The Canned Tomatoes Bobby Flay Insists On

It's easy to assume that trained chefs prepare all of their own meals from scratch. While they might agree that homemade is better, there are certain store-bought ingredients that can be the base of a delicious dish. When celebrity chef Bobby Flay wants homemade tomato sauce, he doesn't use a mill to remove the seeds and pulp from fresh tomatoes. Instead, he reaches for those grocery store cans.

"I have tons of canned tomatoes," Flay says of his pantry setup, which he revealed on Instagram. He describes his perfect canned tomatoes as "good-quality, San Marzano, Italian-style tomatoes." Flay uses the Mutti brand (the same brand Giada De Laurentiis trusts), saying the tomatoes are great for homemade sauce: "You need [canned tomatoes] for sauce; let's face it." Based on the number of cans in his pantry, he uses them pretty often. Italian brand Mutti uses tomatoes that are grown in Italy and only picked in the summer months, which the brand believes is what gives them such good quality. Apparently, Flay agrees. Ina Garten swears by canned tomatoes, too, and uses them to thicken her pot roast.

There are easy ways to upgrade canned tomatoes, and surprisingly, Bobby Flay also keeps pre-made sauce in his pantry for those days when he needs a quicker meal. "You can embellish upon it," he says of the jarred sauce. "If I want to eat, literally, in a few minutes, I... get some tomato sauce going." Flay says he enhances the sauce with ingredients such as Calabrian chilies, crushed red peppers, fresh basil, and oregano. "Whatever kind of herbs I have," he adds.

Adding more ingredients gives the sauce a homemade feel without the long simmering time, and there are plenty of easy ways to build upon a homemade sauce. Besides Flay's go-to ingredients, you can also add a little olive oil and sauté some chopped onions and garlic, which give the sauce a greater flavor and aroma (not to mention your kitchen will smell like you cooked for hours).