Most people know that tomatoes came to Italy after the contact with the Americas. But there is a another story …
Elizabeth David
Italian Food
It was only in the late Middle Ages that pasta began to be eaten with tomatoes, the cultivation of which dated from the time when one Fra Serenio brought the precious seeds on his return from China.
She lets this stand and although she has made ample use of Marinetti in the previous paragraph she doesn’t acknowledge him here as the source of her fabulation. She does not demur. She seems to steam on her own authority.
Marinetti tells a tall tale…
Marinetti
The Futurist Cookbook
Translated by Suzanne Brill
It was only in the high Middle Ages (Cordazio Camaldolese: The Main Dishes in Use in our Lands and Regions and Islands and Peninsulas and so on With their Manner of Preparation in the Kitchen Explained) that gherkins were replaced by tomatoes, the cultivation of which was already quite extensive, dating from when Brother Serenio, on his return from China, brought that most precious seed — and not the seed of the silkworm, as is commonly believed (cf. in this regard the definitive work of historical exegesis written by Valbo Scaravacio and entitled ‘Truth and Nonsense’, published by Pirocchi […])
And so for day 3085
23.05.2015