San Marzano: the long tomato between Sarno, Nocera and Vesuvius

An eighteenth-century legend and a 1902 record

According to the tradition reported by Italia.it and Qualigeo, the first seed reached the area around 1770 as a gift from the Kingdom of Peru to the Kingdom of Naples and was planted near today's San Marzano sul Sarno, in the province of Salerno. This is a story, not proof: the Qualigeo profile notes that the ecotype's presence in Nocera, San Marzano and Sarno is documented with certainty from 1902. Success came with the first canning industries of the twentieth century, which brought peeled tomatoes to Italian tables. In the 1980s cultivation shrank drastically, partly because the growing technique is costly; the recovery was started by the Campania Region and consolidated by the Protection Consortium.

Sources: Italia.it — La Campania attraverso la pizza: storia del pomodoro San Marzano · Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita) — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP

Forty towns in three provinces

The Protection Consortium lists 40 towns: 24 in the province of Naples, 15 in the province of Salerno and one in the province of Avellino, Montoro. Around Salerno they include San Marzano sul Sarno, Sarno, Scafati, San Valentino Torio, Nocera Inferiore and Superiore, Pagani, Angri, Mercato San Severino, Fisciano and Baronissi; around Naples, Pompei, Boscoreale, Poggiomarino, Striano, Gragnano, Castellammare di Stabia and a group of towns in the Nola and Acerra area, from Nola to Acerra, Pomigliano d'Arco and Palma Campania. Growing must take place on farms and processing in industrial plants both located inside the defined area. The permitted varieties are San Marzano 2 and Kiros, or improved lines.

Sources: Consorzio di tutela Pomodoro San Marzano DOP — Area di produzione

Grown upright, picked by hand

The Consortium describes very deep, soft soils rich in organic matter, phosphorus and potassium, formed from pyroclastic material on the Sarno plain, with irrigation water drawn mainly from wells. Transplanting normally takes place in the first half of April and can run into the first ten days of May. The only permitted system is upright, with stakes and horizontal wires, at a minimum spacing of 40 centimetres along the row and 110 between rows. Forcing practices that alter ripening are banned. Harvest runs from 30 July to 30 September, by hand only and in several passes, when the fruit is fully ripe, into 25-30 kilo crates. The maximum yield is 80 tonnes per hectare.

Sources: Consorzio di tutela Pomodoro San Marzano DOP — Coltivazione

What the fruit is like

The characteristics given by the Consortium are measurable. The fruit is elongated, cylindrical and tends towards a pyramid shape, with an axis ratio of at least 2.2; length is usually 6 to 8 centimetres. When ripe it is bright red, with only minimal tolerance for yellow patches. The skin is thin and peels easily; the flesh is elastic, full-bodied and almost seedless, with two or three locules and few cavities, so it does not fall apart during processing. The flavour is described as intense and sweet-sour; pH must not exceed 4.50. Qualigeo links flavour and texture to the mineral-rich volcanic soils and the mild climate of the Agro Sarnese-Nocerino.

Sources: Consorzio di tutela Pomodoro San Marzano DOP — Caratteristiche · Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita) — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP

The PDO is the peeled tomato, not the fresh one

This is the most misunderstood point. The specification states that the PDO designates whole or filleted fruit obtained by peeling: an elongated tomato sold fresh at a market may be of the San Marzano type, but it does not carry the designation. The steps are washing and sorting, peeling, separating the skins, filleting where relevant, canning with covering liquid, sealing, sterilising and cooling, in glass or tinplate. Salt up to 3% and basil leaves are allowed. The label must show the full name of the designation, the EU symbol, the words PDO, the product type, the harvest and processing campaign and the logo, a circle with a cluster of tomatoes and a stylised outline of Vesuvius. Adjectives such as extra, choice or selected are forbidden.

Sources: Disciplinare di produzione DOP Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino (testo 2019) · Consorzio di tutela Pomodoro San Marzano DOP — Trasformazione e confezionamento

Naples' heritage tomatoes, a Slow Food Presidium

Alongside the PDO there is a Slow Food Presidium for Naples' heritage tomatoes. The Slow Food Foundation explains that until about twenty years ago the area around Naples and the Agro Sarnese-Nocerino was planted almost entirely with San Marzano; disease and costs pushed growers towards more productive hybrids and the local variety risked disappearing. In the mid-1990s researchers, with projects funded by the Campania Region, recovered more than 30 ecotypes of the San Marzano type, differing in shape, colour and flavour. The Presidium, in the provinces of Naples, Avellino and Salerno, has restarted their cultivation: the tomato is trained like a vine, picked in seven or eight passes or more from July to September and preserved in jars without additives.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Antichi pomodori di Napoli

The calendar: fresh in summer, in the pantry all year

The two supply-chain sources give the same picture. For the PDO, transplanting takes place in April and harvest from 30 July to 30 September; the peeled tomatoes show the harvest and processing campaign on the label, so the year tells you which summer the tin comes from. For the heritage tomato Presidium, the fresh product is available from July to late September, while preserves, which stay in the jar for at least a year, can be found all year. Anyone wanting to see fields of stakes heavy with fruit should travel between late July and September; anyone looking for something to take home can do so in any season.

Sources: Consorzio di tutela Pomodoro San Marzano DOP — Coltivazione · Disciplinare di produzione DOP Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino (testo 2019) · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Antichi pomodori di Napoli

In the kitchen: sauce, pizza and Gragnano pasta

Italia.it recalls that Campanian home cooks used it for Sunday pasta sauce and that its elongated shape, fleshy pulp, low water and few seeds suit peeled tomatoes and passata; it keeps its flavour even with short cooking. Its sweet-sour taste makes it ideal for sauce, including on Gragnano PGI pasta, and for pizza, paired with Fiordilatte di Agerola or Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO. Qualigeo adds that once opened, peeled tomatoes should be kept in the fridge in their liquid, in a closed glass container, and that they are used in first courses and in meat and fish dishes.

Sources: Italia.it — La Campania attraverso la pizza: storia del pomodoro San Marzano · Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita) — Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP

Read the tin before you buy

The San Marzano name appears on many products that have nothing to do with the PDO. When buying, I would check three things: the full name of the designation with the PDO abbreviation and the EU symbol, the logo with the cluster and Vesuvius, and the harvest campaign. If you find elongated fresh tomatoes sold directly in August, buy them for what they are, an excellent sauce tomato, without assuming they are PDO. For the journey home, glass is more fragile than tin: wrap it well or choose cans, which the specification allows on equal terms.

Festivals and visits: what we did not find

We found no San Marzano tomato festival announced by a town council, a pro loco or the Region with verifiable dates: the themed events circulating online are initiatives of individual companies, and we do not present them as community events. So I would not build the trip around a festival. The useful window is the harvest, from late July to September, when staked fields can be seen from the road on the Sarno plain. A visit to a field or a processing workshop should be arranged with the operators, because at the height of the campaign work runs to tight schedules and is not a show for visitors.