~Tomato Season & Why I Adore the Compari Tomato~
The Campari tomato claimed its fame in 2002 when a brief reference was made to it in the TV series, "The Sopranos." One mention -- it boosted both its relevancy in the tomato-loving world and its level of respect within the all-important Italian-American community. In 2003, Campari was rewarded with a 50% uptick in sales. To this day, it is my year-round store-bought tomato of choice. In my opinion, the Campari tomato is the most perfect tomato ever produced -- it's so damned flavorful, having the ideal balance of acid to sugar, and a texture that endears each one to me as my ideal slicing tomato. Classified as a "cocktail tomato" (whatever that means), they're much larger than cherry or grape tomatoes, but, a lot smaller than your typical "big boy".
The surprising thing is, Campari tomatoes are grown hydroponically (which renders most tomatoes tasteless), and are ripened to their super-red color on the vine. Because they're ripened on the vine, the need for pesticides is eliminated, and, it's also the reason they are shipped with the vine attached -- it enables them to continue to ripen naturally without the need for ethylene gas. This makes them available year-round with little-to-no compromise in flavor or texture. For all these reasons, when Campari tomatoes hit the marketplace, they were wisely branded as "the tomato-lovers tomato". While a bit pricey, as a card-carrying tomato lover, along with many others, the Campari tomato is the heartthrob of those of us that do not grow our own.
The Campari tomato IS the "tomato-lovers tomato"!
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2021)
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