Attack of the killer tomato sauce

So, can you guess the number one relationship clash that constantly rears it's ugly head between me and M?  Finances?  Children?  Marriage?  Future hopes and dreams?  Nope.  It's tomato sauce.  Both of us are completely appalled and offended by the other's use of all types of tomato-based products, including ketchup, salsa, spaghetti sauce, and pizza sauce.

It all started when I first got here and watched M sit down to a big plate of plain spaghetti noodles, squirt ketchup all over them, and start chowing down.  I was horrified...it looked absolutely disgusting.  He informed me calmly that "Ketchup was invented to put on pasta."  Oh really??  Swedes are indoctrinated into this gruesome practice in early childhood, making it seem normal and delicious.  Kids here go nuts for pasta with ketchup.  Barf.

A few months later I decided to make a nice spaghetti sauce from scratch, with fresh basil and oregano, wild mushrooms, ground moose meat, and I let it simmer for a good couple of hours.  What does M do?  Heaps a pile of pasta onto his plate, spoons a pile of spaghetti sauce next to the pasta to eat separately, and squirts ketchup all over the pasta.  *facepalm*

 Next it was my turn to offend M.  He made me a traditional and well-loved Swedish dish with the provocative name "Jansson's Temptation"...layers of sliced potatoes, onions, and anchovies baked in cream with bread crumbs on top.  Think a fancy, thicker version of scalloped potatoes.  It was good, but I thought it was a little bland, so I squirted some ketchup on the side and started dipping my potatoes into it.  M looked at me like I had just kicked his dog in the face.  He told me I was ruining the food and he never wanted to make it for me again.  The same thing happened when he made burgers from wild boar meat.  Burgers = ketchup, right?  WRONG.  Apparently burgers made from wild game are not to be "ruined" with ketchup, even though I thought it tasted great.

 We had some guests over for dinner recently and I made a cold Greek quinoa salad with sundried tomatoes, feta, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, lemon juice, and red onions.  While I was making it, M started concocting a crushed-tomato based sauce on the stove that included chunks of moose meat and slabs of extra-fatty bacon.  When I asked what it was, he said it was "to your salad."  ?!?!?  I tried to calmly explain that I didn't think the flavors would work well together, but of course when dinner rolled around he smothered his portion of my fresh, cold salad with his greasy invention and claimed it to be delicious.

Don't even get me started on salsa usage in this household...when I put it on my scrambled eggs he looks like he's about to vomit, and I just turn the other way when he mixes it in with his pizza sauce.  As with all relationship compromises I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one and let the other person get on with their repulsive tomato sauce habits.