In some towns of inner Sicily, tomato is also called “puma d’amùri” which exactly means in French “pomme d’amour”; actually we don’t know why they're called like this since that were imported by Mexico with a native name. The legend tells that, after its arrival in Europe, an English Sir, Walter Raleigh, gave this small plant full of fruits to Queen Elizabeth, calling it “apple of love”: according to this legend the origin of its name is not French but English.
About its importance, I would like to remind that in all the official texts (encyclopaedias included) it’s told that tomatoes came to Europe in 1540, the year when Cortez came back to Europe bringing some tomatoes; but, they were not cultivated and spread out till the second half of the 17th century.
But unexpectedly, in the book of friar Francesco Gaudentio (Panuto Toscano) written in 1705, we found a recipe, the first absolute. And here it is integrally:
<< Way to cook apples of gold: these fruits are similar to apples, they’re cultivated in gardens and cooked like this: take these apples, cut them in pieces, put them in frying pan with oil, pepper, salt, minced garlic and country mint. Fry them turning upside down continuously. If you want, add some tender “molignane” and long cucumbers>>.
The first sauce was made, but it actually spread only 150 years later (1853).
Here we have the recipes in which tomato is the protagonist; it’s just useless to remind you all those countless recipes in which it represents an ingredient.
