Tomatoes are a magical ingredient in so many ways. When they come fresh off the vine they’re vibrant – a perfect blend of sweetness and acidity that pings off the palate – but when they’re preserved in tins, they become something completely different. Good tinned tomatoes still bring that sweetness and acidity to dishes, but they also bring amazing richness and depth of flavour. They’re experts at bringing out the best in other flavours around them; catalysts for the simple, delicious one-pot dishes that we all trot out in the winter when it’s cold and wet and we just can’t be bothered spending hours at the stove.
We often consider all tins of tomatoes to be roughly the same, but there are stark differences in quality to be found. Expensive doesn't necessarily mean good – it's worth tasting different tins to see which one you like. The ripeness of the tomatoes and the speed at which they are picked and then sealed in tins makes a huge difference to the final product.
A large chunk of our favourite comfort food recipes use tinned tomatoes in some form, often as the base of a braise that evolves over time to be more than the sum of its parts. We’ve narrowed our favourites down to just seven essential recipes – the heroes that we couldn’t manage without over the course of the year. Check them out below!
