This Is the Easiest Way to Crush Whole Tomatoes.
In most canned tomato recipes, you will need to crush them against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. It’s a simple enough movement, but depending on the curvature of your spoon and the stubbornness of the tomato, it will cause all of the fruit to fly out of the sauce, causing splatter (which I try to minimize with red sauce). And, if you manage to keep it from slipping away, there is still a chance of a seed splatter.
Both of these potentially unpleasant results can be mitigated by crushing whole tomatoes with tongs rather than a spoon. It’s simple – just grab the tomato with your tongs and squeeze it out. By applying (controlled) pressure on both sides, you can squeeze the tomatoes faster, more efficiently, and gently, and there is no need to hold the pot steady since you are not using the sides of the pot as an opposing force. You can also keep the tomato submerged while squeezing, which means any stray seeds will remain in your sauce rather than spilling into your face.