The Murky Origins Of The Classic Pasta And Tomato Sauce Combo

There is no dish that brings Italy to mind like pasta and tomato sauce. While it's a classic pasta recipe that we'll never get tired of, it hasn't actually been around for too long. According to historians, Arabic and North African merchants likely brought dried pasta to Italy around the 8th or 9th century. But it was hundreds of years before the noodles were paired with the tangy sweetness of tomatoes. The fruit (yes, tomatoes are fruits) is native to the Americas and was brought to Europe in the 16th century after the Spanish started to colonize the continent. Rather than appreciate the new ingredient, Europeans were initially suspicious of tomatoes, deeming them too exotic and even poisonous. It wasn't until the 18th century that they became more common in Italian cooking.

But, when and how did tomato sauce finally find its rightful place as pasta's lifelong companion? The problem with food history is that records come about after an ingredient is already in use, so origins are often difficult to track down. Though no one really knows how pasta and tomato sauce first became a dynamic duo, we can make some pretty good estimates based on written evidence.

When it comes to tomato sauces, indigenous people in the Americas have been making variations of them for centuries. When Europeans finally came around to the deliciousness of the red fruit, they began using sauces to accompany different kinds of meats. Before modern refrigerators, drying meat was a common way to preserve it for longer, so sauces were necessary to rehydrate meat and make it tender. There are claims that the first spaghetti and tomato sauce recipe comes from 1844, but we have earlier records of this heavenly combination going back to the 1790 cookbook, "L'Apicio Moderno" by chef Francesco Leonardi. 

In 1837, the Neapolitan cookbook, "Cucina Teorico-Pratica" by Ippolito Cavalcanti mentions that there is little need to differentiate between common tomato varieties – such as dried or fresh — when describing a vermicelli and tomato dish, since, he claimed, everyone has their own recipe. We can safely assume from this that by the 19th century, tomato sauce and pasta had won the hearts of Italians, becoming a common household dish. When Italian immigrants came to the U.S. during the Industrial Revolution, they brought many of their beloved recipes with them. One such immigrant, named Ettore Bioardi (later known as Chef Boyardee) started selling his sauces in stores in the 1920s. Thus began the eternal debate on whether homemade or store-bought pasta sauce is best. What we can all agree on is that the love affair between tomatoes and pasta — spanning centuries and continents, and persevering in the face of prejudice — is one of the most epic culinary romances in the history of the world.