Favorite tomatoes for salsa?
 

Like many others who grow tomatoes and peppers; my wife and I have a real passion for salsa...nothing fancy; just your basic tomato/hot pepper/cilantro/onion/garlic/spices recipe. I was wondering what the folks here feel is their tastiest tomato(es) that they use when preparing fresh salsa. I am growing Amish Paste, Olde Italian Red Pear, Martino's Roma; Saucey, MiRoma, and several other paste varieties. Are there any others I should take into consideration? Looking for that burst of flavor...appreciate your help!

I am trying Opalka this year and from all the descriptions and discussions it sounds like it would make a very good sauce or fresh eating tomato.

Craig

When I think of salsa, I tend to think of the more acidic varieties that have a very deep flavor, firm, but with plenty of flavorful juice and relatively few seeds. Nothing worse than a bland or mealy salsa at one end of the spectrum and totally watery and full of seeds at the other, but certainly sweet AND acidic to complement the other delicious ingredients. I prefer to drop them in boiling water for a few seconds to remove the skins.

[quote=Gobig_or_Gohome_toms;166079]I am trying Opalka this year and from all the descriptions and discussions it sounds like it would make a very good sauce or fresh eating tomato.

Craig[/quote]

I have some Opalkas...hope they work out as described.

My wife makes world class salsa and uses what we have available. We do not plant paste tomatoes. The flavors from the 20 or so varieties really make for some great stuff. Kellogg's Breakfast salsa is pretty cool.

I use a mix of colors in my salsa and it gets raves at parties: green, yellow/orange, red, purple, pink. I just make it a point to not use only the traditional red color. The result is visually appealing and tasty too, since they're home grown, and we all know nothing beats that.
Oh, and if you serve the above with blue corn chips then people will think you are one original chef.;)

Suzie

[quote=PaulF;166153]My wife makes world class salsa and uses what we have available. We do not plant paste tomatoes. The flavors from the 20 or so varieties really make for some great stuff. Kellogg's Breakfast salsa is pretty cool.[/quote]
I can't believe my luck; I have Kellogg's Breakfast plants on the way; as well. Great minds, and all that...
;)

[quote=peebee;166165]I use a mix of colors in my salsa and it gets raves at parties: green, yellow/orange, red, purple, pink. I just make it a point to not use only the traditional red color. The result is visually appealing and tasty too, since they're home grown, and we all know nothing beats that.
Oh, and if you serve the above with blue corn chips then people will think you are one original chef.;)

Suzie[/quote]

I planned on mixing and matching colors this year, but always thought it best to stick with paste-style tomatoes; to keep water down to a minimum. We usually strain it out anyway; though...don't have any green, but have the other colors. Should be a fun 'salsa season'.
:yes:

Last year I made a big batch of salsa using almost all black tomatoes with a few opalka thrown in. I have Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Paul Robeson, Black Cherry, and Black from Tula all mixed in. I canned it all and we didn't open up a jar until about 2 months ago. My wife swears it's the best salsa she's ever had. She's got all the remaining pints of it in a special place on the stairwell and has been coming up with dishes to use it twice a week. The color is amazing and it's so rich in flavor that it's hard to describe.

That black tomato salsa sounds amazing! I love the flavor of black tomatoes. I think I'd be carefully doling out the remaining jars to last as long as possible. :-)

Rio Grande - simply a workhorse little paste-type tomato plant! I'm putting out at least 6 this year based on last year's awesomeness.

Jersey Devil - not as high production as the Rio Grande for me but oh-so good!

Chesapeake - a big tart slicer that mixed well with the cherries.

Lime Green Salad - little & pretty enough to be an ornamental - the fruit is green when ripe - neon greed innards & tasty in fresh salsas b/c of its citrusy "zing". Growing enough of these & other green-when-ripes (including Green Doctors) to make green salsa this year.

BTW - Rio Grande & cherry tomatoes of all colors & sizes made us the most awesome batches of salsa (4 types - 80 pints) last year. Yeppers, skins, seeds & all - they are delicious - make awesome alternative to cocktail sauce for winter roasted oysters, summer catch shrimp & crab & of, course, dipping with the good old chip of your choice.

I am trying Opalka, Heidi, Hard Rock, San Pablo, Plum Lemon & Powers heirloom this year for their salsa goodness trial. Will try fire roasting a bunch too (as if it isn't hot enough here in the summer LOL).

More excellent suggestions...thanks to all!

Found this thread while trolling T-ville and thought I'd add my 2 cents.

For the second year Black Plum has been our "go-to" tomato for salsa. We've tried others, but BP really stands out in Rick Bayless's roasted tomato salsa. Last year was a terrible year here (NW Indiana) and BP produced extremely well. This year, it was one of our first plants to bear fruit (around July 4) and two plants have been yielding 3-4 tomatoes a day--every day--since then. It may not be the best for fresh-eating variety, but for salsa and sauce, it totally rocks.

I've found that if the tomato tastes good sliced, it will taste good in the salsa. So, my last two batches of salsa had as many as 30 different varieties of tomato and perhaps 10 different peppers. I also add both red and white onion. This year, we are canning salsa - 8 quarts and 22 pints so far.

Ted

Today, we used about 15 green sausage tomatoes, (they were on the small side) 1 great white, 2 cheyenne peppers (seeds removed), juice of 1 lime, 1/3 white onion, 1/2 bunch cilantro, 2 cloves garlic, about 1/2 tea cumin, and a little salt & pepper. Great color, amazing flavor.