Italian Cuisine Truisms

This is partially true: It depends where in Italy you are. Tomatoes are much more popular in the South than the North, and most of the red-sauce dishes, from marinara sauce (called pomarola, from the Neapolitan pummarola in Italy, where the word marinara is generally associated with fish) for pasta or pizza, through scaloppine alla pizzaiola and on to stuffed or dried tomatoes are southern. Further North one does find tomatoes, for example in Tuscany's pappa al pomodoro, and in salads or stuffed, but they're not as common as an ingredient, and when present almost never predominate.

Much more about Tomatoes.