I’ve been experimenting with different pasta sauces the past two weeks and wanted to share my progress.
There are many articles/videos that review and rank popular US canned tomato brands/types. Unfortunately, I’m in Canada so we don’t get a lot of the popular US tomato brands here. So I decided to try and pick a favorite canned tomato myself. I think I’ve finally settled on a recipe and canned tomato after eating a ton of pasta.
It needs oregano and meat. Maybe some paprika and and more of the spices mentioned. Also, most San Marzano tomatoes are fake. They’re not actually made in the volcanic soil outside Napoli. You can use any good quality tomatoes. Just use a good crushed tomato and save yourself time.
The secret of Italian food is to use basic fresh ingredients and cook them well. You don’t need special imported tomatoes from Italy. Maybe just the cheese. Everything else is at your farmer’s market.
I found that, unsurprisingly, the pasta sauce is highly subjective. That’s why I went out and bought 4 different cans and made it 4 times. I then taste tested each. I also let my husband taste them as well.
For me, what I found was I liked the DOP one the most, because it felt the most balanced. My husband on the other hand preferred the Mutti peeled tomatoes which I thought was a touch on the sour side. However this wasn’t surprising to me because he liked sour. I think in the end you really just need to try it yourself and see what tastes best to you.
All that said, my choice of tomatoes is probably the Mutti in the end because while the DOP one tastes best it was also more than 2x the price of the Mutti. And I just don’t think the taste is worth 2x the price.