Nothing quite beats home-canned tomatoes but making your family’s favorite recipes with tomatoes from the pantry starts with the best paste tomatoes for canning. Learn 15 of the best tomato varieties for canning in this post!
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The Best Tomatoes For Canning
Tomatoes are the most popular garden vegetable grown here in the USA. One flip through a seed catalog or a quick scroll through an online seed supplier will show you literally hundreds of varieties to choose from! The choice of the right tomatoes for canning depends on the type of product you want to make.
If you are a lover of tomato juice or crushed tomatoes then slicers or beefsteak tomatoes would suit you better because they have more water content in the fruits. Paste tomatoes on the other hand are perfect for tomato sauces, strained tomatoes, and pastes. This is because they have a smaller seed cavity and have less moisture in the fruits.
If you love to make your own sauce from scratch then make sure you plan to grow at least one of these paste tomatoes for canning in your vegetable garden this year.
15 of the Best Paste Tomatoes for Canning
When choosing the paste tomatoes for canning to grow in your garden, take into consideration the days to maturity for the variety. You want the tomatoes to ripen before the frosts arrive in the fall! Other things to think about include disease resistance, taste, color, and yields.
1. Amish Paste
One of the most well-known paste tomatoes for canning. Amish Paste tomatoes are one of the largest paste tomatoes. Producing Up to 12 oz, oxheart-shaped, meaty tomatoes. The Amish Paste tomato is a staple on our suburban homestead and we grow between 4 and 8 plants each year.
Days to Maturity: 85
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red
Season: Late
Buy Amish Paste Tomato seeds here.
2. Roma VF
This is another staple paste tomato on our homestead. The Roma VF produces plum-shaped, bright red tomatoes. The fruits average about 2 oz and are perfect for paste, sauces, or puree. This variety is widely adapted across the United States and Canada, it was originally introduced in 1963 when bred by the Joseph Harris Seed Company of Rochester, New York. Roma VF has both fusarium wilt and verticillium resistance.
Days to Maturity: 75
Plant Type: Semi-determinate
Color: Red
Season: Early-Mid
Get your Roma VF tomato seeds here
3. Principe Borghese
This variety is the classic Italian sun-dried tomato. Principe Borghese has clusters of plum tomatoes around 1 oz in weight that is traditionally dried in the sun for winter use but can also make a flavorful sauce. Plants can be brought in at the end of the season to ripen any remaining unripe fruit. Many people hang the pulled plants in a shed or garage out of the cold. Another way of preserving them is to hang the clusters inside and they will usually keep for a week or so.
Days to Maturity: 70
Plant Type: Semi-determinate
Color: Red
Season: Early-Mid
Get your Italian heirloom Principe Borghese seeds here
4. San Marzano
A very popular variety for many homesteaders. San Marzano is named after the region of Italy from where it originates. The compact plants are heavy producers of 2-3 inch fruits that are meaty and tasty. Fruits are crack resistant and the plants are great for new gardeners.
Days to Maturity: 85
Plant Type: Semi-determinate
Color: Red
Season: Mid
Buy your San Marzano paste tomato seeds here
5. Speckled Roman
The Speckled Roman or Striped Roman tomato is a high-yielding plant. The fruits are meaty, 4 – 6 inches long, and are red with yellow stripes along the length of the fruit.
Days to Maturity: 75
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red-Yellow Bi-Colored
Season: Mid
Get Speckled Roman tomato seeds
6. Gilbertie Tomato
Gilbertie is an heirloom paste tomato that produces 7 inch long fruits which are shaped like a chili pepper. The fruits weigh around 10 to 12 oz and are meaty, flavorful, and few seeds. Excellent canning variety for whole tomatoes, or for sauce and salsa.
Days to Maturity: 85
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red with green shoulders
Season: Mid
Buy Gilbertie tomato seeds right here
7. Howard German
A pre-1900s heirloom that produces red fruits weighing 3 to 9 oz, These plants have a lot of variability in the fruit shapes from frying pepper lookalikes to plum shapes. The fruits have a dry, meaty flesh that is tasty and great for sauce.
