Dennis Montey wrote:
>
> I certainly did not intend to infer that tomatoes were 'new' to Italy.
> My question referred to the introduction of tomatoes after they had an
> established cuisine. We often associate tomatoes or tomato sauces with
> the popular dishes of Italy. The same is true of India. Indian cuisine
> brings to mind thick, spicy tomato based currie sauces with a great deal
> of heat.


While that may be true in the US, it isn't true in India or Pakistan.
Tomatoes are used, but aren't the least bit integral.

In the USA, we are accustomed to regular introductions of
> exotic and not so exotic food items. We experiment with different
> ethnicities and fusions, though none have so dramaticall changed our
> eating habits


Tomatoes didn't dramatically change the eating habits of either India or
Italy. They don't appear in the majority of dishes in either place.

>Keeping in mind , of course, that our national diet is
> the result of a grand melting pot.. However, it would seem that the
> introduction of the tomato and pepper have made them staple ingredients
> in these two cultures.

Tomatoes aren't staple ingredients in either culture. Every time I've
been to Italy, I ate extremely well and with a huge amount of variety
without needing to have tomatoes except in salad.

Pepper was used in Italy and India long before the colonisation of North
and South America.

Is this also the case in Thai, Mongolian and
> other Asian cuisines who are soooo fond of the heat contributed by peppers?

Chiles don't play any role in Mongolian cooking, as far as I can find
out.
While used in some Asian cuisines, there are just as many dishes without
chiles in them. Heat previously would have been supplied by pepper, and
still is.

It isn't all that long ago that so many Americans hadn't heard of
habaneros or cascabels or chipotles. So, in fact, chiles have been a
relatively recent introduction into 'white bread' American cooking. The
people in the Southwest of course have been eating many varieties of
chiles for centuries.


> Cookie Cutter wrote:
>
> > Dennis Montey wrote:
> >
> >> Have tomatoes always been available in India/Pakistan region or are
> >> they johnny-come-latelies which have been incorporated as has
> >> occurred in Italian cuisine? When and how were they introduced?
> >>
> > Why do you think tomatoes are new to Italy? Cortes arrived in Mexico
> > around 1519 where he found tomatoes and they are described in Italian
> > herbals just a few years later. If you mean that tomatoes were not in
> > Italy in the year 1000 A.D or weren't around in 500 B.C., then you are
> > quite right. Cortes and Columbus also brought peppers to the new
> > world and they made it ASAP to India/Pakistan, probably in the same
> > crate with a tomato plant.
> >
> > Cookie