APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES
Manduria cherry tomato
PAT · Slow Food Presidium · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Puglia
In brief
- A small oval tomato, bright red and thin-skinned, often with a pointed tip, grown at Manduria without irrigation. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria)
- Seed is saved each year from the best fruit, those of the lowest truss. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria)
- It is eaten fresh with carosello, a local cucumber, or in jatedda on friselle; ripe fruit is made into passata. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia (Regione Puglia, Università di Bari) — Pomodorino di Manduria)
- Fresh it is found from mid-June to late July; the passata all year. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria)
History and origin
The Manduria cherry tomato is a local population grown since time immemorial in Manduria, in the eastern Taranto area, and the nearby towns. Where it is grown it is called «pummitoru paisanu», the village tomato; in the markets of the provinces of Taranto and Brindisi it is known as «mandurese».
Its growing methods have remained unchanged over time, and agricultural studies document it: a 1969 University of Bari thesis on the incomes of Manduria farming families and a 1979 book on Puglia «from the land to the table», which mentions substantial areas planted with tomatoes.
Today it is listed in the Regional Register of Apulian varieties and among the traditional food products, and it is a Slow Food Presidium. Research by the regional BiodiverSO project has also shown that it tolerates a virus harmful to tomatoes and passes this tolerance on to commercial varieties grafted onto it.
Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia (Regione Puglia, Università di Bari) — Pomodorino di Manduria · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026) · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria
Area and method of production
It is grown on small plots, often just one or two thousand square metres, sown directly in March with seed from the previous year, kept by the growers themselves. Seed is taken from the best fruits, those of the first truss at the base of the plant. After sowing, the seedlings are thinned and the soil surface is hoed several times; treatments against pests are rare.
On the deep clay soils, the «terre ti patuli», the crop is grown entirely without irrigation; on lighter soils towards the sea or on red earth, two or three waterings at most are given in June. Yields remain low.
Picking of the first, still unripe fruits begins in late May; ripe fruits are picked until the end of July, and in August some are dried in the sun.
Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia (Regione Puglia, Università di Bari) — Pomodorino di Manduria · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria
How to recognise it
The plant stays compact and bears small, oval fruits of a bright red, with thin skin and often a small point at the tip.
Analyses carried out in the BiodiverSO project compared three local Apulian tomatoes: the Manduria tomato showed the highest sodium content and the highest acidity, two qualities valued for making preserves. It is a scientific confirmation of the use Manduria families have always made of it, turning it into sauce for the winter.
Fresh, it is found from mid-June to the end of July; the passata, on the other hand, is available all year.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria · BiodiverSO (PSR Puglia, Università di Bari e CNR) — La caratterizzazione dei pomodori Manduria, Regina e Crispiano · Atlante dei PAT di Puglia (Regione Puglia, Università di Bari) — Pomodorino di Manduria
In the kitchen
The first small tomatoes, picked while still unripe, are eaten fresh on friselle or in a salad with the carosello of Manduria, a local cucumber. With the ripe fruits families make sauce for the winter months, and in August part of the crop becomes sun-dried tomatoes to keep in oil.
The dish most tied to this tomato is «jatedda», a summer salad of the fresh seeds of the tomato with garlic, oil, salt, capers or oregano: home-made bread at least three days old is dipped into it.
These are simple preparations, born to use every fruit at the right moment: green and crisp in early summer, ripe for sauce in July, concentrated by the sun in August.
Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia (Regione Puglia, Università di Bari) — Pomodorino di Manduria · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria
Where to taste it
Look for the cherry tomato in Manduria and the surrounding towns of the eastern Taranto area, and in the markets of the provinces of Taranto and Brindisi, where it is known as mandurese. The fresh season runs from late May to July, when friselle with tomato and jatedda are on home tables.
Manduria is a short distance from Taranto and the Ionian coast: visitors to the city of the two seas can head east into the countryside of red earth and «terre ti patuli» to find this tomato where it comes from.
The rest of the year it lives on in the passata and sun-dried tomatoes made in summer.
Sources: Atlante dei PAT di Puglia (Regione Puglia, Università di Bari) — Pomodorino di Manduria · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria
Protection
- Traditional agri-food product (PAT) — Puglia, n. 176, 26th revision (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
- Slow Food Presidium — pomodorino-di-manduria (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria)
When
- Harvest: June–July (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pomodorino di Manduria)
- Summer