What is the best type of tomato for making salsa?
Overall, for a salsa tomato, you are looking for something with enough meaty firmness to hold up well and not turn your salsa into puddles of juice with little substance. There are a lot of good options.
The best tomatoes for making salsa can also depend on what kind or style of salsa you like to make the most.
Jump to:
- Fresh or Canned Salsa? Chunky or Restaurant Style?
- What to Look for In a Good Salsa Tomato
- Top Recommendations for Tomatoes for Salsa-Making
- 1. Big Mama
- 2. Little Mama
- 3. SuperSauce
- 4. Fresh Salsa
- 5. Amish Paste
- 6. Roma/Roma VF
- 7. Orange Roma
- 8. San Marzano
- 9. Pozzano
- 10. Yellow Pear
- 11. Supremo Hybrid
- 12. Saucey
- 13. Hog Heart
- 14. Hungarian Heart
- 15. Heirloom Marriage™ Marzinera
- 16. Nova
- 17. Big Beef
- 18. Bush Early Girl
- 19. Yaqui
- 20. Zenzei
- Add an Acid for Safe, Shelf-Stable Salsa
Fresh or Canned Salsa? Chunky or Restaurant Style?
For making Pico de Gallo or fresh salsa, slicers, and beefsteaks work well, so there are some on the list here. Slicers and beefsteaks are easy to slice and dice into chunks, have great flavor, and hold together well. These are also often the highest-yielding tomato plants, so you will be able to make a lot of salsa with beefsteak types.
For canned salsa and what is often referred to as “restaurant style” salsa, roma-type plum, and paste or saucing tomatoes are the better choice. You get a thicker consistency while also having enough to blend into the sauce. They’ll hold up better without shrinking too much when cooked.
Roma and paste/sauce-type tomatoes are also the best choices for chunky-style salsa because they’re meaty enough not to break down too much when they’re heated.
What to Look for In a Good Salsa Tomato
Technically speaking, any tomato can be used for making salsa. There are several things that you should look for in a salsa tomato, though:
- Few seeds (or seeds that are easily removed and leave enough meaty tomato behind to work with)
Hint: Too many seeds can make salsa watery...as well as less palatable (because who wants to just eat tomato seeds?) - Meaty structure
- Coreless or nearly coreless
- Firmness (so they hold some chunky shape even when chopped and cooked down)
- Not too juicy (too much juice can make a thin, watery salsa or even if you drain the juice off, it makes for a low yield per pound—hard to work with)
- For canned salsa, tomatoes that peel easily without crushing (fresh salsa usually keeps the skins on)
Top Recommendations for Tomatoes for Salsa-Making
We’ve put together a list of several tomato varieties for making salsa. These are the tops all-around for salsa-making, but they also represent a range of climate adaptability, color, flavor, and growing methods, like growing in the garden, greenhouse, or in containers and raised beds.
This list should give you not only the best tomatoes for salsa but a selection to choose from to suit your particular growing needs.
1. Big Mama
| Flavor: | Very good, balanced |
| Type: | Plum, canner |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | Large, 3” x 5” |
| Uses: | Salsa, all canning, saucing, cooking |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable for all climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Good (not well documented) |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes, trellising, or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 80 |
| Yield: | Very High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Big Mama Tomato Seeds:
Burpee Seeds calls Big Mama “The new standard in homegrown paste tomatoes.” They’re large and easy peeling with few seeds, and they produce prolifically on indeterminate vines. You’ll get plenty of meat for your salsa from these plum-type tomatoes.
2. Little Mama
| Flavor: | Excellent |
| Type: | Plum |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 3 to 4 ounces |
| Uses: | Fresh and cooked/canned salsa, chutney, canning, saucing |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable for all climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Good (not well documented) |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 70 |
| Yield: | Very high |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Little Mama Tomato Seeds:
Little Mama is meaty and high-producing, with firm flesh that is said to be perfect for making salsa and chutney (among other types of cooking and canning). It is a smaller fruit at 3 to 4 ounces each, but the tomatoes grow in clusters, and Burpee says that you can cut a cluster for a whole harvest. The skins are also clear, thin, and easy to peel. Little Mama makes up in production for its small size and is also early to mature.
