Canned tomato products and what do with them

As with our post on chicken cuts, this is an incomplete list.

Since this list could be endless, we’ve limited it to the most readily available products that we commonly use - i.e. we didn’t include fire roasted tomatoes with chiles. And, many of the products we feature are not canned, but jarred or tubed. Hopefully, you’ll pardon us for these omissions.

Though there are tons of canned tomato brands, our absolute favorite is Bianco DiNapoli Tomatoes, which is relatively new to the market but has a cult following, thanks to their fantastic flavor and pedigree of their founder - famed pizzaiola Chris Bianco. Bonus points: Bianco DiNapoli Tomatoes is an American company, and sources their ingredients from California farmers. Other brands we’re partial to include Mutti, Bionature, and San Merican. NYTimes’ Wirecutter (mostly) agrees with our choices and offers a few others as well.

As canned tomatoes keep forever, we recommend keep a few jars and varieties on hand to help make meal time a cinch.

Tomato Paste

We’ll start here, as this is the tomato product we reach for the most. Most often found in cans, tubes and jars, tomato paste is a thick, concentrated umami bomb, and is what remains after stewing tomatoes until they’ve completely broken down, and all their juices have evaporated. Frequently used in soups and sauces, tomato paste deepens flavors while also serving as a thickening agent, but does need to be cooked down to get rid of it’s metallic flavor. We’re partial to tomato pastes in tubes and jars and tubes, as they can be stored easily and live forever in your fridge. Hot tip: in a pinch, tomato paste can be thinned with water or stock to make a tomato sauce.

Whole Peeled Tomatoes

Usually made from San Marzano or Roma tomatoes, whole peeled tomatoes (as the name implies) are whole tomatoes that have been steamed, peeled, and canned (though they can also be found boxed or jarred) in tomato juice or puree. Extremely versatile, you can use whole peeled tomatoes as they are in soups, stews, or sauces, or break them up to use them as crushed tomatoes.

Diced Tomatoes

Our least favorite of the bunch, diced tomatoes have been cubed prior to canning. We don’t use them often, as they require significant cooking time to soften due to the way their preserved with calcium chloride. But, diced tomatoes are good for recipes where you want tomato chunks after cooking - say a chunky chile, stew or sauce.

Crushed Tomatoes

After tomato paste, this is the tomato product we reach for most. Like whole, peeled tomatoes, crushed tomatoes are packed in tomato puree or juice. Chunkier than pureed tomatoes but smaller (and better!) than diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes are more convenient than whole peeled tomatoes if you’re a recipes where the tomatoes are meant to break down into a sauce or soup. They’re the Goldilocks of tomatoes, if you will.

Pureed Tomatoes

Puréed tomatoes have been seeded and strained into a thick, smooth purée, and are best used in soups or sauces, or any recipe where you want a smooth consistency. However, puréed tomatoes tend to be a bit watery and lacking in flavor, so still benefit from a good, long simmer even though they’re already broken down.

Special shout out: canned cherry tomatoes

We love these lil cuties. Even though they’re not as readily available as their other canned counterparts, we think canned cherry tomatoes are the most underrated canned tomato product, and are excited to see them cropping up in stores. Our favorite version is by Mutti, though they’re also available from Colavita and a few other super market brands. Chockfull of flavor, canned cherry tomatoes contain limited ingredients, cook down quickly, and are packed unpeeled for an extra pop of texture. Food 52 extols their virtues here, and we also love that they’re often found in a 14 ounce can, which we think is the perfect size.