The Canned Tomato You Should Be Using, According To Lidia Bastianich

There's no question that we associate Italian cuisine with tomatoes, but if you're looking for the real deal, not just any will do. In an interview with our sister site, Tasting Table, famed Italian chef Lidia Bastianich offered some helpful Italian cooking tips, including which types of canned tomatoes are worth buying. "What's important about any tomato sauce is that you choose your tomatoes correctly — that the tomatoes are good for the sauce, that they are sweet, that they're not over-watery," she said. 

To achieve this, she says she prefers to use San Marzano tomatoes when cooking. "Why they are good is [they have] thin skin, a lot of pulp, not too much juice — juice is acidic — and not too many seeds," Bastianich said. "Seeds give that bitterness." San Marzano tomatoes (related to Romas) are a variety that's celebrated for their natural sweetness along with the tempered acidity that Bastianich mentions. Cooked down slowly, you'll get a concentrated tomato flavor that's naturally rich in texture, making them the perfect pairing for pasta. 

Lidia Bastianich isn't alone in her preference for San Marzanos — in fact, chefs reach for these famous Italian tomatoes for pasta dishes, as well as the best authentic pizzas. Despite being canned, they lend a particularly bright freshness that pairs well with mozzarella (I'm a former pizza maker who's cranked out thousands of these pies), and there's nothing like them on a Neapolitan.

If you're looking to purchase the real deal, however, authentic San Marzano tomatoes do need some vetting. You'll want to look for cans that have a DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta, or Protected Designation of Origin) certification on the label, which indicates that they're not an imposter product – unfortunately, this can be a real issue. What's good is that most major supermarkets do carry them (I've typically found them on the separate Italian imports shelves), so they are definitely accessible to most shoppers. 

Lidia Bastianich prefers to process these canned tomatoes using her hands, scratching them apart, or she uses a food mill to crush the tomatoes. She avoids the food processor as it can incorporate air into the tomatoes and dilute their color. Once she pours her tomatoes out, she usually rinses the inside of the can with water to get the last bit of tomato residue, which also yields an extra bit of cooking liquid into her sauce. And that's all you really need to do. Your choice in tomatoes might seem almost negligible at first, but chefs like Bastianich swear by their balanced nature for a reason.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and The Takeout.