You must come to NY’s Greenwich Village bakery, Il Cantuccio, and taste Gustiamo‘s products. Just baked (and warm) schiacciata (the focaccia from Toscana) with… every tuesday a different product from Gustiamo. This week, it was Piennolo Tomatoes from Casa Barone and they drew a big crowd. Giorgio Gorini, left, is a “napolitano verace”, lives in New York and is passionate about food. He learned that there was a tasting of Piennolo, his favorite tomatoes, and came to Il Cantuccio to check it out. With the background of Lucio Battisti singing, Giorgio officially, on camera (click the arrow below, to watch the video. Giorgio speaks English with a neapolitan accent – beautiful!), solemnly attests that these are the traditional “piennoli partenopei”, they are really fantastic. In Napoli, they use the piennolo during the Christmas Holidays to cook Spaghetti with seafood. Grazie Giorgio, I knew we would pass the test!
i loved the flavor of the piennolo tomatoes but found the skins unpleasantly tough. i wonder if anyone else experienced this. i just barely heated them as was suggested in the new york times article. so i tried something different with the remaining tomatoes. i picked out the skins, placed the tomatoes and juices in a microwavable container, and reduced them down til it reached a nice sauce consistency. the micfrowave is ideal for this as the cooktop risks carmelizing the sugars in the tomatoes which alters the flavor. this resulted in a most flavorful sauce perfect for adding to pizza or pasta!
thank you beatrice for bringing in such a special product. the only tomatoes i use are those from sicily–they leave all other ones in the dust!
Hi Rose,
I’m sure the sauce turned out great, but I find the thick skin to be the Piennolo trait of distinction. If it stays attached to the pulp you keep the flavor and the nutrients intact (nutrients mostly in the skin). More tomatoes, more experiments? Keep us abreast. grazie!