“A Lovely Bitterness”

Thick-skinned and Vesuvius-cured, this modest tomato is southern Italy’s secret gem

Pasquale Imperato with a bristling bunch of piennolo tomatoes

In the Italian province of Campania, Mount Vesuvius keeps quiet vigil over its tomatoes. Small-hold plots wend their way along the volcano’s southern slope, and most of those plots are planted with Italy’s most famous tomato — the “San Marzano” of red sauce fame. But a very few hectares…