Oxheart Tomato 'Cuor di Bue' - The classic from Italy

The "Cuor di Bue" is the undisputed queen of Italian beefsteak tomatoes. In this classic, smooth, and perfectly heart-shaped variety, it is an imposing heavyweight and an absolute highlight for every gourmet.

• Taste: Mild, buttery, and almost acid-free. Its aroma is characterized by a delicate, elegant sweetness. What makes it special is its consistency: it consists almost exclusively of melt-in-your-mouth, firm flesh with only tiny seed chambers – completely without watery "slime."

• Growth: This vigorous indeterminate tomato reaches a height of approx. 1.80 to 2 meters. Its foliage often appears somewhat delicate and hangs slightly – this is completely normal for this variety and not a sign of water deficiency! The fruits themselves are gigantic and often weigh between 200 and 500 grams. Due to this enormous weight, the plant must be well-supported and tied up.

• Special features: Its flawless, pointed heart shape and extremely thin skin make it a visual and haptic sensation. Since it has no deep grooves or ribs, it is wonderfully easy to cut into continuous, huge slices.

• Good to know: A real selling point is its yield: a single slice is often enough to cover an entire slice of bread or fill a burger!

Traditionally, it is used strictly according to its ripeness for two completely different purposes:

1. Semi-ripe ("Invaiato"): For pure enjoyment

In Italy, for salads, they often don't wait until the oxheart is completely deep red and soft. It is traditionally harvested and eaten at the Invaiato stage – i.e., when it is just turning from green to delicate pink-red.

• Why? At this stage, the dense flesh is extremely firm, almost crunchy, and still has a very slight, refreshing acidity that completely disappears when fully ripe.

• Classic use: Sliced wafer-thin or into thick slices as a pure tomato salad (Insalata di Pomodori). Only first-class olive oil and some coarse sea salt are added. No vinegar, no onions, no frills – the tomato is the absolute star.

2. Fully ripe (Deep red): For hot dishes

When the oxheart on the vine has become deep red, heavy, and slightly soft to the touch, it blossoms in traditional warm cuisine. Since it contains hardly any water and seeds, it is a real problem solver here:

• Pomodori Ripieni (Stuffed Tomatoes): Due to its enormous size and stable, fleshy outer walls, it is the undisputed number 1 in Italy for stuffing. It is hollowed out and traditionally filled with risotto rice, herbs, garlic, and Parmesan. When baked in the oven, it does not collapse (unlike watery supermarket tomatoes) but retains its shape.

• Sugo & Passata (Sauce): When cooking a tomato sauce, normal tomatoes often have to be cooked for hours until the excess water has evaporated. Not so with the Cuor di Bue! Since it consists almost entirely of "flesh," it produces an incredibly creamy, thick, and aromatic pasta sauce in record time.

• Panzanella (Bread Salad): Cut into coarse pieces, it is mixed with stale, toasted ciabatta bread, raw onions, and olive oil. The bread soaks up the pure, slightly sweet tomato juice.

Do it like in Italy: eat the oxheart semi-ripe and firm as a fine salad with some olive oil. And if you forget a tomato and it becomes very soft and red – cook the creamiest pasta sauce of your life from it, without hours of simmering!