The tomato is a pretty universal plant and was found all over the globe, right?

Wrong. It originated in South America and the Spaniards distributed the plant first in the Caribbean and then later to Europe and Asia.

So Spaghetti with tomato sauce are not an old Italian dish, but a pretty recent invention. The French started pretty late with tomatoes in the 18th century - than it was considered a delicacy.

More? Tomato @ Wikipedia