Pizza Today - July 2024 - 29

Pulp Friction
Hernan Cortez, despite his genocidal
tendencies, never knew the breadth of the
positive culinary impact his actions brought
to the world. Yet even today many chefs and
pizza makers do not realize the impact that
tomatoes have on their business and for
their customers. In some pizzerias, tomatoes
are on every pizza and still these pizza makers'
only relationship to the tomato seems
to be their use of a #1 can opener to crack
open a #10 can of tomato sauce. Others
try to save by buying the cheapest sauces
and topping pizzas with waxy, unflavored,
corporate Romas even in the summer. We
all must know that customers today are
more knowledgeable than ever and that
fresh, local and in-season means flavor.
Here are three tomato categories that can
be found from mid-summer to fall to wow
your customers with.
Heirloom tomatoes: These are
tomatoes that have been handed down from
generation to generation and, as a rule, date
back more than 50 years. Heirloom doesn't
mean they have better flavor. Mr. Stipey, on
the other hand, is a tasty large yellow with
red stripes and is sweet and juicy. Cherokee
Purple is packed with umami and a deep,
smokey and complex flavor. German Pinks
are huge and meaty and, if sliced thin atop a
pizza, the outcome is dramatic. Black Krims
are from Russia with wonderfully dark,
smokey flavor.
Cherry Tomatoes: These come on in
abundance in mid-summer and are closer
to their wild ancestors than any other.
Cherries pack all the intense sweet flavor
from a large tomato and compact it into
a tomato the size of large marble. Many
people consider the Sungold the best tasting
variety with its great balance of acidity
and sweetness. The Yellow Pear tomato is
one of the oldest varieties and only an inch
long, but its tapered top has a pleasant look,
and a mild sweetness. The Italian Piennolo
del Vesuvio is an amazing variety with
low water content and thick skin perfect
for hanging. This aging transforms this
tomatoes' sweet and tart flesh into a greater
concentrated flavor bomb.
Toybox Tomatoes: These range up to
3 inches. Perfect for stuffing or wedge cutting.
I love the Green Zebra for its mildly
acidic citrus flavor, but the larger Evergreen
has more firm flesh and is sweeter. The
Black Zebra has a complex flavor and a
high flesh to seed ratio with cool greenish
skin but deep red interior. The most popular
toybox in France these days is the Cosmonaut
Volkov, an unbelievably delicious
toybox perfect for topping pizzas with.
There are many other tomatoes in the
Plum tomato family like the San Marzano,
Olivade, and Roma families. The Beefsteak
family has the massive pink. Mortgage
Lifter, Brandywine, and Yellow Brandywine,
the deeply ribbed Costoluto Genovese is
known for its concentrated flavor perfect
for sauces.
Gimme Some Skin
Preparing in-season tomatoes in your
pizzeria produces epic flavors and is a
shocking presentation when you know
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Pizza Today - July 2024

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