This is a variety of plum, or roma tomato best used for making tomato sauce, paste, or soup. In fact, San Marzano tomatoes are considered the greatest paste tomatoes in the world. We try to give out many of these at once, so it will be worthwhile to make a batch of sauce to freeze, can in jars, and of course, eat.
These tomatoes have a thick, pasty consistency and a complex flavor which is not ideal for eating raw, but is perfect for tomato sauce. If you prefer your tomato sauce without skin place the tomatoes in boiling water for about two minutes. Once the tomatoes are removed from the water, it should be relatively easy to remove their skin. If you are less picky, just remove the ends from the tomatoes with a knife, dice them up, and you are ready to go. To make pasta sauce, add the San Marzanos to a pan of olive oil with sautéing onions or garlic, add some red wine, salt, and herbs, and let cook for anywhere from ten minutes to several hours. You can freeze your sauce in zip lock bags or jars, but be careful to leave some room in glass for it to expand during freezing.
Tomatoes are full of vitamins A and C, caratenoids and beta carotene. They also contain an antioxidant called lycopene which recent studies have found effective at fighting cancer.
In spite of their association with Italian food, tomatoes are a New World crop that never existed in pre-Columbian Europe. They are native to western South America, and traveled north to Mexico where many new cultivars were developed. After their arrival in Europe they became popular in Italy and Spain, but were met with disdain in more northern cultures. The Spanish spread tomatoes throughout the Caribbean and the Philippines, and it is thought that the first widely cultivated varieties in the United States first arrived via the Caribbean in the 19th century.