Piennolo tomatoes are incredible. They are grown on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius, picked in late summer, hung up in people’s cellars and eaten all year long. There are no preservatives added, no refrigeration, and no high tech packaging.
What keeps them fresh looking and tasting for the better part of a year? Two things. Their thick skins (the original high tech packaging) and the one of a kind micro-climate around Vesuvius.
Watch this video. It shows the traditional way of preserving Piennolo Tomatoes; carefully stringing them up into beautiful bunches and then hanging them from cellar beams to be left for 12 months swinging in the air. In fact, the word “piennolo” is related to the Italian word for pendulum.
We at Gustiamo import most of our Piennolo Tomatoes halved and in jars. They are our go-to tomatoes for quick sauces as they don’t require long cooking times.