> I'll give canned tomatoes & beans a pass I favour San Marzano tomatoes for cooking. If they're not in a tin, and whole, they're not allowed to be sold as "DO

> I'll give canned tomatoes & beans a pass I favour San Marzano tomatoes for cooking. If they're not in a tin, and whole, they're not allowed to be sold as "DOP". You can get San Marzano seeds and grow your own; no doubt they're very good. You can buy fresh San Marzano at a greengrocer; they're probably fine too. But San Marzano DOP are picked and tinned only in the foothills of Vesuvius. You also can't get tinned chopped San Marzano DOP; they have to be whole. To be fair, chopping up a tin of San Marzano results in a soupy pulp, which is fine if you're making a sauce or soup, which is what they're best for. Tinned chopped tomatoes tend to be chopped whole - you get the cores as well as the pulp. I take out the cores when I chop them. I've always been picky with tomatoes. I've never heard of tinned lettuce.