When we think about Italy, it's 'USP', we visualise the colours of their flag: red, white and green. The red is the tomato, the white is the pasta and the green is the basil.
But the tomato is fairly new to Italy, arriving after the discovery of America, via Spain in the 16th century. Furthermore pasta was reserved for feast days, only becoming regularly available to the poor when the manufacturing process was mechanised in the late 19th century.