Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio (Spongillo)

[Malabar Circle]

As promised:
The Piennolo (sometimes called Piennelo or Spongillo) is since 2009 a protected designation of origin (PDO), which is the best recognition that can happen to a tomato in Europe. It is a small red oval-shaped tomato, with side wrinkles and a characteristic pointy top. It is grown in Campania in the municipalities part of the Vesuvius National Park, on the slopes of the vulcano on dark sandy terrain. between150 and 450 m of altitude: growing tomatoes is an activity fit for a wonderful protected area like this one, since it needs little irrigation and only manual labour.It is one of the most ancient prdoucts of Campania's agriculture, loved by Neapolitan people so much that they honored it by including it in their traditional Christmas creche.
Piennolo is sold both fresh and conservato al piennolo ("preserved by the pendulum"): it is an ancient way of preserving tomatoes and it consists in binding different bunches of tomatoes together to form a larger bunch (the piennolo), which is bung in ventilated rooms, thus preserving it for the whole winter. As time goes by, the tomatoes lose part of their moist and gain an exceptional flavour. This preservation method is made possible by the peculiar features of the Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio DOP: a thick skin, a fruit well bound to its stalk, a high concentration of sugar and acids which maintain its taste through the long preservation period. These features are tightly linked to the volcanic land it is grown on.
If you grow them home, you must be conscious that they will never taste as the ones grown on the vulcano, but you still get a fairly good tomato.
Great for cooking it is definitely a keeper, meaning if harvested in august you will be able to use it well until jan or feb.

Although not a f1 hybrid, i found it to be very resistant to diseases, very prolific and bears fruit until the first week of october (in florence).
It must be grown vertically up to 80cm (stake it), the fruits must not touch the ground. Even if not common, i grow them in pots where i try to use the finest type of earth i can get. All my other tomatoes go directly into the soil. I'll post some pics later on during the season.
I attach a pic of very young plants. Notice the Piennolo, above growing standard tomato leaves, as compared to the all-american potato leafed Brandyboy below.

Make sure to check the youtube video i embed to get an idea of how it looks alive.
Malabar Circle



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9JtwSqxTaA

[KarenO]

Very interesting and a beautiful video.
Are these tomatoes nearly solid with no or very little gel?
KarenO

[Malabar Circle]

Hi Karen, not sure what you mean by gel, but they are quite solid.

[KarenO]

I would like to see one cut across the middle to see the interior. By gel I mean the wet gel that usually surrounds seeds in the locules of a tomato.
KarenO

[Labradors2]

Thanks for the great write-up and video!

I'm growing Piennolo this year, even though I don't live near a volcano I notice that the soil where they are growing Piennolo del Vesuvio is incredibly dry and I assume that the flavor is very condensed as a result.

Nicky, a fellow Ontario grower here on TV, recommended Piennolo to me, so I am excited to try it

Linda

[Malabar Circle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPotXrqf9JY
forward to 1:44 to see the interior part split in half ....and if you are interested that is a simple recipe...if you have all the ingredients :-)

[Malabar Circle]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

Thanks for the great write-up and video!

I'm growing Piennolo this year, even though I don't live near a volcano I notice that the soil where they are growing Piennolo del Vesuvio is incredibly dry and I assume that the flavor is very condensed as a result.

Nicky, a fellow Ontario grower here on TV, recommended Piennolo to me, so I am excited to try it

Linda

Absolutely correct Labradors. Taste actually develops during the months following the harvest into something very peculiar, but very very good. I wish you best of luck with it.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Malabar Circle

Absolutely correct Labradors. Taste actually develops during the months following the harvest into something very peculiar, but very very good. I wish you best of luck with it.

Interesting to me since it sounds like a de Colgar type,aka winter variety, when you say that taste develops during the months after harvest.

The two countries where de Colgar types were and still are most prevalent are Spain and several Spanish islands near Spain, and also Italy. And I've grown many de Colgar varieties, well,passed them along to my now 7 seed producers that I get from someone in Spain,and expecting a new shipment any day now.

Carolyn

[Malabar Circle]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Interesting to me since it sounds like a de Colgar type,aka winter variety, when you say that taste develops during the months after harvest.

The two countries where de Colgar types were and still are most prevalent are Spain and several Spanish islands near Spain, and also Italy. And I've grown many de Colgar varieties, well,passed them along to my now 7 seed producers that I get from someone in Spain,and expecting a new shipment any day now.

