Arri London muttered....

>
>
> "R. Yang" wrote:
>>
>> Olivers > wrote in message
>> >...
>>
>> > Fortunately for the Italians, they had landed in a land where
>> > growing tomatoes was possible almost anywhere with water, although
>> > the principal evidence of the points of origin of Italian
>> > immigrants was that polenta sure did not arrive on US restaurant
>> > menus quickly (nor was it popular in Italian immigrant homes). In
>> > past years, there was a modest Italian community in the Central
>> > Brazos Valley of Texas, immigrating to become "truck" farmers.
>> > Some names and even a produce house, "D'Onofrio's", still survive.
>> > There on the edge of the Plains, corn growing all about them, you
>> > couldn't have given away polenta except to the starving. Grits
>> > maybe...
>>
>> Which brings up ... since tomatos and corn first went to Europe
>> during the conquistador era, how long have tomato and polenta dishes
>> actually been "traditional" for Italians? 400 years? Less?
>
> Tomato dishes are more common in the south rather than the north,
> although tomato dishes are found up there too. This source gives some
> info: http://www.siu.edu/~ebl/leaflets/tomato.htm
>
> Polenta had been made in parts of Italy well before the introduction
> of maize. It was made from other grains.
>

Apparently, for everyday "Romans", especially the Army, the porridge form
of polenta (in a multi-grain "cornless" version) was the principal food,
eaten far more than baked breads and almost universally popular. After
all, those indirect children of the old Romans (or of some outcast Dacian
legionaires) the Romanians (not much more Roman than the "Macedonians" are
the children of Phil and Alex) still wolf down their mammaglia.

TMO