Hee hee! I'm going from none to maybe one!

I have seeds for Costulato Genevese, but was put off growing them because someone said that the wrinkly-ness made them difficult to peel.

I am looking for something dry, but tasty for dehydrating !

Linda

I don't know what is the definition of "paste tomato". In other words , what is the percentage of solids to water ratio to qualify a tomato as "paste" tomato?

I have never made "PASTE" (It is cheaper to buy) nor I have canned whole tomato, but mostly I make sauce to spaghetti sauce consistency. In order to cut down simmering time this is how I do it.

-- Before starting to heat, I get a potato masher and pressed them in the pot.
-- Get most of the juice out ( to drink plain or in cocktail, or for soups).
-- Then process the remainder and simmer until I get the desired consistency.
-- Then jar it BWB method.

For this reason and because I am not a big time Canner, I never really care for special tomatoes for the purpose of canning or making pate.

But I like to know : "what is a paste tomato?"

Paste tomato =

Meaty (w/few seeds) & dry (less juice)
-usually has a strong "tomato" flavor

Do you really like the tomatoes better for drying that are peeled, and have you tried blanching them? I would love to try to dry some Zapotec Pleated tomatoes (and for paste, too).

PC

So far for next year in plans
Khirkiv- old Ukrainian heirloom,firm but moderately juicy
VB Russia-pink plums, most impressive trusses

&&&&&&

I know those two very well..''The spelling I was given by A Lefkowitz was Khirhiv and he also sent me the variety Kiev, both are listed by Tania.

But I don't consider either of them to be paste varieties.

VB Russia I got from Reinhard Kraft in Germany in I think around 1996 or so and Tania lists that one as well. Huge numbers of fruits on those plants, small pink plums, and yes, one could use them as paste tomatoes./

As with many others I'm not s dedicated paste tomato person although I've grown many and have listed here before which ones I do like, so I'd make sauce with ones that had great taste, which is not true of most pasters.

So that meant using ANY hearts and meaty beefsteak ones, which had dense flesh with few seeds.

Actually one can use any great tasting varieties and just cook the stuff down to the desired consistency.

Carolyn

Seysonn, I just gave the definition of a paste tomato in my above post that I think most folks would agree with and Isee that PC agrees with me as well. I've never seen anyone anywhere produce data to indicatre the % water to solids. One can pretty much do that just by sight and flesh consistency

Dense, somewhat dry flesh with few seeds.

But note what else I said in my above post abut not using just paste tomatoes for sauce b/c of taste, etc.

I don't where the thread is, here or wherever, but someone was talking ab9ut Amish Paste and Ipointed out that most folks don't consider it to be a paste b'c it's far toojiucy with too many seeds.

In dayspast some varieties that have paste as part of the nem were named so just b'c of fruit shape.

Another one is Lillian's Red Kansas Paste, which isn't a past either.

PC, Zapotec Pleated is often hollow as grown by many and it wouldn't be on my list to use as a paste variety.

Carolyn

My favorite is Opalka. I get good results from it almost every year. Being a small gardener, I usually don't get enough to make a whole pot of sauce with just Opalka, so as Carolyn suggests, I mix it with other good tasting toms and boil it doen.
John A

A friend of mine LOVES Opalka, I am a fan of San Marzano Redorta.

The potato masher method is a nice idea. I'll have to try that sometime. I do like a thicker sauce and hate the energy used to cook it down so long. Plus having some extra juice to just drink is a bonus!

"PC, Zapotec Pleated is often hollow as grown by many and it wouldn't be on my list to use as a paste variety."

Thanks for weighing in on that. It is actually the hollowness that is most interesting to me. I have this irrational thought that such hollowness in tomatoes might possibly result in very flavorful flesh ("meat"), which is why I would like to try it for dehydration, which is really what I'm after, which I would use not so much for snacking but more to create flavor stock for cooking, like with different hot peppers in dishes like a favorite of mine, Asado de Puerco, or like dehydrated shrimp in Siete Mares.

I'm not quite sure if this would be considered a paste use or not to be honest, but it is what I have in mind. It is basically a rehydration of the desiccated flavor where they are used as a spice with a very heavy hand.

About my comment on paste, sadly I don't have the luxury to prepare much paste ... Don't have tomatoes to spare in my limited growing space (and I am trying to go more vertical to change this but that it is a PITB in containers here).

Your comment on not being a paste tomato is well taken for the traditional simmering to make Mama Leone's sort of delicious cuisine ;-)

PC

I grew one plant of Romeo Roma this year. The fruit were large, over 1/2 pound each, with no liquid and few seeds. One fruit was enough for a fresh tomato sauce for two. The fruits look just like San Marzano Redorta that I saw at a farmers market. I wonder how similar the two varieties aere, as I see SMR seeds for sale, but not RR. I saved some RR seeds for next year.

I also grew one San Marzano. There were many more fruits but much smaller, so i guess the overall yield was the same as RR. Next year it will be RR as less kitchen work is a useful goal.

I also picked up some seeds called San Marzano 2. Anyone tried it?

This year I've grown Petrovich from Tania which was very large semi hollow plum with thick gel. Loved it for cooking and dehydrating. Bulk of my tomatoes for next year still will be hearts and beefs but am thinking trying few others will give me chance to eval and compare.

This year I grew Prue, which is a red plum, and I think could be considered a paste tomato. It turned out to be one of the best tasting tomatoes I've ever grown. This tomato is ideally suited for sauce, salsa, or eating fresh. I think it will become a mainstay in my garden, based on taste alone.

Costoluto Genovese is pretty good for a sauce tomato. Heavy production with relatively dense and meaty texture makes for excellent cooked down sauces. I've grown many of the suggested varieties above and found that Opalka is too juicy though it has excellent flavor. Prue is outstanding. Heidi would be my first choice for a canning/saucing multipurpose tomato. San Marzano is not bad for a general use paste/sauce tomato.

Here in z5, I've been growing San Marzano for the past 20 years, saving the seed, and it is a very large fruit, abundant producer, and has great flavor. It is my "paste of choice".

Steve

Yeah, talk about differences. Here SM fizzled out after few years of growing, just not making it for me. Some years when it is hot and dry summer we do ok, get us back to typical rain, cool, windy June with some sunshine, oops SM is done.
Overall I am more and more sure that having varieties that do well with setting fruit in cool weather, high adaptability and do well in short seasons is way to go for me.
I like Prue a lot but this year was not good for Prue, so not good that I likely not grow it ever again. Orange strawberry was great find this year though.
I think of paste tomato more in terms èIf I cut it and juice is running down my fingers, it goes into juice making bucket, if there little to no juice, going to sauce-dehydrating pileè