This post, 'Purple Calabash Tomato - The Ugly One' - was originally uploaded and written by Tyra at the blog The greenhouse in Tyra's Garden
Who said that?
It's not ugly it's rather good-looking it has... character.
It's not ugly it's rather good-looking it has... character.
I just love this photo of Purple Calabash! photo: wikipedia.
Like most of the purple tomatoes they seldom win the 'beauty contest' and this one is not an exception with it's irregular form. I don't think it is a winner for gorgeousness but then who know 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'
A perfect tomato for the kitchen, makes a tangy and wonderful salsa for the broschetta. The flavour of the Purple Calabash is rich and intense like a slowly simmered tomato sauce. Fantastic fresh, thinly sliced on a piece of bread or why not make a tomato ‘carpaccio’, this Calabash tomato really shines in pastes and sauces.
Calabash 'Carpaccio'
Thinly slice the Calabash onto a plate, sprinkle on freshly roughly shredded Parmesan cheese, parsley, spring onion and chilli pepper (medium hot) add herbs of your choice and olive oil. Flaky sea salt and (coarse) black pepper.
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Grow Calabash in full sun, keep the soil moist and well fertilised. Purple Calabash is an indeterminate variety. I start them indoors in March and place them in the greenhouse later in May, outdoors in June. Seeds from Rare Seeds.
The story says:
"In Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, written in 1781, he lists tomatoes as produce common to Virginia kitchen gardens. Jefferson grew his tomatoes at Monticello in 1809 - the first summer of his retirement - and grew them until his death. The ribbed, bulbous, and scarred Purple Calabash tomato dates back to pre-Columbian Mexico. Here the Aztecs combined this "xitomatl" with hot peppers and ground squash seeds to make a salsa that would accompany fish and meat." Montecillo
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7 comments:
Yes, I can almost taste the tomato.
I love oddly shaped tomatoes, they're so wonderfully ugly but so tasty! I'll have to add this to my list of must try tomatoes.
I love oddly shaped tomatoes, they're so wonderfully ugly but so tasty! I'll have to add this to my list of must try tomatoes.
Yum, yum, yum. The purple tomatoes rock my taste buds, and these are so fantastically lobed, which I loved in my Costoluto Genovese (although they were weak performers for me here, sadly). The fact that it was grown in Virginia encourages me. I'll have to try it next year. :)
I am growing some more Cherokee purple tomatoes in my greenhouse, and they do look odd, but taste good!
Like Ulrike I am also growing Cherokee purple tomato in containers. Though Calabash 'Carpaccio' looks odd but they are good to taste. Thanks for the recipe.
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