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03/02/2000 Archived Entry: "Chef Central: Books and Tomatoes"

Last night I was at Chef Central in Paramus, New Jersey, talking (what else) about What To Cook When You Think There’s Nothing In The House To Eat, which, as I have noted before, has just been re-published after having been out of print for several years. I left behind autographed copies of “What To Cook … ,” as well as Soup Suppers and Naples At Table, in case you live nearby and would like one, or would like one of my cookbooks to give as a Mother’s Day gift.

As soon as I walked into the store, with it’s vast and wonderful selection of cookware and table top accessories, I couldn’t help but notice the huge display of Coluccio brand San Marzano tomatoes. These are the Italian tomatoes that carry the Italian government’s seal of authenticity and they are truly superior to most any other tomato you can buy in a can. I talk about them all the time on the radio.

(That said, I have been buying Rienzi tomatoes lately at the supermarket. They are excellent. And last night, a listener who attended my little chat, said that she, too, had noticed a definite quality improvement in Rienzi and was buying them by the case.)

Besides the famous plum-type tomatoes from San Marzano, which is a little town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, south of Naples, Chef Central is also carrying 14-ounce cans of San Marzano cluster tomatoes, small cherry-like tomatoes that are called pomodorini di collina, hill tomatoes, because they are grown in the rich volcanic soil of the area’s hillsides. When you travel around Naples, you will notice clusters of these hanging on the walls of houses. They have thick skins that enable them to be stored that way, eventually becoming slightly wrinkly and concentrated. They are extremely popular, even trendy these days. You’ll find restaurants noting their use on their menus, and I know many home cooks who use them all the time, even when the larger tomato is more traditional. While I was writing Naples At Table, they were virtually unavailable, so I am thrilled to see them now – if only at well-informed specialty stores like Chef Central. Try them. They are the tomatoes I used on the baked “country-style” pork ribs I made a couple of weekends ago. The recipe is in my diary entry of February 22.