The Roma Tomato is a plum tomato. They can be egg or pear-shaped and are generally a good for canning, sautés and sauces because of their small size and firm, meaty texture. Compared to other tomato varieties, these little guys are great for cooking: they boil down faster, have more flesh, less juice, fewer seeds and have great big sweetness and acid flavor. Smaller plum tomatoes can be closer in size to cherry tomatoes and are sometimes called ‘baby Romas.’ All tomatoes are a great source of phytonutrients, several vitamins and minerals and are known especially for the carotenoid lycopene, which packs a strong antioxidant punch and gives them their red color. The Italians are thought to be the first Western society to adopt the tomato into their diets, and their word for it – pomodoro – means golden apple.
How to prepare Roma Tomatoes:
Roma tomatoes are often used in canning or sauce making. They can be enjoyed raw and eaten as any another tomato. Slicing a roma tomato is best done from the halfs: take each half face-down and anchor them to the cutting surface with your hand. From here, make several vertical slices and let the size be determined by how many slices you want. To create a dice, rotate these slices 90 degrees and slice downward, away from you.
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