the.com/plum tomato
A tomato built for sauce duty, not sandwich glory — dense, dry, decisive.
means An egg-shaped tomato with thick walls, less juice, and fewer seeds — bred for cooking down into sauce and paste rather than being eaten raw.
from The 'plum' here isn't about flavor — it's about shape. The tomato's oblong, slightly tapered form echoes the silhouette of an actual plum, distinguishing it from the round slicing or beefsteak varieties. 'Tomato' itself traces back through Spanish 'tomate' to Nahuatl 'tomatl,' the Aztec word for the fruit, picked up by Europeans after contact with Mesoamerica. The 'plum' label is just old-fashioned shape-naming — the same instinct that gives us 'pear tomatoes' and 'grape tomatoes.'
- low water
- less juice means more concentrated flavor when cooked
- san marzano
- the famous plum tomato grown near Mount Vesuvius
- egg shaped
- oval shape earned it the nickname roma tomato
- fewer seeds
- thicker flesh and fewer seeds make sauces less watery