What Type of Italian Tomatoes Should You Use?

Not all Italian food revolves around tomatoes. It just seems like much of it. Tomatoes have made their mark on Italian cuisine. It has become a very important ingredient in pasta, sauces, and in salads. There are a lot of tomato dishes which make a fairly common appearance in the Italian diet.

There are recipes for tomatoes stuffed with eggplants, or with meat. There are also recipes for cherry tomatoes, not just in salads, but also in pasta dishes and sauces, either whole or chopped. Whole tomatoes are also used in a variety of dishes from meat, pork, poultry and fish. Soups and sauces use tomatoes in its many forms.

Minestrone soup is a basic soup with a variety of vegetables and offal. There is no set recipe, and it can be made with meat or chicken. The base is a bean soup, and all other vegetables are optional. A bit of pasta or rice is also optional. It is a hearty meal in itself, and it is a stock recipe in every Italian kitchen. That is, every Italian mamma has her own minestrone recipe.

To get the most of Italian tomatoes, also called roma tomato, there are several ways of canning
tomatoes:

Whole tomatoes – Tomatoes are cooked, and canned in whole. The tomato is peeled after cooking and then canned immediately.

Tomato filets – tomato filets are tomato slices, without the seeds and the skin.

Tomato chunks – these are large cut tomatoes, crushed unevenly. The can contains most of the tomato sauce and pulp of the tomato
 
Tomato sauce – The tomato is crushed and processed to a fine but thick consistency. Tomato
sauce does not have any lumps, and is good to use for pasta and soups.
Tomato paste – This is tomato processed to a fine consistency and then cooked till is a very
thick consistency. San Marzano is an Italian tomato variety considered to be the best plum
tomato varieties for making tomato paste.

Italian tomatoes are the most common seed variety for home gardens, as well as for home canning. These also known as Italian plum tomatoes and are slightly elongated, egg-shaped varieties with few seeds and are good for canning. Other tomatoes commonly used for Italian food include cherry tomatoes, and Italian heirloom tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are used for salads and for pasta with olive oil type of dishes. The Italian heirloom tomatoes can be used as fresh tomato garnish or for stuffed tomatoes.

Tomatoes are a big part of Italian food, and if possible, Italians use fresh tomatoes. An exception is made for the San Marzano tomato, as this is produced only in the San Marzano region of Italy. In most instances, the only way to get San Marzano is in a can. When using canned whole San Marzano tomatoes, it is recommended to use the canning liquid separately. This can be used for soups or other recipes. The whole peeled San Marzano tomato retains its distinct flavor and used whole in a variety of recipes. Fresh San Marzano tomato is hard to find, but when available is well worth the price.