tomatl

The Aztecs called it tomatl, meaning "the swelling fruit." When Spanish conquistadors brought the plant back to Europe in the 16th century, they carried the name too. Spanish made it tomate; Italian, pomodoro ("golden apple"); and eventually English settled on tomato.

Europeans regarded the tomato with deep suspicion for two centuries. It belonged to the nightshade family, alongside deadly poisonous plants. Its leaves and stems are indeed toxic. Wealthy Europeans who ate tomatoes from pewter plates (high in lead) sometimes died—not from the tomato, but from lead leached by the acidic fruit. The tomato got the blame.

The turning point came in Italy. Poor Neapolitans, unable to afford meat, began combining tomatoes with pasta in the late 18th century. The combination was revolutionary. By the 19th century, pizza and pasta with tomato sauce had transformed Italian cuisine—and the tomato's reputation.

Today the tomato is the world's most consumed fruit (yes, fruit). Italy, which initially feared it, now can't imagine cooking without it. The "poison apple" conquered the cuisine of the nation that was most terrified of it.