Tinned tomatoes. Chopped or whole. Which are the best, in your opinion ?

[WildRosie]

I've been using Napolina chopped tomatoes for years in things like ragu, pasta sauce and pizza sauce but I'm wondering lately if I'm using the best I can afford ? I've heard good things about Cirio, Cook Italian and M&S own brand. I tried Del Monte once but they were a little anaemic, IYSWIM. I know the packs of four or six tins are slightly better value; I wouldn't want to pay more than £1.00 for a single tin.

Thankyou.

I used chopped, because I'm lazy.

I find depending on the recipe, I don't like the Napolina tomatoes and cheap supermarket ones work better for me. The Napolina are much thicker, and adding water doesn't get the same result.

Supermarket value ones are the best on a cooked breakfast (unchopped) as they are sweeter and less dense than other brands.

Chopped is generally better in sauces, I don't have a favourite brand. I either buy supermarket own or whatever is on offer.

I'm glad I found this thread. I brought 48 cans of chopped tomatoes back with me from Belgium when I moved back last year, and am just coming to the end of them, and I need to find a good substitute.

The trick seems to be the proportion of tomato. The Belgian ones are 70% tomato; the ones I bought the other day were 60%...

I've just checked and Mutti is 99.8% tomato.

I also discovered they do pizza sauce!

There's no need to pay £1 a tin for Napolini or Cirio, they're often on offer at £2 for a 4 pack. I buy those so I always have a few in and on the rare occasion I run out and they're not on offer, I'll get KTC or supermarket own 'posh' version. To be honest there, doesn't seem to be a huge difference between these types.

But I'll look out for the Mutti ones as they're on offer in Sainsburys until the end of the year.

Another vote for the Lidl tinned cherry tomatoes...so much better than chopped and make a lovely rich sauce.

Lidl tinned cherry tomatoes are great. I refuse to pay lots of money for tinned tomatoes. Passata and chopped tomatoes work really well in sauces for spag bol or similar as it makes the sauce thicker.

I bought two tins of Mutti chopped tomatoes this morning. I bust my own budget at £1.20 each so I hope they're worth the extra expense.

I'll look out for the Mutti ones. As the own brand Belgian ones were so good, I never bothered with anything else. I have Mutti pizza sauce in the cupboard; it was going cheap in Carrefour one New Year at 0.50 cents per tin. I have several!!

Passata for me. Find tinned tomatoes too acidic.

I use whatever is on offer between Cirio, Napolina and Waitrose own. Usually manage to get them half price or a third off. I like chopped.
I tried Mutti as I'd read they were good but personally I couldn't tell the difference so not worth the higher price for me.

DH is well impressed with the DiLeo chopped tomatoes he’s just used. They were 29p from Asda, they had piles of them. He’s more fussy than I am.

I prefer using whole tomatoes, and I just tip them into the pan and mash them with my potato masher.

My two twins of Mutti made a very respectable-looking sauce, whizzed round with my stick blender and stirred for about half an hour with a dash of olive oil and a bigger dash of dry sherry. Plus salt and pepper. I'll sample it in a few days when the flavour has had a little time to mature.

Chopped, supermarket own brand. Sainsbury's are fine.

Ooh, the sherry sounds like an interesting addition @WildRosie!

@OhLittleBoreOfWhabylon

Ooh, the sherry sounds like an interesting addition *@WildRosie*!

I usually put in about half a glass of red or white wine but I didn't have any opened so I went for the sherry instead. I've seen at least one recipe for bolognaise sauce which calls for sherry as well as a glass of red wine.