Apartment Therapy The Kitchn | Good Product: Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Tomatoes

Welcome to our
New Design!
NY, LA, SF & Chicago are
apartmenttherapy.com
The Nursery is now
ohdeedoh.com
The Kitchen is now
thekitchn.com
Home Tech is now
unplggd.com
Green Home is now
re-nest.com

Good Product: Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Tomatoes

We used these to make a quick sauce for our thin crust pizza this weekend, and at first the roasted-ness was "Hmm..." but in the end we decided it gave the sauce a richer flavor and married well with the teaspoon of sugar we like to throw in.

We use Muir Glen Organic canned tomatoes frequently but had never bought the fire roasted version. Maybe it's new? Or maybe we just haven't been looking hard enough. Either way, these tomatoes have nice, slightly charred bits and gave our pizza sauce a lot of oomph, which isn't always the case when we make our own on the fly.

In February, we linked to a NY Times article by Mark Bittman in which he describes roasting his own canned tomatoes. We never tried that, and we suspect it makes the tomatoes more caramelized, maybe sweeter.

The Muir Glen tomatoes are supposedly roasted over natural hardwoods and have a smokier flavor, which suited us just fine. We'll definitely buy them again to add an extra layer of complexity to recipes that call for canned tomatoes.

Related Posts from the Kitchn:

Recipes:

(Image: Muir Glen)

Comments (10)

They're not new. They're especially delicious in chili.

posted by arstellla on 2008-03-25 10:04:26
view arstellla's profile

I love them. I make a really simple soup with them that is delicious.

posted by Jeanne on 2008-03-25 10:59:46
view Jeanne's profile

They're delicious in baked mac & cheese!

posted by millzee on 2008-03-25 11:13:43
view millzee's profile

I use these a lot. I've also tried roasting canned tomatoes like Mark Bittman says he does, and that produces a different, but equally good, flavor.

posted by erin79 on 2008-03-25 12:10:03
view erin79's profile

These are a pantry staple for me and I adore them. I'm so accustomed to using them that the un-fire roasted version seems strange and boring.

posted by splatgirl on 2008-03-25 13:46:06
view splatgirl's profile

This brand has been around (at least out here in California) for a long time. YUMMY!

posted by KrapArtist on 2008-03-26 02:03:23
view KrapArtist's profile

thanks for this tip - i was confronted with the canned tomato dilemma once again today (san marzano? other italian? california? organic?) when i saw these and remembered this post. i used them for a marinara sauce for pizza as well, and it came out great.

in the past i've made alton brown's pantry-friendly tomato sauce, and he also roasts the canned tomatoes, which does result in a nice caramelization (and charred bits) on the tomato.

posted by bokeh on 2008-03-28 03:46:11
view bokeh's profile

I totally agree with splatgirl! The chopped ones are esp. god they keep the integrity of their shape really well.

posted by passsy on 2008-03-28 10:52:16
view passsy's profile

Sorry, good, not god

posted by passsy on 2008-03-28 10:52:36
view passsy's profile

My husband uses fire roasted tomatoes in his jambalaya. It's very good, because it does impart that smoky flavor, but it's not overwhelming.

posted by lolax on 2008-03-29 00:59:39
view lolax's profile