My grocery store has one whole aisle dedicated to different types of canned tomatoes and tomato-based sauces. There are just so many choices, it can be immobilizing! Hopefully I can help demystify just a few of the choices.

Most of us at some point or another have bought a jar of spaghetti sauce and ketchup. These items can be found in almost everyone’s kitchen. Pizza sauce and salsa are fast becoming staples as well.

Pizza sauce has a consistency similar to ketchup, but has a lot more Italian spices added to it. The “squirt bottle” in this photo can be stored after opening, in the refrigerator, for up to four weeks. That’s great if you are making single servings of things like English Muffin Pizzas, and only use a little at a time.

Salsa has chunky bits of vegetables/fruit in it, some varieties being chunkier than others. Salsa can also be purchased with different levels of “heat”. Check the label. It will tell you if it’s mild, medium, or hot.

As wonderful as salsa is with corn chips, there is a lot more you can do with salsa. It’s great on top of a baked potato as well as a topping for fish.

Using Canned Tomatoes

It wasn’t until I started making my own spaghetti sauce that I realized there was a huge difference in taste between home-made and store-bought spaghetti sauce. You really will impress your guests if you make your own. They will be able to tell.

My Marinara Sauce, and my Turkey-Sausage Pasta Sauce, both have canned tomatoes as one of their ingredients.

There are a lot of different canned tomatoes to choose from. Whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and tomato sauce and tomato paste, are just four of the main types of tomatoes you can get in a can. 

One more thing…not all brands taste the same!  If a particular brand tastes too acidic or too sweet, try another brand!  (For a review of different brands of canned tomatoes, click here.)

(Tomato puree is another form of tomatoes you can buy in a can. They are not in the photo because I didn’t have any in the cupboard when I wrote this post!)

All of these different varieties can be purchased with added spices, like garlic, basil and oregano.

Whole tomatoes are just that. You can buy them peeled or unpeeled. They usually come packed in tomato juice. They are used for sauces, chili, soups, and stews.

Marinara Sauce Ingredients

Crushed tomatoes (or diced tomatoes) are the whole tomato cut up. Sometimes extra juice has been added to the can. They too are used for sauces, soups, and stews. Your recipe will indicate which to buy. The tastes are very similar, it’s the texture that is clearly different.

Turkey Sausage Sauce Ingredients: Including Tomato Paste and Crushed Tomatoes

Tomato puree and tomato sauce have been cooked and strained. Puree is thicker than tomato sauce. I drew my finger through the tomato sauce on the dish in the picture below just to give you a sense of how thick it is. Use this for seasoning, flavor, and/or as a base for other sauces.

Tomato paste is made from tomatoes that have been cooked for several hours and then strained. It is used to intensify the tomato flavor in anything that it is added to.

You can buy it in a can or a tube. This tube says “double concentrate” which means it has an even stronger flavor than regular tomato paste.

The tube of tomato paste can cost at least 3 times more than a can of tomato paste. You can store the tube in the refrigerator for quite some time. That’s the advantage of the added cost.

Personally, I don’t think it’s worth spending the extra money. If you do have leftover tomato paste you can freeze it for future use. You can slide all the leftovers out of the can by opening both ends with a can opener and then pushing the paste through. Wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze the “log” of tomato paste.

It doesn’t freeze rock-solid, so you can just slice off the requisite amount of tomato paste as you need it.

Or, you can put dollops of pre-measured tablespoons of the paste on some plastic wrap.

Once they have frozen, stick the individual tablespoons of paste in a baggie and freeze for your next cooking adventure!

I hope this has helped to demystify at least some of the canned tomatoes and sauces at the grocery store.

Cheers!

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Strawberries, once just a summertime treat, are now available year round. Especially tasty are the locally grown ones that are now showing up at farmers’ markets.

Always choose strawberries that are plump, firm and glossy.

Wash them just before using them.

I always wash my supermarket strawberries, in a colander, under a gentle spray of running water.  Or you can swish the strawberries around in a bowl with cool tap water.

(Actually my old friend Roger never washed strawberries. He felt it washed away the flavor. But then again he lived in the south of France and only bought them from the local farmer who grew them organically.)

Once washed, spread the strawberries out on a clean dish towel to dry.

To “hull” a strawberry means to remove the green leafy top and the tiny stalk. If you plan on hulling tons of strawberries, you may want to buy a strawberry huller.  But a small paring knife works very well for hulling a quart or two.

Start by grasping the green top…

…and just trim out that tiny stem.

Or you could just slice off the whole top with a small paring knife.

Just pulling off the green leafy top (as shown below) is NOT enough. You need to remove that tiny bit of white, hard stem as well.

To store strawberries, place them in a single layer in a moisture-proof plastic container that has a tight fitting lid.

Lay a paper towel on top of the strawberries and then put the lid on the container. When you put them in the refrigerator, store them with the lid side down in the refrigerator.

Stored this way they should stay fresh for at least 2-3 days.

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Recipes to die for:

Strawberries dipped in Chocolate from startcooking.com

Strawberries Romanoff –Strawberries soaked in orange juice/curacao/cointreau and served with Whipped Cream

Strawberry Short Cake – a classic that everybody loves!

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Italian turkey sausage is great in this tasty sauce! It has a lower fat content then regular sausage; consequently it’s a bit healthier.

If you like a bit of sausage in your lasagna, this sauce recipe is perfect!

To make this sauce you will need:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 cup of chopped yellow onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds of sweet or hot Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
• 1 (28-ounce) can of crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
• 1 (6-ounce) can of tomato paste
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon of dried basil
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon of sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons of salt
• ½ teaspoon of pepper

It’s a really good habit to get all your ingredients prepared before you turn on the stove. It makes the cooking process go much more smoothly.

That means you need to:

1. Chop the onion
2. Mince the garlic
3. Chop the parsley
4. Remove the casings (that’s the really thin skin) from the sausage
5. Open the cans of tomatoes and tomato paste
6. Measure the spices

Now we are ready to start cooking!

Heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a large (10 to 12-inch) skillet or frying pan. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until translucent.

“Until translucent” is a typical term used to describe cooking onions. Raw onions are fairly opaque. As you start to cook them, they slowly reach a point where they become almost see-through. They have not turned brown, and are not supposed to for this recipe.

Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute, or until you can smell the garlic cooking.

Add the sausage to the onions and garlic. I like to use a combination of both hot and sweet sausage. We need to cook it over medium-low heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until no longer pink. This is just like browning ground beef.

Because this Italian turkey sausage has a lower fat content then regular Italian sausage, there will be very little fat to drain off. (If I were using regular sausage, I would definitely drain off the fat before adding the remaining ingredients.)

Now add the remaining ingredients:

• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
• 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Simmer the sauce, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 15 to 20 minutes, until it has thickened.

This turns into a really thick sauce which is great over any pasta. Enjoy!

You can view and print this recipe here.

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