Having worked in the food and restaurant industry for a decade, I can tell you that no two brands of canned tomatoes are exactly alike. Some tomatoes are velvety, brilliantly red, and full of flavor, while others are tough, underripe, and insipid. To date, we’ve assessed over 25 different cans of whole peeled tomatoes—some with our colleagues at NYT Cooking—to find the best. One of the best ways to make use of a can of San Marzano tomatoes is to make pasta sauce. San Marzano tomatoes are slightly sweet, not too acidic and lend themselves well to flavors like basil and oregano which you’ll find in this marinara recipe. And the best San Marzano tomatoes for your homemade sauces have to be Alessi Pomodoro San Marzano, according to our Test Kitchen.

These tomatoes came out of the can a vivid red color—exactly what you want for making marinara sauce or pizza sauce. The Alessi tomatoes were a bit softer than other options we tried, but for sauces where you really want the tomato to break down and melt into the mixture, that’s ideal. Additionally, these tomatoes weren’t oversweet—another great feature for cooked sauces. For over 120 years, Mutti have been working hard to ‘raise the tomato to its highest expression’ and celebrate Italy’s most iconic fruit. Tester after tester remarked that these Italian-style tomatoes from Cento tasted like a satisfying San Marzano tomato plus a little something extra. Of course, our Test Kitchen pros were right on the money: These tomatoes are real San Marzanos canned with a touch of salt and basil. These tomatoes were exactly what our team wanted of San Marzano tomatoes: sweet without that bracing acidity. While canned, these tomatoes were still plump and juicy.

New customer?

Mutti pizza sauce can’t completely replace authentic Neapolitan pizza sauce, but it comes pretty close. The flavor is delicious, and it works perfectly on Pizza Margherita. I don’t think you’ll find any better pizza sauce in your local grocery store! Conclusion

Whole tomatoes are gently steamed and peeled before being immersed in a smooth velvety passata. These tomatoes have a delicate flavour and a firm and fleshy texture which remains even after long and slow cooks. They are extremely versatile – use them whole, sliced, chopped, crushed or blitzed depending on your recipe.

Pasta sauce

Tarantella: (400g) 85p These have a nice, deep, red colour. Joe and Dino declared them “just above average”. Available from Morrisons. Score: 3/10 When I first opened the can, the smell of tomatoes and basil hit me – a very familiar smell! It smelled fantastic, and I instantly recognized the smell. It really reminds me of proper Neapolitan pizza sauce. This is very promising! How Does It Taste?

If you’re making chili, minestrone or other hearty soups, odds are the recipe will call for a can or two of tomatoes. While many recipes will suggest stewed or diced tomatoes, our Test Kitchen says substitute in a can of San Marzano tomatoes—particularly Mutti Pomodoro San Marzano. All you have to do is dice the tomatoes to the right size and consistency. Appearance: How do the tomatoes look coming out of the can? Are they a rich red color? More orange? Are the tomatoes intact and whole or are they squished and broken apart? I was recommended Mutti Pizza Sauce Spices by a Michelin restaurant chef a while ago. He told me that this is a good sauce that tastes very similar to traditional Neapolitan pizza sauce. As a huge fan of Neapolitan pizza sauce, this made me curious. Could Mutti pizza sauce really be as good as the real deal? When I finally tried it, I was honestly surprised! Mutti pizza sauce Spices usually come in a 400ml, or 14 oz can, which is enough for 4 portion-sized Italian pizzas. I’ve seen it in other containers and sizes too, but the can is what you’ll find most of the time. How Good Mutti Pizza Sauce? You know by now that a can of tomatoes is a great start to many Italian-inspired dishes, particularly pasta sauces. But you don’t need to stop there.

How is it made?

Another consistency throughout Mutti’s history and still present in Mutti today is the company values that are evident in everything they do: sustainability, quality and respect. Mutti provides farmers the resources to ensure sustainable farming techniques, such as the use of drip irrigation and soil humidity meters. As well, in 2010, Mutti began a partnership with WWF Italy to reduce the water footprint through the supply chain of the tomato, saving 1 billion litres of water in just four years. When it comes to tomatoes, quality is important. We’ve used our fair share of tinned tomato products over the years and come to realise that not all tins of tomatoes are created equal – there are massive differences in quality and flavour depending where you buy and how much you’re willing to spend. Good tomato products should have a nice deep red colour, a pure tomato flavour, a freshness and a sweetness. That’s not always easy to find, but for our money, Mutti tomato products have always delivered on all fronts. In fact, the flavor of these tomatoes was so good, you could use them in any recipe where tomatoes are the star. These Hunt’s tomatoes will shine. The taste of tomatoes was good, and I could also taste the lovely basil flavor. The saltiness didn’t bother me when the sauce was used on the pizza. It was well-balanced and tasted like it was made from decent ingredients. How Does Mutti Pizza Sauce Compare to Neapolitan Pizza Sauce? In all our tests, we tasted all of the tomatoes twice: once straight out of the can and heated through, and then again made into Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce. In doing so, we’ve encountered a huge range—from tomatoes that were sweet enough to eat straight out of the can to ones that carried a whiff of dead animal. We were also surprised to learn that price didn’t always correspond to quality.