Principe bougese sets fruit in very hot weather, this variety is among my best cropper. I moved to Bulgaria from the Uk and can attest to the vigour of the plant, nothing seemingly kills them, Franci seeds sell packs of 1200 for a few pounds, highly recommended.

Im quite surprised that Italian Variety's work at all in the UK since you have much less sunlight and heat. I grow "Costoluto Colli Euganei" and "Borsa Montone" this Year, both the first time. Greetings from Germany.

Thank you so much for talking about these italian varieties. All of the "San marzano" tomatoes found here have been hybridized, so it's nice to find someone talking about the heirlooms from Italy.

i share the same passion about growing historical fruits and literally getting a taste of history. One of my favorite looking tomatoes for a tomato sandwich/slicing type was ‘gigante’, an italian variety. For passata (strained tomatoes), the corbarino came out on top in terms of flavor. However, for canning purpose for sauce or diced tomatoes, I really loved ‘fiaschetto’, an old italian variety that is a determinate plant; what I loved about it was that the plant takes up very little space, and gives many tomatoes. A person can easily grow 12 of the plants in a small space, take little care of them, and have canned tomatoes to last an entire year. In Italy, they tend to grow the fiaschetto without a trellis/cage, although I think supporting it helps prevent disease. I love the plant because it requires very little investment of my personal time/energy, yet gives many tomatoes. If you want a fun paste tomato, try the Federle Tomato. It’s a West Virginia variety. It’s huge! And the plant is prolific! And the tomato looks like a giant red chili pepper! For sauce, if using an indeterminate tomato, I really enjoyed growing the Pera d’abruzzo, from Italy. I liked it because the plant is extremely prolific, and it produced large tomatoes that can make so much passata! The passata is a little thin, but it still made a great pizza sauce! It’s commonly use is Tuscany for sauce. If you want a great ‘all purpose’ tomato, I’d recommend trying ‘Amish Paste’. Despite what the name suggests, it is not dry. It is a great slicer, and a great sauce tomato. Also great for dicing, or for salads. Very little seeds, very meaty, and juicy. --------- And since you love tomatoes so much, let me share with you my personal recipe for ‘tomato rice’. Does not use any water, just diced tomatoes! Tomato rice -persian recipe (for 1-4 people... just depends how much rice you eat!. It feeds me 3-4 meals.) Ingredients: 1 cup basmati rice 1 lb finely diced tomatoes 2 Tbs salted butter 1 tsp kosher salt if Morton brand; * 1.25-1.5tsp if Dixie brand kosher salt 1 Tbs lime juice (my lime was a very sour; adjust as needed) instructions: -Mix all ingredients, and cook at medium high heat, stirring regularly until the tomatoes start to give off their liquid, and then turn the heat to medium. -Once the tomatoes released most of their at medium heat, cover pot and cook at a very low heat for 20 minutes. -If you want the bottom of the pot to be crispy rice (tahdig), cook for 30-45 minutes, depending on the heat of your stove. - before serving: Mix if no crispy rice at the bottom, and serve. If you made crispy rice at the bottom of the pot, do not mix the rice; instead, flip the pan upside down onto a serving serving plate, as you would with an upside down pineapple cake. For serving crispy rice, serve by slicing each serving like cake.

Wish I had found this gem of a video years ago. I live in San Diego, CA. I’m a transplant from New York where my dad, his 2 brothers and all my other uncles grew tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes! One year my uncle Jim received some seeds from my grandmother in Ametea, Italy located on the west coast of Calabria. He quickly sowed them and became the undisputed champion tomato grower from then on. No one could come close to growing these monsters. One year (1961) his photo appeared in the local newspaper holding a 3-1/2 pound tomato. I was only 10 at the time so I never asked him for seeds but I still remember that fruit as he brought it around for all to see before he made sauce from it. No one ever got uncle Jim’s seeds. I suspect the Belmonte Calabrese is that tomato. I’ve noticed this tomato can have different shaped fruit on the same plant. His was a lobed shape. I’ve been able to get a few varieties featured in some of your videos but not the Belmonte. Out of stock they say. I’ll keep trying. Thank you for the walk down memory lane. 22:40

Totally agree the best time to pick the larger varieties is when they’re still a little green.

Dude i love your video. You went into so much detail about these fantastic varieties. I wish more videos like this existed.

Principe Borghese: We were not impressed - tough skin and not enough flavour to remind us why we grew it. But your 'taste test' really underlines what we have found, the larger 'meatier' tomatoes are really worth the effort. in our case we have a couple of 'black' or 'purple' ( I apologise I don't have the name to hand) plants and they are simply a delight of flavour and texture. As we discussed over our dinner, why should we grow 'round red things' when the supermarket does it better? Rather we should grow things we love that we can't find otherwise. Bravo you! My thanks for your sharing!

I enjoy growing the canestrino di lucca, due to it’s mild taste. it lets the delicate flavors of certain cheese and olive oils to shine, where other strong tasting tomatoes would mute the cheese and olive oil

Green "shoulders" is caused by not enough potassium in the soil as well, not only genetics. Thank You, great video and thanks for sharing! Great to see another fan of old historical tomatoe varieties.

Enjoyed this, I will add a couple of these to my 'to grow list' for next year

Great video. buon appetito.

i love the video. Where did you get the pienolo seeds? i find photos of seeds online that show that pronounced nipple, but when I grew them, they did not have a very pointy tip.

Hi Jonny, great video and I can only dream about the taste.😁 I saw your comments on Tony's channel and think you are probably correct re the adverse effects of constriction of the pots. especially as I am led to believe that the feeding roots come from higher up whereas the lower roots are predominately for water. Am I right in thinking that as these are open pollinated varieties that the seed can be saved? Thinking of genetics, will there be any influence from the fact that you grafted the plants this year stored in the seed for next year? Will you be saving any seed from some of your prize specimens this year, and if so would it be possible to try half a dozen? Obviously I'd be delighted to cover P&P etc.😊

Hello Jonny, this is a wonderful video of different Italian toms varieties and I'm still quite new to growing (four or five years) veg, tomatoes are my favourite. I love to grow the beefsteak tomatoes and your's look amazing!! Where do you purchase your seeds please?

Ordered myself some belmonte seeds. Looks really tasty.

great video. the corbarino variety you show do not look like corbarino, though. But corbarino are one of my favorite tasting sauce verities, for flavor.

I know you live in the south. Do you think that your italian tomato varieties would do as well in Mid Wales (in the greenhouse/polytunnel) or do they need better temperatures/sun than we can deliver

Can I ask where you purchased you seeds for Belmonte, Rosa di Sorrento and Piennolo del Vesuvio please? I've tried looking online and a couple of garden centers but haven't had any luck yet. Thanks!

Good video, could you do a similar look at French varieties?