3. SuperSauce
| Flavor: | Excellent (fresh and cooked) |
| Type: | Giant plum |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | Large ½ to 2 pounds each |
| Uses: | Fresh and cooked salsa, sauce, canning, fresh eating |
| Climate Notes: | Suited to all climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Excellent: Blight resistant (and early maturing, often beats blight), Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 70 days |
| Yield: | Very high |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy SuperSauce Tomato Seeds:
SuperSauce, a Burpee Seed exclusive, is the largest sauce tomato at 1 ½ to 3 pounds per tomato! But it comes with other notable features, too. It is easy to peel, highly disease resistant, and has a flavor worthy of slicing and fresh eating (something a lot of people use this “sauce” tomato for as well).
4. Fresh Salsa
| Flavor: | Very good |
| Type: | Plum |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 4 to 5 ounces, 3” x 2” |
| Uses: | All salsas, especially fresh, bruschetta, light saucing |
| Climate Notes: | Suited to growing in all areas |
| Disease Resistance: | Very good: Fusarium wilt, Root-knot nematodes, Verticillium wilt |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, support helpful, bushy nature, 36 – 40 inches tall, good for container growing |
| Days to Harvest: | 65 to 75 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Determinate |
Where to Buy Fresh Salsa Tomato Seeds:
Fresh Salsa is the perfect fresh salsa tomato, recommended for bruschetta, Pico de Gallo, all types of salsa, and lighter Italian sauces. It is said to hold together well, even when finely chopped. It is all meat, large and dripless. Matures early, setting fruit all at once (determinate), and often beating blight to harvest before blight is present.
5. Amish Paste
| Flavor: | Very good: sweet, meaty, juicy, classic tomato flavor |
| Type: | Multi-purpose paste/canning tomato |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 8 to 12 ounces (one of the largest canning type) |
| Uses: | Multi-purpose; All types of salsa, canning, paste, sauces, soup, fresh eating, slicing, salads |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable for all regions, developed in the northern U.S. Midwest |
| Disease Resistance: | Good, not well documented, resilient from blight with treatment |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages, trellising) |
| Days to Harvest: | 75 to 85 days |
| Yield: | High; continuous production until frost |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Amish Paste Tomato Seeds:
Amish Paste is an excellent all-around salsa, cooking, and multi-purpose canning tomato. It is large, meaty, with heirloom flavor, has few seeds, and is coreless. You can use almost the entire fruit. It handles blight well and is a reliable heirloom variety for many good reasons.
6. Roma/Roma VF
| Flavor: | Good; classic Italian tomato flavor |
| Type: | Canner, Roma, Plum |
| Color: | Pink-Red |
| Size: | 2 to 4 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa; Most well-known for all types of saucing, canning, cooking, and juicing; good for fresh eating |
| Climate Notes: | Suited to growing in all climates; water deeply during dry weather |
| Disease Resistance: | Good: Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 76 to 78 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Determinate |
Where to Buy Roma VF Tomato Seeds:
Romas are well-known as the go-to variety of tomatoes for salsa and other types of canning and cooking. The Roma VF variety is an improved variety with good disease resistance, known to be reliable and high-yielding. There are very few seeds in these meaty tomatoes.
7. Orange Roma
| Flavor: | Very good |
| Type: | Roma, Italian |
| Color: | Yellow-orange to orange-red |
| Size: | 6 ounces |
| Uses: | All canning, cooking, stewing, preserving, sauces, juicing, drying/dehydrating |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable in most climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Fair, nothing significant of note |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 65 to 75 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate, Semi-determinate |
Where to Buy Orange Roma Tomato Seeds:
Orange Roma is said to be nearly seedless and is almost all meat, a bonus for salsa-making. If you’re looking for a milder or colored tomato for your salsa (or perhaps one to mix in for the show), you’ll like Orange Roma’s yellow-orange color. An early ripening variety.
