and lastly, came our third clue card, which shows a tomato, something universally associated with pizza, both as a sauce immediately on the base for the other layers to stick on, and as whole tomatoes on top as decoration.
The first person to mention tomatoes and pizza together was the writer Alexandre Dumas, in 1853, where he writes about what we today call street food, and he was in Naples at the time.
The earliest recipe for tomato sauce was published in 1694, and it was being added to pasta, as a tangy flavouring, to liven it up, by the late 1830s, so it seems very likely that someone thought it would also jazz up a flatbread...
This is a very intriguing set, which proves that the tomato is an oddity indeed. In fact the six plants used in this series have almost two thousand seven hundred brothers and sisters, some of which we much enjoy eating, and others of which could kill us. However, you have to be careful with them all, for even eating a potato "in the green" could be fatal, whereas once fully ripe, and cooked, they are completely harmless.
The family is called Solanaceae, and it is more commonly known as the Nightshades.
Despite the European imagery on this set, the family originated in South America, and spread widely, so much so that you can find one of them on every continent except Antarctica, and on a wide variety of climactic, altitudinal, and soil conditions. Not just that, but some crawl along the ground only inches high, and others grow up into trees, whilst some are even grown for their beautiful flowers, not their edible crops. Most curious of all is that they manufacture their own pesticide, to keep insects and predators at bay.
Our French version shows :
- La Belladone [deadly nightshade]
- La Pomme di Terre [potato]
- La Tomate [tomato]
- Le Dature Stramoine [jimson weed]
- Le Piment [pimentoes]
- Le Tabac de Virginie [Virginia tobacco]
The cards are also available in Italian, as "Solanee" in which case the cards, in the same order as above, are
- La Belladonna
- La Patata:
- Il Pomodoro
- Il Stramonio
- Il Capsico
- Il Tabacco di Virginia
and in German as "Nachtschatten-Gewäch" in which case the cards, in the same order as above, are
- Gemeine Tollkirsche
- Kartoffelpflanze
- Liebesapfel
- Gemeiner Stechapfel
- Spanischer Pfeffer
- Virginischer Tabak