A plum tomato, also known as a processing tomato or paste tomato, is a type of
tomato
The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...
bred for
sauce
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French word t ...
and packing purposes. It is generally oval or cylindrical in shape, with significantly fewer
locule
A locule (plural locules) or loculus (plural loculi) (meaning "little place" in Latin) is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism (animal, plant, or fungus).
In angiosperms (flowering plants), the term ''locule'' usu ...
s (seed compartments, usually only two) than standard round tomatoes and a generally higher solid content, making them more suitable for processing into paste. Plum tomatoes are also sometimes favored by cooks for use during the tomato off-season, as they are generally considered more amenable to handling and are therefore available in a state closer to ripe than other supermarket tomatoes.
Varieties
Varieties commonly available in United States markets include
Roma VF and
San Marzano (semi-determinate; a signature tomato of
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine (, ) is a Mediterranean cuisine#CITEREFDavid1988, David 1988, Introduction, pp.101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes and List of cooking techniques, cooking techniques developed across the Italian Peninsula and late ...
The History of the Tomato in Italy
/ref>), though there are many other varieties, such as the short-season Ropreco Paste and the larger Amish Paste and Big Mama. Five hybrid cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
s grown in California constitute over 60% of total production of processing tomatoes.
Small plum tomatoes (similar in size to cherry tomato
The cherry tomato is a type of small round tomato believed to be an intermediate genetic admixture between wild currant-type tomatoes and domesticated garden tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes range in size from a thumbtip up to the size of a golf bal ...
es) are known as grape tomato
A grape tomato is a class of tomatoes believed to be of southeast Asian origin, shaped similarly to the oval plum tomatoes but having the small size and sweetness of cherry tomatoes. Grape tomatoes produce small and typically oblong fruits. In ...
es.
See also
* Canned tomato
Canned tomatoes, or tinned tomatoes, are tomatoes, usually peeled, that are sealed into a can after having been processed by heat.
Variants
Canned tomatoes are available in several different forms. The traditional forms are whole peeled tomatoes ...
* List of tomato cultivars
There are more than 10,000 tomato varieties available.
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Table of tomatoes
See also
* Lists of cultivars
* List of tomato dishes
Notes
#
::Some tomato cultivars will be marked with disease resistance codes, signifying that the plant ...
References
Tomato cultivars
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