We want to recall the travels that, in 1957, brought Domenico Rea, Neapolitan writer, to the Agro Nocerino-Sarnese land to recount the history of this precious variety of tomato and to crown it King of the vegetables.

Now that it’s Spring, the fruit have still not reached their maturation. But we can already imagine, following the traditional rows made with bailing wire and sticks, what will became of this landscape between July and August. Passing by we could admire this Agro land painted in red, the farmers bent over the rows, picking up the tomatoes rigorously one by one with their laboured hands and considering the level of maturation of the fruits.

The miracle of this tomato comes from the hybridization of three different variety of tomatos who were widespread at the beginning of the last century in the fields of the river Sarno’s valley (Fiascona, Fiaschella e Re Umberto).

But it is in the hands of the wise farmers that lies the secret of goodness: only they know, watching the colour and touching lightly the typical extended form, when the time has arrived to pull down the San Marzano from the row and select its pulp thick and juicy for our meal with the family.

The trip of the San Marzano’s tomato always follows the same route every year following the rhythms of nature and our traditions. From the rows to the farmers’ basket, the journey continues to our pantries and then straight to the table of the Italians family.

Hours of cooking, the ragù sauce that “pippea” [boiling] slowly and perfumes the kitchen, the date so long waited with the pasta, will tell us forever about our Sundays, our childhood, our grandparents and the cousins who came to visit us from afar.

Our family history is that of a whole country.