Park's Guide to Paste Tomatoes

The best for sauces and sun-drying, paste tomatoes are typically a bit smaller -- often oblong -- and have almost no seed compartment. This makes them boil down or dry out much faster than others, with an even consistency just right for cooking. Paste tomatoes mature at the same rate as full-size and miniature (cherry and grape) types, but are often grown on determinate plants, so that the entire crop can be harvested at once for canning, stewing, or drying.

Paste Tomato Golden Rave Hybrid
The new Tomato that's sweeping the nation, Romanitas combine the meaty bite of a Roma with the super sweet flavor of a grape tomato! Just 2 inches long, these glowing gold grape-shaped fruit has twice the sugar content of a Roma -- perfect for salads, sauces, and more. The plant is very adaptable and resistant to cracking, with good disease tolerance. You must try this exciting new "baby Roma" for yourself!

Paste Tomato Margherita Hybrid
The best cooking Tomato in our trials, this elongated 5- to 6-ounce saladette is delicious fresh but indescribably good when roasted. The cylindrical, thin-skinned deep red fruit ripens uniformly on 2- to 3-foot plants with dependably heavy yields.

Paste Tomato Viva Italia Hybrid
Widely adapted, this blocky, pear-shaped hybrid is a big producer with superior disease tolerance, including Bacterial Speck.

Tomato Agro Hybrid
Adaptable to Any Climate -- and SO Abundant! 97 days. When it's time to make tomato paste, what you want is plenty of ripe, delicious fruit, preferably all about the same size so they will cook down evenly. That's exactly what Agro provides. This San Marzano type is well adapted to different climates, and sets enormous numbers of firm, bright red fruit that won't burst on the vine. Early to harvest, it is one of the best indeterminate varieties for huge yields all summer long.