Roma

Roma is an egg- or pear-shaped tomato that ripens to a solid red, typically growing to about three inches long. Its walls are thick and meaty with notably few seeds, a shape and structure repeated across descriptions of the variety. That flesh is also drier than typical tomato flesh, letting it cook down into a dense sauce, and its low water content is part of what makes it well suited to canning. The firmness of that thick wall is credited with producing a deep, rich flavor once the fruit is rendered into sauce.

Roma's tangy, meaty flesh lends itself well to tomato paste, sun-dried preparations, sauces, and stews. Beyond preserving, it also finds its way into pasta and spaghetti sauces, salads, and fresh eating, and it is considered well suited to canning, juice, soups, and dehydrating.

Roma was bred in the 1950s by USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists in Beltsville, Maryland, specifically to resist Fusarium wilt, and most Roma vines also carry resistance to Verticillium wilt, giving the variety its VF designation. The vines are compact and determinate, a habit that has made them widely adapted across the United States and well suited to growing in containers. Plants typically reach about a meter in height, with individual fruit weighing around 60 grams.

Roma is a plum tomato that became popular for canning and tomato paste production because of its slender, firm nature, and it is now commonly found in supermarkets across several countries. Commercial production of Roma spans multiple countries, among them the US, Mexico, Australia, and Britain. Most of the plum tomatoes sold in markets throughout the Western Hemisphere are Romas or closely related types.