In article >, ASmith1946
> wrote:

> >>
> >>>Tomatoes are ubiquitous in Italy. Between the myriad variants of
> >>>tomato sauces and the settings where tomatoes served fresh, are
> >>>pickled, dried and/or salted, they're virtually omnipresent.
> >>
> >>
> >> Sorry, this is just plain wrong. They aren't. I spend a fair amount of
> >> each year in Italy (my wife is Italian). I agree with Arri London on
> >> this. Also, he didn't say he doesn't like tomatoes. Indeed he said he
> >> had them in salads.
> >>
> >
>
> I agree with Cookie.

Perhaps the reason I reacted so fiercely is because it seemed to
continue a popular fallacy. Of course tomatoes are popular in Italy,
and very common in parts of Italy. There's a big difference between
that and saying that they're "virtually omnipresent" in Italy.

> First, my own experience in southern Italy in the summer
> agrees with Cookie's observation that Italians eat plenty of tomatoes in
> various forms.
> Second, Italy is one of the top tomato producers in the world.
> While many tomatoes are exported to other countries, the vast majority remain
> in Italy for domestic use. I tend to think they eat them. Third, if you look
> at
> any southern Italian (or Sicilian) cookbooks, you will find dozens of uses of
> tomatoes in numerous dishes from soups, to sauces, to salads, to pizza, to
> juice, etc. (and recipes with tomatoes have been in southern Italian cookbooks
> since the late 17th century).

Big qualifications here. "Southern Italy" is not "Italy". And summer
isn't all year round. If you go to Bavaria around now, everyone will be
eating asparagus. (this may be true all over Germany - I don't know).

As I said in my earler post, tomatoes are common in southern Italian
cooking - from Campania down. But there's a wild fallacy that southern
Italians put it in everything. This just ain't true. I've spent a lot
of time working with the food in Basilicata, traditionally a poor area,
with a wonderful simple cuisine. But have a look at this site on the
food of this area - right down in the south

http://www.bancadati.it/basilicata/b-ricette.html

You'll find tomatoes in a number of the recipes, but it's far from
ubiquitous - probably less common than parsley or chillies. and
remember, in southern Italian cooking the tomato is often used just
like parsley, in quite small quantities.

And the fact that it's popular in some parts of the south can't be made
to apply to the whole country. I spend a lot of time in Tuscany, and
there you'd hardly notice tomatoes. ..

Goose fat is very common in the South-West of France (and I'd imagine
that France is the leading producer and consumer of the stuff), but
that doesnt' make it "virtually omnipresent" in French cuisine.
Lettuce is eaten at virtually every meal in France - a far higher
proportion of meals than tomatoes are eaten with in Italy - but again,
that doesn't really make it a staple of French cuisine.

So. Tomatoes are common in the cooking of the south of Italy yes, but
"virtually omnipresent", no.

Lazarus

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