And pizzeria bianco in Phoenix, run by one of the owners, is great.
I am so sick of Tomato Scams. What’s next??
I sure hope nobody starts faking rare bottles of wine or fancy watches!
I haven’t. They do look good.
However after reading the article I know what to look for to see if they are authentic.
I was at my favorite fish market with gourmet foods also. Sure enough they had real San Marzano.
Impossible.
I just found a couple of 28 oz. cans of the real deal in the pantry, Solania brand.
Phew!
They’re going straight to Commerce Corner.
This thread had me intrigued. Went to the market today and got one can of Bianco DiNapoli, and one of Rega Pomodoro S. Marzano dell’Agro Sarnese-Nocerino.
Serving size is the same for both (1/2 cup). Bianco DiNapoli has 3g sugar vs Rega at 6.2g. Based in nutrition facts alone you might argue that the authentic Italian San Marzanos are sweeter. Can’t say anything for acidity at this time.
Will make some sauce and do a blind comparison later if I’m not too lazy.
Love that you’re testing! Hope to hear the results!
Really kind of a superficial and ignorant piece. It isn’t just about fraud; the claim is that no site or magazine recommends them. False, took me a couple of minutes to find that Saveur and another site do prefer the Marzano. It reminds me about the Olive oil dust up. Some seemed to think you couldn’t buy real Italian olive oil. Surely, the brands they were talking about are not dependable, some just don’t want to pay the price for vintage dated oil, currently 2016. This oil is used for finishing, not cooking with.The fact is that there is little point to using olive oil in sauté. You’ll not taste olives.
There is a pizza joint in Vancouver, Nicli Antica that serves the DOP tomatoes on their pizzas. It is striking how much better they are compared to any other tomato I’ve had.
As long as I know that my 6 dollar bottle of Balsamico is the real thing I’m good.
Our main tomatoes are Alta Cucina from Stanislaus (only available in restaurant-sized packaging) or Bianco di Napoli, both Central Valley tomatoes. There aren’t any canned San Marzanos you’ll find on grocery store shelves that come close to these. We’ve taste tested every San Marzano available in our market.
To be fair, I imagine part of the reason for this is that Italian tomatoes distributed widely enough to make it to California, must be produced in such huge quantities, that we aren’t getting the highest quality of the crop. Or, maybe they are not San Marzano at all. Honestly the reverence for San Marzanos, I’ve always found baffling, but the article in the OP clarifies a lot.
My favorite Italian tomatoes are Terra Amore e Fantasia, which are volcanic but aren’t San Marzano. My favorite San Marzanos are Gustarosso or Il Miracolo di San Gennaro. All of these options only available from mail-order gourmet stores like Gustiamo, and quite expensive once they get through layers of distribution and shipping. Quality-wise they almost come close to the Alta Cucinas.
But, you can buy Alta Cucina from restaurant supply, 6 x case of 6½ lb cans for $6-8/can, and they blow away all these other options. Bianco di Napoli is a good fallback when you just don’t want to deal with a 6½lb can of tomatoes, and in a pinch you find them at Whole Foods.
This caused me to order a 6 pack of Bianco di Napoli on amazon haha! A store downtown has Alta Cucina for sale but i’m not sure what I would do with a 6 pound can of tomatoes. Maybe I’ll try them out sometime I’m in the mood to make a ton of sauce and freeze it.
Make some tomato soup! It’s easy and fast.
What Fu said. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
We tested a bunch of tomatoes for the pizzeria with the idea that we would use San Marzano. I’d even put that on our website. But, in the end, we liked the flavor profile of another Italian tomato. It was better and, as a bonus, was about 30% cheaper if I recall. It wasn’t the only epiphany in the process, ingredient-wise.
I don’t know what this means but we are growing San Marzano’s this year with about 9 other varieties and the squirrels much prefer the San Marzano’s to all the others.
As an interesting aside, I clicked on this link and learn the source of the tomatoes is from Cliff Fong. In a past life I was an area manager for a tomato processor and Cliff was one of our contract growers. My daily commute takes me past one of his fields in Yolo County each day so I see the seasonal progress of the tomatoes. One thing I can comment on is that having worked with him back then and seeing how this field is managed, it’s not surprising the tomatoes end up in such a high quality product.
OK, here is a good lead for all of you seekers of ‘real’ San Marzano tomatoes. I myself have done the important legwork of placing an order and trying a few different tomato items out and I can unequivocally and wholeheartedly recommend the Piennolo tomatoes in jar of which we sampled yesterday in my buddies work burning oven alongside some mozzarella di bufala to an amazing outcome that was loved by all in attendance. Sweet and silky, these particular tomatoes are only grown on the slopes of Mt Vesuvius.
THESE are the real deal. I just placed another order for 6.
Bookmark this site. Lots of great items that can’t be found elsewhere.
https://www.gustiamo.com/piennolo-vine-tomatoes-by-casa-barone-2/