Pizza sauce isn't Italian, croissants aren't French and vindaloo was not invented in India - the origin of many national dishes might surprise you

A new book by a food historian has revealed that the countries of origin of many famous national dishes are not the ones you may think. 

In a new book called La Cucina Italiana Non Esiste - which translates as Italian Cuisine Does Not Exist - food historian Alberto Grandi claims that Italians discovered tomato sauce in the Americas. 

Mr Grandi says they did so when they emigrated to the region where tomatoes are native in the 19th century.

Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Mr Grandi said: 'Pizza became red in America'. 

'Before that it was plain focaccia, sometimes adorned with pieces of tomato.'

Indeed, Grandi, a business history and European history teacher at Parma University, has made a career around busting myths regarding some of Italy's most celebrated culinary foodstuffs.

While he has never questioned the quality of Italian food produce, he added: 'We confuse identity with the roots, which we are crossbreeding'. 

Tomatoes are one such example of this - as they were not initially popular in Europe because they resembled their deadly cousin the nightshade, and because of an early example of fake news.

This was courtesy of rumours circulating that some upper-class Europeans died after eating them when, in fact, it was as a result of lead poisoning from their pewter dinnerware. 

Grandi suggests that pizza with a tomato base was actually popularised in the US after Italians who emigrated to the States in the 19th century. 

The food historian expert added that, by the Second World War, there were more pizzerias in America than Italy.

The story of foods erroneously being adopted by nations they were not originally from is not just limited to Italy, however. 

In what may come as a shock to many pastry lovers, croissants are not French. 

They were actually invented in the Austrian capital of Vienna, Austria, where some say they were presented to Duke Leopold in 1227 as a Christmas treat. 

Others claimed that the pastries mimicking the moon on the Turkish flag were prepared to celebrate the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the 1600s. 

Parisians are said to have adapted the recipe after the first Viennese bakery closed in 1838. 

Perhaps the most famous story regarding the origin of the croissant is that Queen Marie Antoinette - who was born in Vienna - missed the Austrian pastry so much that she asked French bakers to make them for her.

A further example of mistaken food origins would be individuals associating tempura with Japan or vindaloo with India, as both of these dishes have Portuguese origins. 

Catholic missionaries brought the method of deep frying to Japan in the 16th century, while vindaloo is derived from the Portuguese 'vinha de alhos', which references the dish's two main ingredients, wine and garlic. 

Vindaloo was created because wine and garlic aided Portuguese sailors in preserving fresh ingredients. 

They chose to transform it after reaching Goa by using local spices and chillies, helping it become one of the most popular and fiery curries in the world. 

Not even Portugal can escape culpability when it comes to claiming a foodstuff as its own that is actually from elsewhere.

Its notorious piri piri seasoning, which has itself become popular in the UK due to its use by Nando's, was discovered in the Americas in the 15th century during Portugal's mercantile era and brought back to the colonies in Africa. 

It did not even reach Portugal until relatively recently, only arriving in the country during the late 1960s.