8. San Marzano
| Flavor: | Very good; classic Italian flavor |
| Type: | Italian canner |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 4 to 5 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa, cooking, saucing, stewing, canning, dehydrating, sun drying, paste |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable for all climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Good; not specifically bred for resistance, but displays resistant tendencies |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages, trellises) |
| Days to Harvest: | 80 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy San Marzano Tomato Seeds:
San Marzano is considered by many to be “the” Italian canning tomato. Chefs love it for its meatiness and classic Italian flavor. Seeds are easily removed, and lower moisture content means it does not need to be cooked as long as other varieties to reach the desired consistency (and drain more quickly for salsa-making).
9. Pozzano
| Flavor: | Old-world Italian |
| Type: | Italian, canning |
| Color: | Orange-red |
| Size: | 4 to 6 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa (best for cooked or canned salsas), saucing, cooking, paste |
| Climate Notes: | Suited to all climates; does well in greenhouses |
| Disease Resistance: | Very good: Blossom end rot, Tomato mosaic virus, Fusarium wilt |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages), good greenhouse variety |
| Days to Harvest: | 72 days |
| Yield: | High -- long season |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Pozzano Tomato Seeds:
Pozzano is a longer, thinner tomato which means there is more skin-to-meat ratio, but it also lends a nice, slightly acidic taste, and it makes the list because it is a good option for a greenhouse, hoop house, or covered growing. It is also resistant to wilt diseases and blossom end rot. Best for cooked salsa as the flavor improves with heat.
10. Yellow Pear
| Flavor: | Very good; mild, sweet |
| Type: | Small pear |
| Color: | Yellow |
| Size: | 2 to 4 ounces (1 ½”) |
| Uses: | Fresh salsa, fresh eating, salads, Hor d’oevres |
| Climate Notes: | Suited to all climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Very good: Late blight, Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt, Anthracnose |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 75 to 80 days |
| Yield: | Very high |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Yellow Pear Tomato Seeds:
Yellow Pear is a small tomato, but it is a nice choice for salsa and tomato preserves. It is especially worth considering if you want either a more colorful or milder, sweeter salsa tomato. Yellow pear can bring a nice balance to tangy salsa recipes. Plants are noted as easy to grow and very productive. Individual fruits are small, but there are many of them on disease-resistant plants.
11. Supremo Hybrid
| Flavor: | Very good |
| Type: | Plum |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 5 to 6 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa (fresh or cooked/canned), sauces, canning, salads, fresh eating |
| Climate Notes: | Does well in all types of climates, heat tolerant, handles cold and temperate climates well, too |
| Disease Resistance: | Excellent: Bacterial Speck, Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt, Root-knot nematode, Tomato spotted wilt virus, Leafspot |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, compact, and ideal for containers and patio planting/raised beds |
| Days to Harvest: | 68 days |
| Yield: | Very high |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Determinate |
Where to Buy Supremo Hybrid Tomato Seeds:
Supremo produces large to extra-large plum/roma-type tomatoes on determinate vines, but as the fruits hold well on the vine, it’s easy to stagger your harvests. It is noted as a juicy but meaty, blocky tomato that is excellent for salsa, cooking, canning, and fresh eating, too. That kind of versatility makes it ideal as a salsa tomato. One of its biggest claims to fame is its disease resistance.
12. Saucey
| Flavor: | Very good; rich |
| Type: | Plum |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 3 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa (fresh and cooked), sauces, canning |
| Climate Notes: | Suited to all climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Good: Blossom End Rot |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 85 Days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Determinate |
Where to Buy Saucey Tomato Seeds:
Saucey is a plum-type tomato that is meaty and rich in flavor. Tomatoes grow in clusters and are easy to pick and to peel. They contain few seeds and are resistant to blossom end rot.
