by Roberta Corradin It's easy to say "pick up some tomatoes", but there's a confusing array of peeled, chopped, whole, stewed, plum and otherwise; in a bottle or in a tube.... If you think they're all the same, read on!

Tomato Road When I see cans and jars of tomatoes lined up nicely at the supermarket, I have to think of a certain stretch of motorway between Napoli and Caserta which becomes tinged in red every summer. (No, this has nothing to do with the mafia…) A seemingly endless stream of trucks loaded with freshly harvested San Marzano tomatoes travel the roads daily, each losing a bit of its precious cargo on the way which splat down on the hot pavement like cartoon hearts. If only the tomatoes didn't go off so quickly, the air, the red and the asphalt grill would combine to create quite a poetic landscape. Don't go thinking all roads lead to a good sauce. If you like pasta and want to dress it with a nice tomato sauce and you can't (or won't) use fresh tomatoes (which, for you lazy folks' information, have the same cooking time as whole peeled tomatoes in the can), go ahead and use canned tomatoes. But don't just grab the first thing you see with a red label. It could easily turn out to be ketchup. Not good on the fusilli. Not good.

Whole peeled tomatoes Chopped peeled tomatoes Bottled sauce Tomato concentrate Types of Tomatoes

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