How do you measure the tomatoes? are they whole canned? Or do you use a portion of a can of already crushed tomatoes?

Good question - I just eyeball a cup's worth of whole peeled tomatoes from the can and crush them into the pot (remove the core), but if you want to be precise, you can crush the tomatoes separately and then measure out a cup. Usually there are one or two small tomatoes left in the can, which I use for something else.

You could use part of a can of already crushed tomatoes, but I've heard that crushed tomatoes of lower quality than the whole peeled ones, which is why I use whole and then crush them myself. Hope that helps!

They are the canned whole tomatoes, just measure out a cup w/o the juice.