Our best canned tomatoes recipes will make you wallet friendly meals that are tasty and comforting in these fiscally challenging times. Cheap, convenient and easily as delicious as fresh tomatoes in many dishes, tinned tomatoes are a pantry essential that can be used in everything from chillies and curries to chicken cacciatore and tagliatelle Bolognese.
As readers appreciated the collection of best canned beans recipes that we shared last week for thrifty meals that are also easy and healthy, we thought we’d share a compilation of our best canned tomatoes recipes for more wallet-friendly meals.
Like canned beans, canned tomatoes are a pantry essential as far as we’re concerned. In fact, we usually have a handful of tinned tomatoes in the kitchen cupboard at any one time, including a mix of whole roma tomatoes, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste.
Now before I tell you more about our best canned tomatoes recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee.
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Now let me tell you all about our best canned tomatoes recipes.
Best Canned Tomatoes Recipes for Budget Friendly Meals That are Tasty and Comforting
Our best canned tomatoes recipes include everything from a classic chicken cacciatore recipe to a classic Italian tomato sauce recipe for pasta, meatballs, pizza bases or parmas.
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Tomato Sauce
Our classic chicken cacciatore recipe tops our list of our best canned tomatoes recipes. It makes a traditional Italian chicken stew with a luscious tomato sauce.
Called pollo alla cacciatora in Italian, which translates to ‘hunter’s chicken’ – ‘pollo’ is ‘chicken’ and ‘cacciatore’ means ‘hunter’ – it’s a rustic old Italian dish which in Italy is typically eaten alone as a main course with crusty bread such as sourdough to mop up the rich tomato sauce.
In summer we love to serve it with a panzanella – Italian bread and tomato salad from Tuscany – and in winter with hasselback potatoes or creamy mashed potatoes. Just don’t tell your Italian friends!
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Tomato Sauce
Chicken Cacciatore Pasta Recipe for Spaghetti Cacciatore for a Retro-Classic from the 1970s
This easy chicken cacciatore pasta recipe is another of our best canned tomatoes recipes. It makes spaghetti cacciatore although you could use any pasta you have in the pantry. Created to use up leftover chicken cacciatore, the hearty chicken pasta is a 1970s retro-classic from the Italian-Australian diaspora.
Our recipe is based on Terence’s memory of an Italian restaurant his parents took the family to when Terence was a kid, which specialised in chicken cacciatore and spaghetti cacciatore. You could use any pasta you like, but we recommend a thick spaghetti, such as a spaghettoni or even a bucatini, which the sauce will cling to better.
A good quality sea salt, extra virgin olive oil (preferably) or good quality olive oil, and Parmigiano Reggiano or aged Pecorino Romano are all musts, even if you buy a small wedge of cheese and use it sparingly.
Chicken Cacciatore Pasta Recipe for Spaghetti Cacciatore for a Retro-Classic from the 1970s
Rich Italian Tomato Sauce Recipe for Pasta, Pizza, Meatballs, Parmas and More
Make this classic Italian tomato sauce recipe for an incredibly rich tomato sauce that can be served with pasta or meatballs and spread onto pizza bases or parmas and you’ll never buy a store-bought jar of ready-made Italian pasta sauce again.
Another of our best canned tomatoes recipes, it’s quick and easy, although it tastes like it’s been simmering for hours. The key ingredient: a can of tomatoes.
This recipe gets used in my juicy Italian meatballs recipe, my spaghetti with meatballs recipe and my recipe for Italian-Australian chicken parmigiana or chicken parma, as we call the breaded chicken cutlets topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella.
Rich Italian Tomato Sauce Recipe for Pasta, Pizza, Meatballs, Parmas and More
Best Meatballs Recipe for the Tastiest Juiciest Italian Style Meatballs
This is the best meatballs recipe for the tastiest, juiciest Italian-style meatballs, and it’s another of our best canned tomatoes recipes.
Based on a traditional Southern Italian meatball typically made with ricotta, parmesan and pecorino cheeses, the meatballs are fried until brown then simmered in a rich classic Italian tomato sauce. Serve as the Italians do with a rucola salad – or (shhh…) your favourite pasta.
Our recipe is based on the classic Southern Italian meatballs called polpette, made in Calabria (where we spent a lot of time researching guidebooks) and Sicily, with ricotta, parmesan and pecorino cheeses that are fried until brown then simmered in a tomato sauce.
Best Meatballs Recipe for the Tastiest Juiciest Italian Style Meatballs
Best Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe for the Comfort Food Favourite from Southern Italy
Our best spaghetti and meatballs recipe makes an incredibly delicious version of the much-loved comfort food classic with juicy meatballs and a rich tomato sauce made from scratch, and it’s another of our best canned tomatoes recipes.
The spaghetti is combined with the sauce before serving in the Italian style, then topped with the meatballs, plenty of Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh basil. Serve the second it’s ready with crusty bread.
Best Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe for the Comfort Food Favourite from Southern Italy
Russian Meatballs Recipe for Tefteli for Juicy Meatballs Made with Rice in a Creamy Tomato Sauce
My Russian meatballs recipe for tefteli makes some of the juiciest meatballs you’ll ever taste and it’s another of our best canned tomatoes recipes.
Made with ground beef and minced pork, grated carrot, and cooked rice, these incredibly delicious meatballs are coated in flour, fried until brown to lock in their juices, and simmered in a rich, creamy tomato sauce to finish cooking and soak up even more flavour.
This recipe for my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother’s home-cooked meatballs is one of our best meatball recipes. I use a round flat bottomed wok but by all means use your favourite fry pan or skillet.
Russian Meatballs Recipe for Tefteli – Juicy Meatballs Made with Rice in a Creamy Tomato Sauce
Chicken Parmigiana Recipe for a Classic Chicken Parma in the Italian-Australian Style
Our chicken parmigiana recipe makes a delicious chicken parma in the Italian-Australian style that appeared in the 1950s and became a popular mid-week pub counter meal special in the 1980s.
For our homemade parmy, succulent chicken breast fillets with a crunchy breadcrumb coating are topped with a rich tomato sauce and melted parmesan cheese and mozzarella, and it’s another of our best canned tomatoes recipes.
If you made and enjoyed our chicken schnitzel recipe and my rich Italian tomato sauce recipe, above, then I guarantee you’re going to love this endearingly old-fashioned chicken parmigiana recipe for a home-cooked chicken parma in the Italian Australian style of the parmies that were popularised in Aussie pub bistros in the 1980s.
Chicken Parmigiana Recipe for a Classic Chicken Parma in the Italian Australian Style
Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe for a Homemade Spicy Tomato Salsa
This easy red tomato salsa recipe is so versatile that we serve it with a big old bowl of chilli, with quesadillas and huevos rancheros, with my over-the-top nachos, and just as a dip with corn chips, perhaps alongside some guacamole too.
Given how easy and affordable this red tomato salsa is to make, we just can’t justify buying brands like Old El Paso, which we find too sweet, anyway.
As well as costing a few times more than what a home-made salsa costs, store-bought jars of salsa lack the freshness of flavour that comes with using fresh coriander (cilantro), onion and lime juice.
Easy Red Tomato Salsa Recipe – How to Make Homemade Spicy Tomato Salsa
Please do let us know in the Comments below if you make any of our best canned tomatoes recipes as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
