Questions about some italian tomatoes/sauce.

[AKSteve]

Any info on the following products:

Carmelina Crushed Italian Tomatoes in Puree
Carmelina Italian Chopped/Diced Tomatoes in Puree
La Terrenta Pomopizza (Imported Italian Pizza Sauce)

Thanks,

Steve

[Christopher]

Hi, AKSteve,
i have recently tried the carmelina brand tomatoes and liked them very much. they are sweet and do not contain citric acid. the ones i tried were the whole tomatoes in puree. i would still say my favorite so far are the LaValle d.o.p.s. they just seemed to be a cut above the others i have tried. i need to revisit all the tomatoes i have tried and see which i like best, since it is so hard to recall the subtle differences from memory. i also like the Nina brand you can get at costco here in the mega-cans. great value at about $2.50!
back to the carmelina tomatoes. i think they are very good, but i noticed a little bit higher priced than the lavalles (at least where i can find them) and not necessarily better than a good ol' can of 6in1's. to me the greatest selling point is the lack of citric acid. i hate the stuff.
Give em a try,
Christopher

[AKSteve]

Thanks for the info on the Carmelina tomatoes. I actually had to place my order yesterday and I ended up just getting the Pomopizza sauce for now to try it out. I might try the Carmelinas next time. I agree with you about the La Valle san marzano's. Amazingly, I can get those locally at one of the grocery stores here in Alaska. They're pretty expensive and they run out of them fairly often though. I did have pretty good luck with a can of Cento peeled tomatoes. I read somewhere that you shouldn't use a food processor on peeled tomatoes because it can cut the seeds and cause bitterness, so I hand crushed the Cento's and was very pleased with the sweet results.

Steve

[Christopher]

HI, Steve,
you are lucky to get the LaValles where you are. i need to drive about 35 minutes to get some. Cento are pretty good tomatoes. i usually open them up and put into a tupperware bowl for a night to try and take the edge off the canny citric acid taste, seems to work. i just started to run them through my plastic tomato mill and it removes all the seeds and skins in the can. the texture is nice and thin, but very uniform if you're into that style. no chunks left there. i like this method, but it can be messy.
i have put them into the blender and pulsed a couple of times and i have never noticed added bitternes. this works very well for 6in1's because of the tomato puree that is added. it is a thicker textured sauce.
Christopher