Mutti San Marzano peeled tomatoes, 6x 400g

Product Information

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.

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? 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? Quality ingredients are essential for a good pizza sauce, especially Neapolitan-style sauce. Because it consists of so few ingredients, they all need to be of top quality. Mutti is known for their quality, non-GMO (non-genetically modified) tomatoes, so I was really looking forward to giving it a try. In our quest for perfection, Joe sacrificed four tins from his precious collection. Dino chaperoned two tinned and two jarred tomatoes. I brought the rest, a mix of tinned tomatoes from online delicatessens and supermarkets. Napolina, Waitrose own brand, Heinz, Mr Organic and La Tarantella, all of which can be found in high-street grocers, didn’t score badly but paled in taste beside brands imported from Italy. In general, the standard was higher than we expected, although Ocado’s unpleasant own-brand offering was dubbed “a crime against humanity” by Joe. Joe’s years of tomato tasting had taught him “not to be deceived by trophies, baubles and badges that make them look impressive, when they don’t actually taste so good”. He was inspired. “I’m going to start eating my collection and experimenting,” he proclaimed.

Our Test Kitchen-Preferred Canned San Marzano Tomatoes

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.

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. For over 120 years, Mutti have been working hard to ‘raise the tomato to its highest expression’ and celebrate Italy’s most iconic fruit. 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. 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.

San Marzano and DOP: These terms are sometimes conflated. San Marzano tomatoes, which are prized for their mellow flavor, can be grown anywhere. Certain San Marzano tomatoes are certified DOP, which guarantees that they’ve been grown, processed, and canned in a specific geographical zone in Italy. As our tests show, neither term is necessarily an indicator of flavor or quality. 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. Flavor: How did the tomatoes taste? Did they taste fresh? Did they have that distinctive San Marzano flavor: sweet and not too acidic? Are there any other additional tastes coming through—good or bad? Lastly, and most importantly, how does it taste on pizza? To try the sauce, I made a classic Pizza margarita with mozzarella and fresh basil. Mutti believes every great recipe deserves a great tomato and that there is a best fitting tomato for every dish. From traditional chopped tomatoes for cooking from scratch to ready-made pasta sauces created with traditional recipes and modern cooking in mind, Mutti offers inspiration for all home cooks.