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 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?"

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

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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

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

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!

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 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?

Steve