to can them: because be not fooled, canning remains a very popular family activity a c r o s s t h e c o u n t r y s t i l l today, even if you can buy your pelati or passata at the supermarket. As we said, every Italian family has a recipe for tomato sauce and also for canned tomatoes, but there are some tenets everyone respects: first of all, pick the right tomatoes, making sure they are not too watery, lest the sauce ends up bland and runny. Then, you can proceed in two dif- ferent directions: you can cut the tomatoes and pass them through a vegetable m i l l ( w e c a l l i t p a s s a p o - modoro) to purée them and get rid of their seeds. The t o m a t o s a u c e o b t a i n e d i s then canned in glass jars or bottles, which are sealed and boiled for one hour. In alternative, you can boil the tomatoes before using the vegetable mill; in this case, j a r s m u s t b e b o i l e d i n advanced and, once sauce a n d j a r s r e a c h t h e s a m e temperature, you can carry on with the canning. GIULIA FRANCESCHINI Italian invented tomato sauce, but it wouldn't have been that easy without some help from France (Photo: Melica/Dreamstime) LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE Are the French the real inventors of tomato sauce?

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