What crosses your mind when you think of tomatoes? Most of us will be reminded of those red and round fruit that taste sweet and sour. The San Marzano tomatoes will change your mind a little as they are not round. This plum tomato is one of the most popular tomatoes that come out Italy. But what makes them so different, beside the obvious shape of the fruit? Apparently, they also taste different. These tomatoes are grown in the area of Mount Vesuvius.
As like other volcanoes, this mount has been able to give the surrounding a rich volcanic soil. This rich soil gives the tomatoes the sweet flavor that other tomatoes do not possess. These tomatoes taste sweeter because they are low in acid. Their skins are also easier to remove compared to the other types of tomatoes. Their firm plums and deep red color made them so easy to distinguish at first glance. But if you cut the tomatoes in half, you will find that unlike those round tomatoes, the San Marzano tomatoes have only two seed pockets or locules.
The San Marzano tomatoes are usually harvested during certain months of August through September. These crops are very delicate and that is why all the tomatoes must be handpicked at the precise period of their highest ripeness. This is one of the main reasons why cooks love to make tomato sauce from the San Marzano tomatoes. The tomatoes seem to have the ability to increase the taste of the dishes being served and make the chef a better chef.
How can the San Marzano tomatoes be in the same quality all these times? They are grown with very strict and very specific regulation. One of the regulations is known as the DOP or Denomizatione d’Origine Protetta. This regulation will be written in the jar or the canned tomatoes. These regulations made the San Marzeno tomatoes one of these ingredients that are highly venerated.
They will be at te same level as the parmigiano reggiano cheese, the aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modinea and the Prosciutto di Parma. One bad news for those San Marzeno lovers is that the tomates cannot be so easily found in several cities such as Houston. There are some copycats of the San Marzano tomatoes but the taste is so far different. The San Marzano’s have an exclusive can, and this can be the distinctive difference to search for.
