Curated picks

Best Tomatoes for Sauce and Canning

Sauce wants flesh, not water. These paste and plum types carry dense, low-juice walls and few seeds, so they reduce quickly without watering down the pot. Several are determinate, which means the crop ripens in a concentrated window, handy when you are putting up a batch.

  1. 1San MarzanoSan Marzanopaste · open-pollinated · 85 days · lateThe benchmark Italian sauce plum: meaty, low-acid, and thick-walled with few seeds.
  2. 2Amish PasteAmish Pastepaste · heirloom · 85 days · lateA larger, sweeter heirloom paste with coreless flesh, good for sauce or fresh.
  3. 3RomaRomapaste · open-pollinated · 75 days · midThe reliable, compact determinate workhorse with firm, low-moisture flesh and VF resistance.
  4. 4Speckled RomanSpeckled Romanpaste · open-pollinated · 81 days · lateA meaty striped paste with flavor good enough to eat fresh as well as cook.
  5. 5OpalkaOpalkapaste · heirloom · 82 days · lateA long Polish bull's-horn paste, nearly seedless, that performs in hot, dry spells.
  6. 6Principe Borghesepaste · heirloom · 75 days · midThe traditional Italian sun-drying tomato, tiny and meaty, borne in huge clusters.
  7. 7Goldman's Italian Americanpaste · open-pollinated · 80 days · midA large ribbed sauce oxheart with meaty, low-seed flesh, showy and productive.

These are editorial picks, not a ranked score. For the full filterable catalogue, use the browse page or the chooser.