A Quiet Week

In my quiet garden.

A Lunch at Ikea

We are fond of the meatball plate and of the smoked salmon plate.
My inner 4-year-old selected the rainbow cake which was ok.

There is always a Mona Lisa reproduction in the decorator department.

We didn’t buy much…A Godis is a drinking glass. We needed some new ones — they are always breaking.
The lingonberry preserves served with the meatballs are great — now I have some at home.

Aftonsparv is a teddy bear in an astronaut costume. I thought they were cute.
I love stuffed animals and keep promising myself NOT TO BUY THEM. (I didn’t)
But I’m sharing this with Eileen’s Critters.

Italian Food: Reading about Tomatoes

Pomodoro! A History of the Tomato in Italy by David Gentilcore isn’t as good as some of the food history books in the same series, which is titled “Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History.” In my opinion, this author had a few problems with focusing on the topic — besides tomatoes in Italy, he covers tomato history elsewhere, the development of tomato consumption by Italian immigrants in the US and South America, the history of pasta (especially with tomato sauce), and other generally related topics. 

These heirloom tomatoes at my local produce market resemble the tomatoes that were grown in Italy several
hundred years ago. At that time, the tomato was always formed in deep folds like these.

In reading this book, I learned a lot, especially about the early history from the time tomatoes began to be introduced from the New World to Europe. My previous impression was that tomatoes were generally rejected as food until at least the late 19th century, but the author shows evidence that they were actually introduced much more slowly and much earlier. Specific details about many things are interesting, such as the history of pizza, the history of canned tomatoes, and the history of imports and exports of tomatoes and tomato products and their adoption in many places. My favorite quote: 

“The sight of GIs opening cans of tomato spaghetti must have been a strange one to southern Italian peasants as the Allied forces made their way up the peninsula in the latter stages of World War II.” (p. 172)

On the whole, the author seems to try to include too much, and I would have liked a bit more discipline in the range of topics!

Tomatoes in Art

I enjoyed the selection of various art works that were evidence of the development of eating tomatoes, especially in Italy. Here are some of the most intriguing ones:

Carlo Magini (1720-1806), “Still Life,” showing tomatoes and eggplants. In the early years, these two 
foods were seen as closely related, as they are members of the same botanical family.

“The Angels’ Kitchen”

The Angels' Kitchen (1646) by Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo interested me very much. It’s hard to see, but the little angels on the right have a basket of tomatoes. In Spain, tomatoes began to be eaten quite early in history. Sicily, which at the time was ruled by Spain, followed their example, so this is an early suggestion that tomatoes were beginning to be eaten in Italy. (The painting is currently in the Louvre, though I don’t remember ever noticing it among the 7,500 paintings usually on display there.)

Above: Two lithographs showing ordinary people eating macaroni, not necessarily with tomatoes. Artist: Gaetano Dura (1805-1878), who lived in Naples and illustrated the lives of the people there.A fascinating look at the food and the kitchens of ordinary people around 200 years ago.

A vintage Italian advertisement for tomato paste, wine, and pasta.

Still Watching the Beautiful Olympic Games!

Windsurfing!

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Deb’s Sunday Salon.