San Marzano Tomatoes
By Michelle Fabio
If you want to impress someone (including yourself) with the best pasta sauce, San Marzano tomatoes are the way to go.
They are a type of plum tomato that grow in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius in the region of Campania, Italy and benefit from the rich, fertile volcanic soil. They are generally thinner and pointier than the Roma tomato, and have a stronger, less sweet, less acidic taste.
San Marzano tomatoes are so valued in Italy and Europe that they are the only Italian tomato granted D.O.P. status by the European Union as the “Pomodoro San Marzano dell’Agro Sarnese-Nocerino,” describing the area from which true San Marzano tomatoes come. This notation means that a product has peculiar characteristics because it has been grown in a particular geographic region using specific methods.
As legend goes, the first San Marzano seeds were gifts from the Kingdom of Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in 1770 and they were planted in the area that is now the town of San Marzano. They’ve been working their way into Italian common knowledge as the best pasta sauce tomato ever since.
San Marzano seeds are sold (they are classified as indeterminate), so you are free to try to recreate the magic at home. But be forewarned: volcanic soil not included.
