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Growing Tomatoes

What kind of tomatoes does Tuttoroso use?

12 years ago

We have been growing tomatoes to use for canning our tomato sauce for a few years now, and keep finding the taste a little off from what we would make from the canned tuttoroso tomatoes. I have been trying Roma style, Big Mama, and even threw a few beefsteak tomatoes in some of the sauce last year. If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it :)

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Comments (5)

carolyn137
12 years ago
See the link below. Tutorosso brand is made in the US midwest and are no doubt using US grown tomatoes, not fruits imported from Italy. But they don't say.

Almost all of my tomato friends have switched from using so called paste varieties to using mostly heart shaped tomatoes. The reason being that most pastes are quite susceptible to Early Blight ( A. solani) as well as Blossom End Rot, and also aren't the best tasting varieties, with few exceptions.

Many Italian immigrants to the US did bring seeds with them, so there are many paste varieties from there as well as elsewhere and not all are that terrific.

There are many threads here about paste tomatoes, but if I were going to grow them, here's a few that I think are good fresh as well as with few seeds:

Heidi
Mama Leone
Opalka
Martino's Roma
Tony's Italian

...... just to name a few, and notice I didn't list any San Marzanos or Costolutos.

The reason that heart shaped varieties work well for sauce, etc., is b'c they also have dense flesh and few seeds.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: tutorosso
digdirt2
12 years ago
You'd have to contact the company (Red Gold) to find out the variety names they use - if they will tell you that info and it isn't a secret. But similar to Carolyn's comments above I'd be very surprised if it is just one or even two varieties. Rather I'd bet it is a mixture of varieties.

And you will also want to find out of them what additives, stabilizers, and preservatives they use if that is the taste you want.

Personally I won't give up my San Marzanos but we also use Opalka as well as Giant Oxheart and German Strawberry (oxheart) and several other varieties - even some slicers - to make our preferred sauce.

Dave
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Jprice1021
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the info. I was gonna try Opalka this year as well as my normal Big Mama and Porterhouse. The sauce we made last year keeps well and tastes great, but it lacked that rich flavor and deep red color that we get with the canned Tuttoroso tomatoes.
digdirt2
12 years ago
Do you add the citric acid, red food coloring, and sugar to your home canned ones like the commercial canners do?

If that is the taste you prefer (most folks prefer the fresh grown flavor over any canned variety) then you'll need to add those ingredients no matter what variety you grow.

Also keep in mind that variety isn't the only variable that controls taste/flavor. Growing conditions provided, nutrient levels, watering regimen, and soil pH are just a few of the many variables that dictate taste just as much if not more than variety.

Dave
Jprice1021
Original Author
12 years ago
I add lemon juice to bring the acid level up to where it is safe to can, but never thought of sugar and food coloring. Maybe ill just try some black krims this year to darken the color up, the sauce we have been making almost looks like a vodka sauce.

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