‘Tis the season when the overwhelming but quite satisfying variety of tomatoes is at its greatest. A most scientific study (i.e. a walk among mercato vegetable stalls, mental count) revealed 19 different types this week at the Testaccio market in Rome, roughly divided into four categories: those for sauce, for salads, the green types, and the cluster type.
Some of the types at the market this week? San Marzano, cigliegino, Siciliane, pachino, verdi, Tondino, da riso, vesuviane, cuore di bue o Albenga, Marmande, Castelfiorentino, invernali, Canestrino, Costoluto, Sorrento, and Belmonte.
A request at any one of the better stocked stalls will result in a 15 minute long disquisition on the relative merits of the various types available, superiority of the local variety as the highest expression of tomato-ness possible, appropriate recipes for each respectively, inquiries as to your culinary (but not only) intentions and desires, etc., with the other market goers chiming in with comments, recipes, and counter-arguments of their own.
One wonders what people possibly ate before it was introduced here in 1596.
– Contributed by GB (see bio), Editor, Italian Notebook.
Dear GB, I loved this post and hope you will do a follow up that categorizes the best tomatoes for various uses. You might be interested in a U.S. National Public Radio review of a new book about American tomatoes (http://www.npr.org/2011/07/09/137623954/the-troubled-history-of-the-supermarket-tomato). We are so lucky in Italy to have such a variety of these red jewels.
You certainly have a fabulous choice .. much more than the UK .
Lovely article! We are growing several varieties in our vegetable garden, (many are actually american heirloom, but also these come from all over the place). Differences between them are huge, but it is impossible to say which is really the best! It does depend … very Italian, very true!
Bella pomodoro! San Marzano is my preference when making sauce…but so much to choose from! Enjoyed the article and the pictures.
Your photo deserves framing and evoked memories of the summer mercato throughout Italy!!!! Grazie!!!
Love the displays of tomatoes in the Italian markets! Ever since I first ate a tomato in Italy our American ones seem flat and without flavor. I love serving Caprese salad to my guests here with tomatoes and basil from my garden and my homemade mozzarella. Full of fresh flavor!
GB,
Tomatoes in the U.S.: like cardboard…tomatoes from Italy: like candy!!!!!!! toni
GB,
I love your Italian Notebook entries the best! I can always find your style amongst all the other contributers.
Once again GB I will say, just let me know when you want to write a cookbook. It would be the best ever! By the way, what are the really red, creased tomatoes that show up a little earlier in the season, May/June, in Rome called? Do you know which I mean?
Is it possible to have these reports in Italian?
Thanks.
I can taste those tomatoes, sprinkled with olive oil and a little salt.great article and pictures.
Oh to be there now. I cannot wait for ours to come into season. I do not buy tomatoes here all winter. They taste like cardboard. I do what the Italians do…use vegetables thaqt are in season.
Oh, how I long for a tasty tomato of ANY variety. Our California monsters look beautiful but have horrible texture and no taste. They are “engineered” for mechanical picking, harvested unripe, and, consequently always disappointing! Usually I’m in Italy either in early spring or late fall, so tend to miss out on the beautiful pomodori. My daddy grew our tomatoes during WWII and I remember the wonderful smell of the fresh-plucked little fruit on the (rare!) hot summer days. Viva Italia!
Living in Lucca in Tuscany has been a garden treat, but the Canestrini fluted and tri color tomatoes have been the most wonderful treat. They are lower in acid, and succulent beyond belief. We make whole meals of sliced tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil and basil in the hot summer months. We have many of the varieties that I see in the markets, in California, but the Canestrini fluted ones. I am looking for a source for seeds right now.
It is certainly one of the joys of living in Italy to have this wonderful choice of delicious tomatoes; my local vegetable plant supplier for growing your own told me they stocked 24 different varieties! To the person from Lucca I suggest that they just save one tomato for its seed. Tomatoes are very reliable germinators!
Enjoyed your piece, GB…and perfect timing: due to this incredible heat, who can eat anything but juicy tomatoes!? (well, maybe with cucumbers, purple onion added in…feels even too hot for a caprese!)….
“Warmest” (ha!) saluti from Assisi, just minutes away from record-breaking Perugia: hottest city in Italy yesterday.and today too, it seems (but the fans are still rocking out at Umbria Jazz!)
Loved the article. Maybe you could thrown in a followup article on summer recipes for all those gorgeous tomatoes?
I have grown several varieties of Italian tomatoes right here in North Central Georgia, USA. Some have grown well, others not so good. Of course the soil is most important and the San Marzano region simply can not be duplicated here or anywhere else outside of the San Marzano region, to produce those incomparable tomatoes. Talk about Heat!!!! We have had almost 40 days of 92 to 99 degrees and the poor tomatoes and other veggies are suffering as well as we humans.
My tomatoes are taking their time in ripening, at 639 meters, that may be a good thing. But 1596? I thought no one ate tomatoes before 1820? You will notice in truly old (pre-1800s) presepio figures, there is NO tomato sauce on the terra-cotta painted pasta dishes. Would appreciate your source on tomatoes being introduced in 1596 (possibly as ornamental plants; they were considered poisonous, or aphrodisiac; compare deadly nightshade, of the same plant family).
Hey GB,
Just stumbled onto this post though I realize its a little late. When I saw the subject Tomato Choices I figured it would be about Carmelo, the pomodoro man, in the Testaccio Market. He has about 45 varieties during peak season at the end of summer- kind of amazing! I recently wrote a piece about his amazing selection http://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com/2011/09/09/in-the-presence-of-a-true-tomato-poet/ Interestingly, he says that a lot of the tomatoes sold in Rome are incorrectly called San Marzano’s when they are actually a variety called Tomas? He said the indicator is if it has a small divit on the bottom then it is NOT a San Marzano. Just curious if you have heard anything similar about San Marzano being used kind of as a blanket name for all similar shaped tomatoes??
Great post btw.