APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES

Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino (San Marzano tomato)

PDO · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Campania

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked: 2026-10-12

In brief

It is sold peeled and preserved, whole or in strips, from the San Marzano 2 and Kiros ecotypes. (Qualigeo — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP)
It is grown in many municipalities of the provinces of Naples, Salerno and Avellino. (Qualigeo — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP)
The plants are trained upright on stakes and the fruit is hand-picked in several passes between late July and late September. (Qualigeo — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP)
It is elongated with few seeds and a sweet-sour taste, and stays whole through processing. (Qualigeo — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP)

History and origin

Tradition has it that the first tomato seed reached the Kingdom of Naples around 1770, a gift from the Kingdom of Peru, and was planted right in the area of today's San Marzano sul Sarno. From there, through long selection, the ecotype bearing this name would have been born. Other sources instead date the first certain evidence of its presence between Nocera, San Marzano and Sarno to 1902.

Great success came at the start of the twentieth century, with the first canning industries turning the tomato into peeled tomatoes for sauce. It was the scent of Sundays and feast days, the red sauce on pasta from Gragnano and Torre Annunziata, and for the value it brought to the farmers of the plain it was called red gold.

In the 1980s cultivation fell sharply, because of plant health problems and the cost of an entirely manual technique. The recovery of pure genetic lines, started by the Campania Region and consolidated by the protection consortium, saved it. The PDO was recognised by the European Union in 1996.

Sources: Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP · Qualigeo — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP · eAmbrosia — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino (PDO-IT-1524)

Area and method of production

The production and processing area joins the Agro Sarnese-Nocerino in the province of Salerno, with towns such as San Marzano sul Sarno, Sarno, Scafati, Angri, Pagani and the two Noceras, the Acerra-Nola and Pompeii-Stabiae areas in the province of Naples, from Acerra and Nola to Pompei, Gragnano and Castellammare di Stabia, and Montoro in the province of Avellino. It is the Sarno plain, covered by volcanic material, with deep, soft soils rich in phosphorus and potassium and a climate softened by the sea.

The specification allows the San Marzano 2 and Kiros ecotypes or improved lines of them. Transplanting takes place between the first half of April and mid-May; plants are grown only upright, tied to stakes and horizontal wires, and any forcing of ripening is banned.

Harvesting is exclusively by hand and staggered, in several passes, between 30 July and 30 September. At the plant the fruit is cleaned, sorted and peeled, and the tomato is packed whole or in fillets in its own juice.

Sources: Consorzio del Pomodoro San Marzano DOP: area di produzione · Consorzio del Pomodoro San Marzano DOP: coltivazione · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP · Qualigeo — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP

How to recognise it

The PDO covers only peeled tomatoes, whole or in fillets. The fruit is elongated, cylindrical tending to pyramidal or box-shaped, 60 to 80 millimetres long, with parallel lengthwise grooves and a small dimple at the tip. The colour is a bright, intense red, with yellow shading near the stalk.

The flesh is firm and almost free of seeds and fibres, the skin thin and easy to peel. The flavour is typically sweet and sour, and the texture stays intact throughout processing: this is exactly what makes it suited to peeling.

In the jar or can, the specification allows salt, basil leaves and tomato juice, provided that too is from San Marzano. Every pack carries a label with origin, producer, variety and PDO mark, numbered by the consortium: the surest way to recognise it on the shelf.

Sources: Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP · Consorzio del Pomodoro San Marzano DOP · Qualigeo — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP

In the kitchen

The San Marzano was born for sauce. Its name is tied to the sauce of Neapolitan Sundays and feast days, the one that covered pasta from Gragnano and Torre Annunziata, and its firm, almost seedless flesh is what the first canneries were looking for in peeled tomatoes for sauce.

Known worldwide, it suits a great many dishes of local and Italian tradition: pasta courses, but also meat and fish mains, to which it brings its sweet and sour flavour.

Once opened, the can or jar should be kept in the fridge, moving the tomatoes and their juice into a glass container, preferably closed. The international success of the Mediterranean diet has brought this peeled tomato to tables in Europe, America and other continents, but its bond remains with the home cooking of the Sarno plain.

Sources: Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP · Qualigeo — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP

Where to taste it

San Marzano country is the Sarno plain, between the provinces of Salerno and Naples: San Marzano sul Sarno, which gives it its name, Sarno, Nocera Inferiore and Nocera Superiore, Pagani, Angri and Scafati, and towards the sea Pompei, Castellammare di Stabia and Gragnano.

In summer, between late July and late September, the trellised fields with plants tied to stakes mark the landscape of the plain, and the hand harvest takes place in several passes. The PDO product, however, is available all year, canned or jarred, with the consortium's numbered label.

A visit to the excavations of Pompeii or a trip between Castellammare and Gragnano, the town of pasta, passes right through these places: a way to see up close the farmland behind a tomato known all over the world.

Sources: Consorzio del Pomodoro San Marzano DOP: area di produzione · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP