When it comes to finding a decent and recently imported can of tomatoes, supermarkets are succumbing to their convenience vice and becoming, as it is aptly put, super lazy. While the grocery giants cut corners in order to keep their prices down, it is often the shopper who suffers instead of the lost profits of food corporations.
It wasn’t all that long ago that I had to visit a delicatessen to source such an exclusive luxury as a can of tomatoes for pasta and rice dishes; tins of tender fruit were conspicuously shelved alongside cartons of their worth in golden olive oil, deep sea salted fish and freshly strained ricotta – all contained on our ‘special’ items list.
Nowadays, whole aisles are being obstructed by vicious, jutting crates of tins and jars, covered with recipe suggestions and each extolling the history of their company in the business of the fruit. Not a shopping week goes by without myself tripping over a discarded can of these market impostors, who have brought about a host of horrible cliches to a once elite and secretive armament of the well-stocked pantry…
Thankfully, there is light at the end of the tunnel and salvation for the tastebuds of those discerning about their tomato based dishes can rest assured that the aces of the canned tomato industry have made a comeback. Forget images of mafia acts of sabotage or sneaking into the factories of the competition for their golden goose – there is finally one brand to rule them all.
My local deli still boasts several whole shelves of tomato in an array as vast as there are grains of sand – canned and bottled and boxed, frozen and fresh, whole, diced, sliced, crushed and pureed, each with exultant promises about their authenticity of having been plucked from the dreamy summer vines of Italian soils. Of course, the (culinary) world was a much different place even in the given of a few years past, where the Mediterranean diet has triumphed again and again in the winter and summer kitchens of the adventurous cook.
In a time even before the delicatessen became a commonplace at the end of each street corner, hungry cravings for tomato sauce were sated by the workforce of the mighty backyard on a summer afternoon, where great gatherings of family would purchase boxloads of fresh tomatoes and prepare a coarse paste with an obscure mechanical arm, mounted onto the side of the table.
Perhaps inspired by the same vision as I have just described, Mutti brand has appeared on the Australian market as a direct import from Italy and boasts a quality controlled production facility and absolute freshness in their content. Although originally skeptical of the product due to its unflashy packaging and illustration and a brand title that made me think more of a candy company, I was not disappointed with the content.
It was a surprise to open the can and find a fairly weighty paste as opposed to the predominantly water base of sub-quality tomato brands. The content is a mildly scented, bright red with a tart flavour and a touch of bitterness. Although a pureed whole, the tomato seeds are not visible, nor is the core of the tomato.
One of the first things I noticed when I emptied Mutti into the frying pan was its inherent lack of extra moisture. My frying pan was preheated at a high temperature and oiled only sparingly; within about a minute, much of the tomato had totally dehydrated and I was left with much less than I originally poured in. It made for a very smooth sauce in end that combines well with other ingredients and blends with garlic and salt easily.
For its quantity and quality, Mutti is a good value product that also delivers in taste and versatility. Be weary however, of using this for risotto and starchy pastas, which will drain even more of the moisture from the product and leave only the remnants of the ingredients you added to the sauce in the first place.
A highly recommended sauce for everyday usage and a suitable alternative to the nostalgia of family get-togethers.
W.,
That’s such commonplace nowadays that it’s really beyond a joke. I did my homework with this brand and found out all of their products are, unashamedly, organic and usually produced with about 6kg of tomato per capita of can of pulp.
I won’t name and shame some of the other brands I’ve had the misfortune of using, but let’s just say I went through the competition before deciding this one deserved the crown :)
Once you have your tomatoes, try making this Italian sauce. The secret? A good Jewish wine! That plus our Homestyle Tomato Sauce Spice mix and recipe.
For more information please visit http://www.easyitaliansauce.com.
Contact:
Bruce Entelisano
Sano’s Sauce & Spice Company
231 East Dominick St.
Rome, NY 13440
bentelisan@aol.com
315-281-4227
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Ciao Matt,
My first comment on your blog, but just to let you know I do read regularly :P We tried the bottled version of Mutti passata but found it quite acidic. Yes it is imported directly from Italy as we often see it on the supermarket shelves there. We prefer though to use Annalisa, nice plump tomatoes inside. With the limited imported brands of tomato sauce here in Singapore, we are thankful there is Annalisa. Happy cooking :)
Ciao Germaine,
I’m very happy to hear that you are regular reader; it’s great to know there’s a small audience of followers so that content can be geared more precisely to the volume of visitors.
Anna Lisa is definitely another great contestant in the tomato sauce wars that I have neglected to mention here, though I could always cover in another post. The real issue for me is the number of imitations of true Italian-born canned tomato that have popped up on the market, and it can be exceedingly hard to determine the real deal from the excess of options.
Thanks again for dropping by :)
Hello. I am going to check it, since I saw a comment in another site regarding “Product Review: Mutti Tomato Sauce”. Someone related to italian candies recipes. Thanks anyway.
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Ooh, sounds good. I for one get horribly disappointed whenever I try a new brand and instead of finding “whole peeled plum tomatoes in their juice”, I find tomato juice with a couple of withered up marble-sized pieces of “tomato”.