First, how are you peeling them? That can make a big difference.

Alternatively, core and freeze them in a big ziplock bag until you have the time and enough of them to deal with. When thawed the skins slip right off.

Dave

Sundrops,

I take laceyvail's approach to bumpy, lumpy, wrinkly, and otherwise tricky-to-peel heirloom tomatoes: just quarter them and cook, then run through a food mill, which leaves behind the peel and most seeds.

I grow dozens of different kinds of tomatoes, and when I pick I sort: I use the nice, smooth, easy-peel kinds (roma types and a few heirlooms like Red Brandywine) for salsa, crushed tomatoes and whole tomatoes---things that aren't going to be puree'd so need to be peeled & cored before cooking.

Then anything hard to peel goes into a big pot just quartered, for sauce.

I haven't grown Costolute Genovese, but I have similar grumbles about trying to peel catfacing-prone Black Krim, huge but wrinkly and tending-to-split Sicilian Saucer, and plenty of others.

My sauce pot can also include tomatoes that are too SMALL to be worth peeling---if I have more cherries to harvest one day than I will use for fresh eating, and I don't feel like drying them.

Good luck!

Z

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Normally I would run them through my Victoria but because the bottoms has really deep, cave like cavities I don't feel they are clean enough to do that. They definately require the cutting out of the cavities due to dirt and bad spots. I was trying to scald them and peel but it is difficult.

I guess I will try to quarter them, cut the bad spots and cavities and then run them through the Victoria.

I like them but they are quite a pain.

sundrops,

I haven't grown CG, but from the photos I've seen they sure look to be exceptionally wrinkly/cave-y, even compared to the "uglier" heirlooms I have grown! Good luck with them.

Luckily, any little bits of remaining garden dirt will be sanitized away by the cooking & canning heat.

Z

growing them for the first time this year as well and have not thought that far ahead as I have not had any ripe CG to sample yet here in the northeast(sigh). Happy to hear a positive review about the taste though.

I'm assuming this thread is pretty dead at this point, but i grew Costoluto Genovese last summer (2012) for the first time and was completely blown away by this plant. it grew like crazy, produced tons of gorgeous delicious fruit, and found that it was great for both eating fresh as well as sauce.

i'm with the other posters on this thread: use a food mill! i remember peeling tomatoes of any variety before i bought a food mill...never. again. i'll core them before i throw them in a pot, but after they've been cooked to where they're starting to break down, I just run everythign through the food mill and problem solved.

I think the outcome of growing this tomato is extremely localized; after reading posts from people all over the country, some people had great success, others not so much. I'm in upstate NY and my fruit grew big, juicy, flavorful and kept for at least a week if not more once it was picked. i was shocked to hear some people thought the flavor was awful; it was hollow inside; grew small fruit...i didn't experience any of those problems and am looking forward to growing them again this year!

I grew the fabulous large, tasty, dense CG first over 10 years ago. When my seed packet was gone, I bought more. Not the same. The current one from seedsfromitaly.com is called "valente" variety that is not very fluted and not very good. Have bought CG seeds many places in a quest for that great tomato that I used to grow. All are different.

This year I found the reason. Found seeds that I had saved from my great CG over 10 years ago. Every plant produced vastly different fruit in size and shape. Most good-tasting. My original CG had to have been a hybrid that we believed to be an OP. Some fruit were perfectly smooth. Some partly fluted in varying degrees. The only one that was totally fluted like the original was only an inch wide.

Every seller has a different plant as CG. The reason is probably that they grew out selections from that hybrid. I have given up finding the great CG. But there is an alternative.

I believe that the future of tomatoes is in heritage mariage: the creation of hybrids from good-tasting, but yukky, OPs. (Think Brandy Boy!) For two years, I have grown Genuwine (one version of CG x Brandywine). Looks like the old large fluted CG. Tastes fabulous. Unbelievable production - 8-10 times as much fruit as a Brandywine and more than the wonderful old CG. 6 to 8 large fruit every 6 inches along the stem. Packed so densely that they are difficult to pick.