Carolyn

De colgar is a general spanish term that means " to be hanged", referring in this case to tomatoes species that can be hanged to dry. Piennolo means pendolum or to be hanged in oscillation. I've lived in spain fo 2 years and i know what you are referring to. However in terms of quality they cannot be compared to Piennolo which is infact a european protected designation of origin (PDO). This title is not so easily granted and is strictly regional.
The Piennolo can be eaten fresh from harvest however due to a thick skin (which allows for the long coservation) is better to have it stored in clusters (as per my avatar) and used to cook later during the year. The taste that it develops is quite unique and makes a tomato sauce of unparalleled taste and overall quality. I am referring to the ones grown there, in that region. Anywhere else taste and quality will be different, possibly inferior. it is still worth a solid try though.

[Douglas_OW]

Suppose that you sent some of these seeds to Carolyn, and she then grew tomatoes and offered those seeds to other Tomatoville members.
Since Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio (Spongillo) is a protected designation of origin variety name, would you expect the seeds to be given a new, different name? I know that this has happened to many food products- wines, cheeses, etc.
I can appreciate the desire to preserve the designation, but it can also make things very confusing.

Jim

[Malabar Circle]

Originally Posted by Douglas_OW

Suppose that you sent some of these seeds to Carolyn, and she then grew tomatoes and offered those seeds to other Tomatoville members.
Since Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio (Spongillo) is a protected designation of origin variety name, would you expect the seeds to be given a new, different name? I know that this has happened to many food products- wines, cheeses, etc.
I can appreciate the desire to preserve the designation, but it can also make things very confusing.

Jim

Hi Douglas!
I see where you are driving. It is a good point indeed, and a confusing one.
The recognition given to the spongillo is derived not only from the type of tomato plant but to the particular conditions where it is grown: vulcanic location & terrain, climate, wind.
Now, not all years are the same and not all Piennolo come out each season with the same organolectic properties as the climate changes and regional conditions do as well. Yet it remains a DPO product.
My answer to you is this: If you are getting seeds directly from the protected area of the Vesuvio national park where the Piennolo is grown, and you plant them in the US i see no reason to change a name. We will agree though on the fact that the Piennolo produced there will have different characteristics from the original one and will be at best a surrogate of the original one. Not a DPO
If you get seeds from other fellows tomatovilles who have been getting their seeds from other local friends etc...etc... then the original plant even if maintaining certain characteristics has been somehow "polluted". Then as generations pass possibly it wouldnt be fair to maintain the same name as the plant is not the same.
The reason for the existence of the DPO certificate is very simple. You can get original vesuvio seeds and then grow the product in the US but you cant claim and SELL it as a Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio (Spongillo) DPO.
You would have to specify that it is a Pomodorino Piennolo but not DPO, not grown on the vesuvio and does nto reflect same taste and properties, else you would damage people who sell the real one in Italy. You would try to exploit a name whose general characteristics yor product does not possess.
Same thing happened to our Parmigiano cheese...chinese made...When we grow tomatoes for passion in an amatorial fashion the way the members of this forum do, i don't think we have such problems. If you are trying to make money out of it claiming you have a DPO spongillo grown in cheyenne, wyoming then...well, i don't think it would be fair, now would it ?!
Malabar

[MrBig46]

The "Tomato Piennolo Vesuvius PDO" includes old varieties and local biotypes united by morphological and qualitative characteristics more or less similar, the selection of which has been carefully decades by farmers themselves. The names of these ecotypes are popular attributed by the local producers, such as "Fiaschella", "bulb", "Patanara", "Principe Borghese" and "Re Umberto", traditionally cultivated for centuries in the same territory of origin
Vladimír

[rhoder551]

Beautiful video... Looks like a tomato I like to grow but mine is a hybrid, Juliet. I imagine this one, being a heirloom, would have a better taste.

[Malabar Circle]

Originally Posted by MrBig46

The "Tomato Piennolo Vesuvius PDO" includes old varieties and local biotypes united by morphological and qualitative characteristics more or less similar, the selection of which has been carefully decades by farmers themselves. The names of these ecotypes are popular attributed by the local producers, such as "Fiaschella", "bulb", "Patanara", "Principe Borghese" and "Re Umberto", traditionally cultivated for centuries in the same territory of origin
Vladimír

Absolutely correct Vladimir. Although i planted a few years ago some seed of Principe Borghese. The resulting plant is not quite the same as the Piennolo that has evolved now, but very very similar, also it is a winter type to be hanged...de colgar :-)

[Malabar Circle]

Originally Posted by rhoder551

Beautiful video... Looks like a tomato I like to grow but mine is a hybrid, Juliet. I imagine this one, being a heirloom, would have a better taste.

Hi rhoder, if you intend to eat it fresh it's ok, but there are probably better alternatives that come to my mind right away. If you keep it for winter...in my modest opinion, has no equal.