Delfina’s Craig Stoll Grows Campania’s Iconic Tomato Classic

A winter visit to Italy’s Campania region some 34 years ago was all it took to pique Craig Stoll’s interest in a tomato known as Piennolo. On that long ago day at a farm near Mount Vesuvius, Stoll, chef and co-owner of San Francisco’s Delfina Restaurant Group, noticed large bunches of what appeared to be cherry tomatoes strung from the rafters. What he saw were Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio DOP, also known as Piennolo tomatoes.

Known as much for their ovoid shape that terminates in a distinctive point as their low moisture level, the Piennolo is a paste tomato with status. A tomato whose clusters, on the slopes of Vesuvius, are preserved in ristras (as Californians using Mexican Spanish might say) or in piennolo (as Campanians might say). Piennolo, now a verb, is an ancient practice of preservation by suspending the tomatoes for months in naturally ventilated rooms. Piennolo concentrates the tomatoes’ flavor and—as importantly—facilitates the availability of fresh tomatoes in mid-winter, long past the end of the growing season. “You’ll see them in images of Naples,” says Stoll. “They are emblematic.”

Fast-forward to 2018. Stoll has opened and run San Francisco’s Delfina and other restaurants, including pizzerias around the Bay Area for decades, concocting sauces from Eary Girl and Roma— his favorite varietals—among others. When Stoll and his wife, Annie, purchased a Sonoma County home with two acres of land, Fryer Creek Farm was born. Growing Piennolos was at the top of Stoll’s crop wish list. “I’ve now been to Italy countless times and eaten a lot of Piennolos.” Stoll says. “And I had never seen them around here.”

Known as much for their ovoid shape that terminates in a distinctive point as their low moisture level, the Piennolo is a paste tomato with status.

Piennolo tomatoes can be preserved for months by hanging them in well-ventilated rooms—a process which also serves to concentrate their flavor.

Seeds from Bellingham’s Uprising Seeds and New York’s Fruition Seeds were purchased. Compost was concocted. Years of tinkering yielded little. It was time to call in the pros. Juan Restreppo set the farm up for production, building a greenhouse for tomato starts and installing an irrigation system; Edgar Talaveras runs day-to-day operations. Stoll focuses on cooking and managing restaurants.

Fryer Creek now grows 4–5 varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, as well as Romano and Dragon Tongue beans, peas, and numerous fruits on trees (pomegranate, fig, citruses) and vines (strawberries, blackberries). Talaveras tends 18 chickens and an apiary. The team’s efforts are paying off. Stoll estimated 2024’s Piennolo yield as “a couple hundred pounds.” For 2025, he is aiming to double production. Eighty Piennolo plants are in the ground. Some will be piennoloed in Fryer Creek’s rafters.

Look for Piennolos in many of the dishes at Delfina and Pizzeria Delfina: sauced atop their famous cherry pie, dried and tossed with mussels or pasta and clams, swirled into Zuppa Toscana, and in Piennolo and Summer Squash Gratinata (recipe below). When in season—that is, from July through January—look for Piennolos in the house tomato sauce at Delfina. Tossed with olive oil—“more than you’d expect,” Stoll tells me—torn basil and a smash of slowly stewed garlic, the dish is Piennolo perfection.