13. Hog Heart
| Flavor: | Excellent (shines whether eaten fresh, canned, or frozen) |
| Type: | Paste/canning tomato |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 6 to 8 ounces |
| Uses: | All types of salsa, canning, saucing |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable for all climates, does well in Northerly climates but may be too long for extreme northern regions |
| Disease Resistance: | Good; not well noted |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 86 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Hog Heart Tomato Seeds:
Hog Heart is a paste tomato that comes originally from Italy and was taken to the U.S. in the early 1900s. It is a long paste tomato that looks a lot like a red banana pepper or a long Italian pepper. Fruits are about the same size, at 6 to 8 ounces, but they are all meat and have hardly any seeds at all.
Though the name makes it sound like an oxheart variety, it is not. This tomato gets its name because the tomatoes often grow as doubles and are heart-shaped when they do (and twice the size!). Even tripled tomatoes have been known to happen.
14. Hungarian Heart
| Flavor: | Excellent; traditional sweet heirloom tomato flavor |
| Type: | Oxheart |
| Color: | Reddish-pink |
| Size: | Large, 16+ ounces |
| Uses: | Fresh or cooked/canned salsa, sauces, fresh eating, canning (multi-purpose) |
| Climate Notes: | Suited to all climates. Originated in Hungary |
| Disease Resistance: | Good; Crack resistant |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 80 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Hungarian Heart Tomato Seeds:
Hungarian Heart is an heirloom oxheart-type tomato that originated near Budapest, Hungary. The tomatoes are large – one pound or more per fruit – and they are meaty and firm. This oxheart variety is almost completely coreless and has few seeds, making it almost all meat.
It’s said to be a cook’s dream because it is excellent as a fresh slicer, salad tomato, and also a wonderful cooking and canning tomato. Excellent for making roasted tomato salsa.
15. Heirloom Marriage™ Marzinera
| Flavor: | Excellent; rich, flavorful |
| Type: | Paste, canning |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 2 to 3 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa, cooked and fresh, canning, saucing |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable to all climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Good; good hybrid vigor |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 70 to 75 days |
| Yield: | High; early producer, continuous harvests |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Heirloom Marriage ™ Marzinera Tomato Seeds:
This Heirloom Marriage™ tomato variety is one of several developed by Panama Seed. Heirloom Marriage tomatoes are crosses of two well-loved heirloom tomatoes. This gives the plant and its fruit favorite characteristics from each parent on a plant with hybrid vigor.
For the Marzinera tomato, it is a cross between a San Marzano and a Cream Sausage tomato.
“Heirloom Marriage” is a trademark of Panama seeds, but the seeds are sold by other seed companies, too.
Heirloom Marriage™ Marzinera is said to be one of the richest-tasting saucing and canning tomatoes. It ripens early, and the tomatoes are very meaty, making them an ideal choice for flavorful salsa, especially in canned or cooked recipes.
16. Nova
| Flavor: | Excellent |
| Type: | Roma, canning |
| Color: | Bright red |
| Size: | 1 ½ x 2 inches |
| Uses: | Salsa, fresh or canned, saucing, dehydrating |
| Climate Notes: | Suited to all climates; reviewers report success in cold, wet, and a variety of conditions |
| Disease Resistance: | Good; not well documented, but reviewers say no splitting or blossom end rot; handles wet conditions |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 65 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Determinate |
Where to Buy Nova Tomato Seeds:
Nova is an early-bearing roma-type tomato that grows as a compact plant, making it a good choice for containers, small spaces, and raised beds. At just 65 days to maturity, you can be making sauce and salsa from these tomatoes before almost any other variety. As a roma type, they’re meaty and firm, too.
17. Big Beef
| Flavor: | Excellent, rich, old-style tomato |
| Type: | Beefsteak |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | Large, 12 to 16 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa, especially fresh salsa, slicing, salads |
| Climate Notes: | Reliable in all climates; heat tolerant; withstands cool, wet conditions well |
| Disease Resistance: | Excellent: Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt, Anthracnose, Root-knot nematodes, Alternaria stem canker, Tomato mosaic virus, Gray leaf spot, Late blight, Crack resistant |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 73 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Big Beef Tomato Seeds:
Park Seed describes Big Beef Tomatoes as being “extra large, extra meaty, extra tasty.” This is the beefsteak that checks all the boxes for making salsa. It is flavorful and keeps its old-world flavor. It is also one of the highest-yielding tomato varieties, yielding twice as much as other beefsteak varieties.
