That's a tough one. We grow our own tomatoes. So we cook everything with fresh tomatoes anywhere from the end of June until the end of August. For the rest of the year, it's canned tomatoes. To keep the pantry simple, I use canned San Marzano whole plum tomatoes. You can make any tomato-based sauce using whole plum tomatoes. To increase the flavor, tomato paste and/or anchovy paste are other pantry staples.