Not one of the 2 you mention but Opalka has always worked very well for me. Productive, fairly large, few seeds, and great tasting. The plants always look sickly but I read they're supposed to look like that.

I agree that Opalka is the best, by far.
John A

Opalka always wins whenever this question comes up - which it does often. ;) San Marzano usually comes in second.

But of your two choices - Amish Paste.

Dave

Opalka is a good choice, but there are a lot of seed sources carrying wrongly listed seeds for this cultivar.
You should also consider "Napoli" from Mariseeds.com
I got over 100 tomotoes per plant a couple of years ago. And gret taste too!

I've never considered Amish Paste to be a paste variety b'c it's too juicy and has too many seeds.

It was probably named for the shape, not b'c it's a paste variety and there other varieties that have paste as part of the name, such as Lillian's Red Kansas Paste which isn't a paste variety either.

There are many many threads here about paste varieties so if you do a search you'll see lots of other suggestions.

Some of mine would include:

Opalka
Heidi
Mama Leone
Martino's Roma

But like many others I prefer to use great tasting non pastes for sauces since most paste varieties aren't known for great taste and many of them are very susceptible to Early Blight ( A. solani) as well as BER.

Carolyn

I grew Polish Linguisa beside Opalka and it was very similar. But both were late when heavy production started ripening, and the meaty heart varieties made better flavored sauce.

Try the following link

Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0714120610347.html?32

Great. Thanks for the great info. I made a nice sauce but it seemed a bit watery for my liking. Also, ever notice how garden fresh/frozen maters make a thinner sauce that does'nt stick well to the noodles? Before you get fresh with me I'll be the first to tell you I'm no chef! LOL

Maybe the question should have read "Best pasta sauce varities"

As a sad note today marks the end of my warm season. I picked over a dozen green peppers off my King of the North and chopped it down. I'm crying! Still, not bad for Nov 6th.

I grew Giant Italian Paste this year and it out classed San Marzano for size and taste.

Kevin

For pasta sauce made with fresh tomatoes, you have to cook it down.

I make mine in a crock pot. When everything is nice and tender, I whirl it in the food processor to make it smooth. Then I cook it for a long time with the lid of the crock pot off so water can evaporate.

Note, my crock pot gets hot enough to simmer the sauce when the lid is off. The sauce will get nice and thick.

I grow several varieties an mix them together. I like Opalka, but it ripens several weeks later than Amish Paste or Roma. I'll try starting the Opalka seeds earlier next year.

We process the tomatoes with a Kitchen Aid attachment, strain them with a cheesecloth, and then cook them down a bit.

I recommend a stick blender for smoothing sauce. I put the pealed fruit in a big pot (used for scalding the skin), blend them smooth and then move the liquid into large 12" frying pans to cook down (faster evaporation). I did side by side taste tests of sauces made from various combos of tomatoes (opalka, hearts, beefsteak mixes, and some distinctive varietes) this summer. There is a lot of difference in flavor depending on what you use, and you can taylor make your favorite blend.

Erlyberd you could have dug up the pepper plant, cut all of the branches off, trimmed the roots, potted it in good potting soil, and overwintered it inside. You won't believe it until you see it, but they will start sprouting new leaves within a week or so, and go into an alive but dormant state until spring. (or not dormant if you give them enough sunlight)

Well, I know this works for chili peppers, not sure if it works well for bell peppers or not. People have kept chilis alive for several years like this, and supposedly the overwintered plants product better than ones grow from a start. See the hot pepper forum for more info. :)