Deep red · meaty · low-moisture · the sauce tomato
This is what pasta sauce is supposed to taste like when it starts with the right tomato. Dense, meaty, low water, high flavor — the sauce tomato that makes everything else possible.
Tomato Profile · Jamie's Garden 2026 · Santa Monica Mountains · 1,170 ft elevation
| Variety | Super Italian Paste |
| Type | Heirloom Italian Paste Tomato · Indeterminate |
| Origin | Italian paste tradition · improved from classic San Marzano lineage |
| Days to Maturity | 75–80 days from transplant |
| Fruit Size | 4–6 oz · elongated plum shape |
| Garden Role | Primary sauce tomato · canning · preservation · kitchen workhorse |
Super Italian Paste is the kitchen workhorse of this garden. Where the beefsteaks and slicers are grown for the table — for the perfect slice, for the raw experience — Super Italian Paste is grown for the pot. Deep red, elongated, meaty, with the lowest moisture content and the highest solid content of any tomato here. It is built for sauce.
The flavor profile is bold and concentrated — more savory than sweet, with a depth that builds under heat into something that tastes like it has been cooking all day when it has only been cooking an hour. This is the tomato that makes Italian cuisine what it is. Not fresh in a salad, not sliced on a plate — cooked slowly until it becomes something greater than itself.
| Color | Deep, uniform red · intense at peak ripeness |
| Shape | Elongated plum · 4–5 inches · pointed at blossom end |
| Size | 4–6 oz · classic paste proportions |
| Interior | Very meaty · minimal seed cavities · low moisture |
| Texture | Dense and firm · thick walls · almost solid |
| Sweetness | Medium · balanced by depth and acidity |
| Acidity | Medium-high · structural and purposeful |
| Savory Depth | Very high · concentrated umami · intense |
| Tasting Notes | Concentrated tomato · savory umami · structural acid · rich finish |
| Character | Purposeful, dense, built for transformation — the cook's tomato |
Super Italian Paste is not the tomato you eat out of hand — it is the tomato you cook. The low moisture and high solids mean it reduces quickly into a thick, deeply flavored sauce without the extended cooking time that juicier varieties require. Under heat the natural sugars concentrate, the acidity mellows, and the savory umami depth intensifies into something that the best San Marzano-style sauces are built on.
Super Italian Paste is the premier sauce and canning tomato in this garden. Its low moisture means less time reducing to the right sauce consistency, and the dense flesh holds together well through the canning process. For tomato paste, this is the variety — the concentrated flavor means you need less to achieve the same depth. If there is one variety in this garden that will fill the pantry, it is this one.
| Habit | Indeterminate · regular leaf · upright and vigorous |
| Height | 5–6 ft · staking required |
| Productivity | Very good · consistent yield throughout season |
| Heat Tolerance | Excellent · drought tolerant relative to beefsteaks |
| Days to Maturity | 75–80 days from transplant |
| Crack Resistance | Very good · thick skin protects against cracking |
| Disease Resistance | Good · better than most heirlooms |
Super Italian Paste is one of the most production-reliable varieties in the garden. The thick skin provides good protection against cracking, the plant tolerates heat variation well, and the consistent fruit size makes harvesting efficient. At our elevation the dry California summer is ideal — paste tomatoes evolved for these conditions and perform accordingly.
Super Italian Paste · Jamie's Garden 2026 · Santa Monica Mountains · 1,170 ft
Super Italian Paste is in this garden because a garden that does not fill the pantry is incomplete. The beefsteaks and the rarities are for the season — for the moment of perfect ripeness at the table. Super Italian Paste is for what comes after. For the sauce in November. For the jars lined up in the cabinet that carry this garden's summer into a completely different part of the year.
I grew up understanding that the kitchen and the garden are one system. What you grow determines what you eat, and what you eat carries the character of where it grew. Super Italian Paste makes sauce that tastes like this garden — like this elevation, this soil, this season. That specificity matters. Generic tomatoes make generic sauce. These do not.
There is also something satisfying about growing a tomato that knows exactly what it is. Super Italian Paste does not try to be a slicing tomato. It does not compete with Brandywine. It is the sauce tomato, completely committed to that purpose, and it executes it better than almost anything else available. I respect that kind of singular excellence.
| Variety | Super Italian Paste |
| Type | Heirloom Italian Paste Tomato · Indeterminate |
| Fruit Size | 4–6 oz · elongated plum |
| Days to Maturity | 75–80 days from transplant |
| Flavor | Concentrated · savory umami · structural acid · deep |
| Best Use | Sauce · canning · tomato paste · sun-drying |
| Moisture | Very low · high solids · minimal reduction time |
| Season 2026 | Transplant May 30 · Harvest August–September |