Rob DiNapoli Talks Tomato. (And why you might care about what's inside the can...)

Should you be buying the domestic celebrity of canned tomatoes for your pizza sauce and other culinary quests?
 
Yes, this is one of those burning questions you’ve never asked yourself.
 
And you’re about to realize just how much you can suddenly care about tomatoes in a can.

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I was in Vegas earlier this week, where I had a great conversation with my favorite tomato canner.
 
Does that sound odd?
 
Of course it does. Everything about Vegas is odd, including the International Pizza Expo—the industry’s most epic of trade shows.
 
But homemade pizza people color outside the norms.

We are, to use the vernacular, non-normie. That’s a designation reserved for people like tattoo enthusiasts, nudists, philatelists, denizens of the demi-monde, and soap carving experts.
 
Not to mention home pizzamakers (among others).

 
And yes, I even checked with Google Generative AI, which assures me that we are not normal.
 
Since you’ve read this far, you may not be normal, either.
 
So come join me in this unusual convo with the king of quality tomato goodness.
 
It will be enlightening.
 
If you read my stuff with any regularity, you know that I’m a fan of Bianco DiNapoli organic tomatoes. (Affiliate link!)
 
This quirky little product is a partnership between Rob DiNapoli (star of this missive) and Chris Bianco (star of world-famous Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix).
 
 
You may also know that I used to beat the drum for true, DOP San Marzano tomatoes imported from Italy.
 
I still like them and buy them on occasion. I sometimes even buy the untrue, non-DOP tomatoes.
 
But the tomatoes I now order in bulk from Amazon are Bianco DiNapoli. 
 
And since I like talking to pizza people, Rob DiNapoli has been on my radar for several years now.
 
I first heard him on Peter Reinhart’s Pizza Quest podcast.

ABOVE: In my kitchen, a saucepan full of the product itself and the can from which they originated.


Like Peter, Rob DiNapoli sounds like a regular guy—which makes sense.
 
Canning tomatoes is very much a down-to-earth business.
 
And since Mr. DiNapoli sells tomatoes to the pizza industry, he has a booth at Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.
 
I happened to be passing that booth with the very famous Albert Grande, who knows everybody in the pizza business. 
 
Albert buttonholed Rob and introduced us. And just like both Albert himself and Peter Reinhart, Rob DiNapoli really is a total pleasure and an incredibly nice guy.
 
Since I had met him in the throes of trade show energy, I figured I could ask Rob a few simple questions that would demystify his tomatoes and give you cause to perhaps enjoy his premium product as much as you enjoy those Great Value organic tomatoes you've been procuring from The Big W.
 
What follows is almost exactly how the conversation went down, along with some editorial interjection…
 
 
“Rob, we’ve been Facebook friends for a while, and it’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person. So, why should I be buying a canned tomato?”
 
“Versus a fresh tomato?”
 
“Yes.”
 
“Oh, my goodness. Well, there’s so many reasons.
 
“One is just the cost. The California industry has become so efficient with vine ripened tomatoes, getting them planted, harvested, and into the cannery quickly, that it’s just pennies of what we pay compared to the fresh market, which is generally a green tomato that is gassed as close to market as possible.
 
“Now, you can get good heirlooms during the summer, but really there’s nothing more efficient than the California tomato industry. It’s not subsidized. There’s no protection and tariffs (except recently), but basically, it’s free enterprise and California has held its own because of the weather and technology.
 
 
“It is a very, very efficient way of getting a great tomato and all the nutrients that come with it.”
 
OK. Score one point for the canned tomato.
 
I can’t tell you how many times people who don’t understand the value of high-quality canned tomatoes want to take me to task for encouraging their use.
 
I love a good, fresh tomato.
 
In fact, one of the Proustian foods of my youth is a slice of pumpernickel toasted to crunchy with a thin spread of mayonnaise, and then a couple of slices of fresh tomato with salt and fresh-ground black pepper.
 
But most so-called fresh tomatoes in the supermarket are more like the idea of a good tomato than an actual good tomato.
 