Days to Maturity: 90
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red
Season: Mid-Late
Get your Howard German tomato seeds
8. Italian Heirloom
If you are looking for huge fruits that are meaty with few seeds then the Italian Heirloom is for you! Plants produce incredible amounts of massive 12 to 20 oz red fruits. It is tolerant of many diseases, including Late Blight. This is a variety you definitely want to include in your homestead garden.
Days to Maturity: 80
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red
Season: Mid-Late
Buy Italian Heirloom tomato seeds right here
9. Ten Fingers of Naples
A wonderful determinate variety that produces heavy clusters of fruits. Plants yield huge crops in long trusses of 5-6 inch fruits weighing around 3 oz. per fruit. The flavor is sweet, rich and makes some of the best tasting sauce. Plants are disease-resistant.
Days to Maturity: 75
Plant Type: Determinate
Color: Red
Season: Mid
Grab your seeds of Ten fingers of Naples tomatoes here
10. Heinz 1350 VF
Ideal for sauce and good for short-season gardens! The Heinz 1350 VF tomato produces medium-sized round tomatoes. The plants are Curly Top Virus resistant.
Days to Maturity: 75
Plant Type: Determinate
Color: Red
Season: Mid
Buy Heinz 1350 VF tomato seeds right here
11. Gezahnte
Gezahnte tomatoes are not easy to find, but if you can get them online or in a seed swap, they are worth a spot in your garden since they produce even in hot, dry conditions. They’re an heirloom from Italy although their name means “toothed” in German, Red ribbed fruits that weigh around 8 oz are produced all season on the Gezahnte tomato plant. The fruits are semi-hollow, making them great for stuffing too!
Days to Maturity: 80
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red
Season: Mid
12. Costoluto Genovese
An Italian heirloom that has an amazing flavor for the perfect sauce! The plants produce big yields of oddly shaped tomatoes with heavy lobes. The flesh is dry and the seed cavities are small so save the seeds whilst you are preparing the tomatoes for canning!
Days to Maturity: 80
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red
Season: Mid
Buy your Costoluto Genovese heirloom tomato seeds here
13. Federle
Federle tomato plants are productive and produce fairly large, thin, elongated tomatoes. The fruits have dry flesh with few seeds makes these heirloom tomatoes perfect for sauce and canning.
Days to Maturity: 90
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red
Season: Mid
Federle tomato seeds available to buy right here
14. Goldman’s Italian-American
Looking for a sweet, delicious sauce? Goldman’s Italian-American tomato makes a great sauce! The plants produce bell-shaped tomatoes that weigh around 12 oz each. Plants are prolific producers making this choice great for homestead gardens!
Days to Maturity: 80
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red
Season: Mid
Buy Goldman’s Italian-American tomato seeds here
15. Jersey Devil
Another pepper lookalike tomato! Jersey Devil tomatoes take time to set fruit but plants produce abundant crops of tomatoes. The meaty fruits can be up to 6 inches long and are sweet and flavorful.
Days to Maturity: 85
Plant Type: Indeterminate
Color: Red
Season: Mid
Grab your Jersey Devil tomato seeds to grow here
Learn More
Dig in and learn more about canning:
- How Canning Preserves Your Food
- Safe Canning Basics
- Canning Equipment You Really Need
- Best Homemade Canned Tomatoes Recipes
Learn more about growing a homestead garden:
- Growing Heirloom Tomatoes From Seed Step By Step
- 10 Tasty Tomato Varieties You Should Be Growing
- How To Start A Vegetable Garden From Scratch In 6 Easy Steps
- The 1 Thing You Need To Do To Start Your Bio Intensive Garden Right
I want to hear from you! Let me know what recipes you love to use strained tomatoes in! Let me know in the comments or over in the Facebook Group!
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