Big beef has excellent disease resistance. Although it is known to be heat tolerant, it also handles cool, wet weather well.
18. Bush Early Girl
| Flavor: | Very good |
| Type: | Slicer, multi-purpose |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 6 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa, fresh and cooked/canned;Fresh eating; slicing, salads; Canning, sauces |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable for all climates, good for short-season growing and raised beds, containers, and patios |
| Disease Resistance: | Very Good: Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt, Root-knot nematodes, Tobacco mosaic virus |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, compact grower, small cages or stakes are helpful |
| Days to Harvest: | 54 days |
| Yield: | Very high |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Determinate |
Where to Buy Bush Early Girl Tomato Seeds:
Bush Early Girl is a top choice for container growing and growing in small spaces and raised beds. It is a prolific producer of meaty, multi-purpose tomatoes, helping you make the most of your small space. Bush Early Girl is as good eaten in fresh salsas as it is in cooked or canned recipes, and the firm, meaty flesh holds up well in the chopping and processing. The plants grow to their mature height of three feet quickly and then produce up to 100 or more tomatoes per plant.
19. Yaqui
| Flavor: | Very good; sweet, flavorful |
| Type: | Plum |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 3 to 4 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa (fresh and cooked or canned), sauces, canning; Fresh eating, salads |
| Climate Notes: | Suitable for all climates |
| Disease Resistance: | Very good: Anthracnose, Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt, Root-knot nematodes |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, compact grower good for containers and small spaces, light staking helps |
| Days to Harvest: | 75 days |
| Yield: | High |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Determinate |
Where to Buy Yaqui Tomato Seeds:
Yaqui is another variety that was chosen for this list, specifically with container gardeners in mind. The variety is small and compact and does well in containers, raised beds, and small spaces. The flavor is particularly good, good enough to eat fresh, too. It is an excellent container tomato for salsas and saucing.
20. Zenzei
| Flavor: | Very good |
| Type: | Plum |
| Color: | Red |
| Size: | 4 to 5 inches, 3 to 8 ounces |
| Uses: | Salsa, especially cooked or canned, canning, saucing |
| Climate Notes: | Well suited to hot, humid climates, the American Great Lakes region and the Midwest |
| Disease Resistance: | Excellent: Blossom end rot, Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt, Tobacco mosaic virus, Tomato spot wilt virus, Tomato leaf curl virus; flesh resists spotting and cracking |
| Growing Conditions: | Full sun, fertile soil, slightly acidic, needs support (stakes or cages) |
| Days to Harvest: | 70 to 80 |
| Yield: | Very high |
| Determinate or Indeterminate? | Indeterminate |
Where to Buy Zenzei Tomato Seeds:
Zenzei is an All-America Selections winner that is noted for its suitability to grow in the American Midwest and similar hot, humid climates. It matures early and is indeterminate, yet it is a bushy plant that remains “tidy” and can tolerate tighter spaces, like raised beds.
For all of this, it has excellent disease resistance and is noted as a tomato to help gardeners succeed. Fruit is plum-shaped, and plants do not need pruning, even though they are indeterminate plants (easier for new and busy gardeners).
Add an Acid for Safe, Shelf-Stable Salsa
Any time you are canning tomatoes, such as in a canned, shelf-stable salsa, it is recommended that you add an acid for shelf-stable safe canning of tomatoes.
In salsa, lime juice is usually added for flavor, anyway, and that will normally take care of the acid needed. When you add acid to tomato products, you don’t need to worry about the acidity level for canning, even if the tomatoes are colored varieties or at unknown stages of acidity (which changes with ripeness—see the link above for more on this topic).
