Ask Giada: When Should I Choose Canned Tomatoes Over Fresh?

Giada explains that sometimes it’s best to use canned tomatoes in your cooking.

Many of us were taught that it’s always best to use fresh vegetables instead of canned or frozen when we’re cooking. But when canned tomatoes are so convenient to keep in the cupboard – and now that there are such high-quality canned tomatoes, like our Giadzy Datterini and Pomodorini – we find ourselves wondering when that advice really matters, and when we can (or should!) use canned tomatoes instead. 

We turned to our resident culinary guru, Giada, for her help. Here, Giada explains when you absolutely should use fresh tomatoes, and when you can take it easy and go with a can. 

To be perfectly honest, unless you’re at the peak of tomato season, it’s almost always a better idea to use canned tomatoes. Out-of-season tomatoes are mealy and bland, so you’re really not getting much tomato flavor out of them at all. Good canned tomatoes, on the other hand, are all picked at the peak of the growing season and preserved right away to lock in all that flavor.

Even when tomatoes are in season, when I’m cooking something simmered like my Parmesan Pomodoro sauce or a soup like pasta e fagioli, where you want a really rich tomato flavor, I’ll still choose a can. Fresh tomatoes have a lot of water in them, which means you have to cook things a lot longer to reduce out that water. Canned tomatoes are already very concentrated, so I can spend less time at the stove (and less time chopping!). 

Where you do want to use a fresh tomato – when they’re in season, of course! – is in salads like a Caprese or my no-cook Checca sauce. These summery dishes are designed to make the most of a fresh tomato, so they really won’t work with a canned version. Salads are obviously all about the texture of biting into a firm, crisp tomato, and the Checca relies on the extra water in a fresh tomato to create enough sauce to coat your pasta.  

That said, not all canned tomatoes are created equal. You want to spend a little more time (and a little more money) to get a really high-quality canned tomato, not just the first thing you see in the grocery store. Italian canned tomatoes are usually specific varieties that have been chosen because they preserve well – they have more flesh and fewer watery seeds to start with, so you’re getting the most bang for your buck when you open the can. My personal favorites are the canned cherry varieties, because cherry tomatoes are already naturally sweeter than larger tomatoes. 

That’s why, when I went to source our own Giadzy tomatoes, I decided to bring in my two favorite Italian cherry tomatoes – Datterini and Corbarini. They’re harder to find in the U.S., but the difference in flavor is just incredible! If you prefer a sweeter tomato sauce, you’ll find the Datterini are so naturally sweet that they season your sauce perfectly. If you’re like me and prefer a more balanced sauce, the Pomodorini are the ideal blend of sweet and tangy. Either way, you won’t need to fix up your sauce with tons of fat or other seasonings – the tomatoes will speak for themselves.