Canned Cherry Tomatoes Exist and Our Food Editors Love Them

We used to think there was no replacement for fresh cherry tomatoes, but then we discovered Mutti, a canned variety that puts them in a tomato category of their own. "Cherry tomatoes are amazing, but you never see them canned," says senior food editor Andy Baraghani. So what's the deal with Mutti's canned cherry tomatoes, and how should you be using them?

Plenty of recipes are made for canned tomatoes, like these wintery stews. The canning process gives fresh tomatoes a touch of salt and breaks them down so they easily meld into soups, sauces, and casseroles. But cherry tomatoes have two stand-out qualities: They're sweeter than other types of tomatoes, and they're smaller, so there's more skin to add a welcome texture to a dish like this chicken and tomato stew.

Mutti, the Parma-based Italian company, also preserves plum and San Marzano tomatoes, but the cherries are a real discovery. They're grown in southern Italy and preserved at the height of tomato season, when the fruit is at its peak sweetness. Don't use them for a caprese salad; do try them out in your next tomato sauce. Other ways to play around with canned cherry tomatoes? Combine them with onion and olives for this easy pantry pasta, or cook them down with chicken broth as the base of this monkfish and cauliflower chowder. Yep, now that we've discovered you can buy amazing cherry tomatoes year-round, our winter cooking is about to get so much better.

Buy Mutti Canned Cherry Tomatoes, $22.30 for a set of four 400g cans on Amazon

Use those tomatoes stat!

Chicken and Tomato Stew with Caramelized Lemon