And when you’re making a cooked sauce for pizza or pasta, the canned tomato can be your friend.
 
 
I then said to Rob, “I can’t ask why I should buy your tomato over someone else’s tomato, because it’s an unfair question. But can you tell me why I love your tomatoes as much as I do?”
 
“Well, that’s a tough question. Because I think like my partner Chris [Bianco] says about his pizza, he says, 'I can’t guarantee it’s the best because that’s up to you.

"'But I can guarantee that I gave it my best effort in producing it.'
 
“I feel the same way about the tomatoes, that we have a style. We pursue that style. We like the juice to be rich and sweet, not acidic.
 
“And we care about a whole tomato. But if it breaks, that’s okay. Because we figure the consumer’s going to break it anyway. So we like to harvest late. We like to harvest them ripe.
 
 
“And sometimes the tomato might not be shaped just the way you want it.
 
“But again, I’ll turn to my partner [Chris Bianco,] and he says, ‘Just like my employees, I don’t care about their size or their color as long as they get the job done.’”
 
Allow me to interrupt here for just a moment. If you know anything about Chris Bianco, you know that he’s a unique human being, a total character and an artist. Just look at his haircut. So coming from him, a line like that is unsurprising. 
 
Rob continues, “I think that’s the same with tomatoes. And I also hope that people look at the can and feel that behind it there’s somebody who cares, that Chris and I are hard at work, him on his pizzeria and me in the fields trying to get the right tomatoes, and that somehow that makes people feel better--and it imparts a flavorful taste.”

ABOVE: Emerson DiNapoli, Rob DiNapoli and your dutiful pizza scrivener. (Photo credit: Albert Grande, who happened to be standing there and directing a photo it never occurred to me to be taking, so thanks to Albert.)


Something else unique about Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes is the high level of family involvement.
 
I asked Rob, “What would you like people to know most about DiNapoli?” And I was asking the question really about DiNapoli Family Foods, Rob’s company.
 
But Rob's answer was a more about a holistic view of success.
 
“Well, I think it’s more the industry. California is our industry, and I’ve been at it—my grandfather started the cannery in 1938, I’m third generation, but there are families and there are farms and it’s, like I said, it’s not subsidized. It’s free enterprise. It counts on the soil and the sun to make it great, and the people, so I think as an industry, it’s worth supporting.
 

“I think California tomatoes are worth supporting because these are our people.
 
“My background has always been in canning tomatoes, and that’s what I grew up doing.
 
“Now we count on a cooperative that’s supplied by 16 growers, families themselves. So we’re an extension of that from the farm to the processing facility and all the workers that are there and supporting their families. And we’re the last step.
 
“Now, we’re out here showing the product off. It’s got our name on it, but it’s backed by a lot of people and a lot of hard work and farmers.
 
 
Rob is so enthusiastic about this, I suddenly felt like had to ask, “How much do you love doing what you do?”
 
He got a sly look and said, "Well, as I get older, I love my grandchildren almost as much as I love the tomatoes. " We laughed. I hope that by the time his grandkids are old enough to read this, they'll understand he was being ironic. 

He went on, "But no, really. I love what I do, and I work hard at it, and I hope it’s a legacy that another generation will take over for me.

"I’m not ready to retire, but I am ready to spend more time with my grandkids."
 

Many thanks to Rob DiNapoli for his willingness to talk tomato.

He’s a great guy with a much-loved product. And I’m especially thrilled to have been gifted with my very own Bianco DiNapoli tomato can lapel pin.
 
If you’d like to investigate Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes for yourself, here’s an affiliate link to the product I use most often for pizza- and pasta-related pursuits.  
 
I’m unable to buy the product locally, so I routinely purchase them in flats of six cans. I’ve also found that Whole Foods and some better supermarkets often have them on the shelf.

Special thanks, too, to Albert Grande for being the conduit for this conversation as well as the photographer. You can see his video interviews and other material at his Pizza Therapy YouTube channel. 
 
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