It’s time for another Maniac Monday.
Scott is back to help us understand that tomato term known as paste tomato. Or what I like to call a cooking tomato.
But before we bring Scott out I want to say. I realize I have been a bit lax about posting this past week. I have been traveling. I had every good intention of keeping to my “new post a day” regime. But well, travel is stressful and I got busy. Besides today is a Holiday anyway. It’s amazing I even found my way to the computer.
But do not worry. I will be back home soon and right back into my self imposed blogging schedule. You’ll get more Sup than you know what to do with! I promise…(maybe)! GREG
So what IS a paste tomato anyway?
It’s the meaty one.
It’s the kind that’s easiest to process.
It’s that Italian one.
OK, maybe one of the above. Or all of the above. But really, what’s a paste tomato?
To qualify as a member of this elite group a tomato should be meaty, yes. More mass, less seed, cavity and liquid. They should be easy to process for canning or to add to the pot on the stove. (You’ll often collect lots of them at the same time and it can be quite a lot of work.) And yes, the San Marzano tomato, Italy’s unofficial ambassador of good taste, is quite the standard bearer.
So what group of tomatoes meet the above criteria?
Roma-types are the usual suspects. San Marzano and friends such as Viva Italia, La Roma, Martino’s Roma and Health Kick. This is the style favored by many cooks and commercial interests, and for good reason. They work well in this scene.
However, look back at those qualifications at the top. Isn’t there something missing? What about the TASTE quotient? Shouldn’t a paste tomato TASTE GOOD? Yes, I’ve heard many tomatomaniacs wax poetic about that perfect San Marzano tomato they tasted in Italy. It was so sweet and so meaty and so… Come on. Isn’t everything better in Italy? And there was that glass of wine or two right?
OK, maybe that’s not a complete fabrication but with most roma types (even if you pick them when they’re truly ripe and getting a bit soft) they will be at best a four or five on a taste scale of ten. The spices, dressings and seasonings you add to the pot or your sauce or salad make up the difference. But why start with a less-than-impressive tasting tomato for that sauce you’re going to feature in a special dinner? Is there an alternative?
Well, yes. Oxhearts or the larger paste varieties will knock your socks off with great tomato taste. Amish Paste, Long Tom, Polish Linguisa, Speckled Roman, Opalka. Some are long or oddly shaped, some look like peppers and have a pointy end. All these offer full-bodied tomato taste, with less seed and less liquid added to the package. Oxhearts in particular are so meaty their weight in hand will surprise you every time. The hitch? These plants are not nearly as productive as your average roma so you may not have them when you need them.
So if you insist on being a tomato purist there are trade-offs. If you want lots and lots of fruit for canning? Plant romas. They tend to be determinate varieties so they’ll provide more ripe fruit at the same time and are ok on the counter for a while if you need to wait to gather enough. Want the best possible tasting sauce? Use the larger paste varieties. Or split the difference of course and mix them together for best results.
Or, break some rules people! Here’s the bottom line. Any tomato in your garden can perform well in a sauce or a paste. Black Krim? Of course. Yellow Brandywine? Perfect. This season while teaching a class in LA I had one gardener tell the group that the best sauce she ever made was with sweet roasted cherry tomatoes. I mean come on, if you’re constantly using them how often will you ever have exactly enough paste tomatoes anyway? You might have to work a bit harder to remove skin or seeds from some varieties if that’s important to you, or you may have to simmer a bit longer to get the consistentency you’re after but you can definitely make it work. And you might even make it a different color! It’ll work perfectly.
So the moral of the story is that while we have some obvious pathways to getting what we want in the garden and then in the kitchen, all the rules don’t apply all the time. You’re growing wonderful tasty food in your own garden. When it’s ripe and ready use it in every way possible!
Enjoy.
Scott Daigre
I like surprises in a salad, but salt with fruit has always made perfect sense to me. Great first tomato recipe, so pleasing to the eyes.
I’ve got interesting tomatoes! I’m going to check out the green city market for more but have to hit up the NRA show this weekend, chill with Boulud, etc. I’ll bookmark this for a good back pocket summer dish.
I have had it in my mind to do something sweet with them, myself; for this upcoming, what is sure to be a blazing, summer, I was thinking of a tomato sorbet/sherbet. But how simple and lovely your salad. How refreshing. I can see this as a side dish for me, with my usual fare.
I love cherry/grape/sweet 100 etc. — ALL OF ‘EM! tomatoes. I have already started in on them even though they are not anywhere near their peak. I eat these through October, when they have long lost their lustre, but not their lure! I adore tomatoes, did I mention that? 😉
What a beautiful salad, I love the combination of sweet and savory. Salt is a great addition to just about everything!
That looks wonderful. Simple and easy to make.
Beautiful salad! I eat tons of tomato salads during tomato season, but for some reason have never thought to add fruits into it (I’m usually a S&P with olive oil kind of girl… occasionally the salad becomes a caprese or a panzenella)
Once again, thanks for sharing all of these TomatoMania recipes 🙂
Greg! It looks LOVELY!!!!!!! Thank you for making it, I’m glad the Mint Overlords worked in my favour 🙂 I have a lovely mint tea in my site that may help you use some left over mint supply, as well as minty cous-cous and minty harira. I LOVE mint, I look forward to reading you this week!
It looks so refreshing! Did you serve it as a starter? It seems like a great finish, too.
end of the meal. GREG
I was planning on making a salad so this is perfect inspiration for that. What a nice recipe!
You did a great job choosing which winning TomatoMania recipe to start with! I love how you took the time to describe how a pinch of salt in this recipe draws out the sweetness of tomatoes, which is, I’m assuming, an element that helps them pair well with the fresh springtime fruits. It’s the sort of detail I can see myself overlooking when putting together a salad like this. It’s a gorgeous looking salad, by the way, and I’m excited to see what comes next! Well done!