Explanation: For almost 200 years, it was commonly believed that the tomato (a plant from the Americas) was poisonous, because it is a member of the Nightshade family. For that reason, it was grown in Italy primarily as an ornamental plant until the late 17th century.
So there's a chance some starving Italians, who had nothing left to eat, decided to go for their sun dried ornamental tomatoes, putting olive oil and some herbs on them to try and save themselves from horrible flavour and....well it all makes sense now.