Sugar-free marinara, easy bok choy, Jerry's and more

I prepared imported whole-wheat shells from Whole Foods Market with canned yellowfin tuna, organic diced tomatoes and a bottled marinara sauce with sugar, and wasn't as happy with the outcome as I've been when I've used a sugar-free sauce from Costco Wholesale or Trader Joe's. 

Editor's note: Today's all-you-can-read buffet includes notes on sugar-free marinara sauces, an easy preparation for greens, reduced-fat cheeses, bargain takeout dinners and a meat-free Thanksgiving.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I'm swearing off bottled marinara sauce with sugar, which gave my favorite pasta preparations an off taste.

The 100% whole-wheat spaghetti, linguine, shells and other shapes I buy have a nutty flavor. They don't need sugar to make them appetizing.

I don't put sugar in coffee or tea; and don't eat cake, pie and other sugary snacks, so why put sugar in my pasta?

At Costco Wholesale today, I picked up sugar-free Victoria Marinara Sauce, which is made with Italian tomatoes and comes highly rated by Consumer Reports magazine.

Two 40-ounce bottles were on sale for $6.14 (regularly $8.39).

Kirkland Signature Marinara, Costco's house brand, also is made without sugar.

Three 32-ounce bottles have a new label and a higher price than when they were introduced, but they are still a bargain at $2.66 a bottle.

The new label and higher price for Kirkland Signature Marinara.

I also like another sugar-free sauce, Trader Joe's Marinara, but the 28-ounce can has to be supplemented with tomato sauce or diced tomatoes, if you prepare a full pound of pasta.

Two other bottled sauces I've used, from Tuscan Traditions Organic and Gefen, list sugar right after the first ingredient, tomatoes.

Trim the end of baby bok choy, separate stalks and wash under cold water. Then plunge the pieces into boiling water for a few minutes, above, before transferring them to another pan with warmed sesame oil and sake, rear.

I seasoned the bok choy with a little salt, garlic powder and Kirkland Signature Organic No Salt Seasoning from Costco Wholesale.

Easy bok choy

You can skip stir frying when preparing baby bok choy or almost any other Asian or American green.

The first step is to trim and cut the greens into smaller pieces, and rinse them under cold water.

Second, blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes and transfer them to another pan or drain the boiling water.

Third, season with sesame or extra-virgin olive oil; salt, garlic powder and no-salt seasoning.

Fourth, enjoy.

Easy baby bok choy with fresh, wild-caught flounder fillets poached in bottled Mexican Green Salsa and fresh lime juice. The fish, from Canada, was $7.99 a pound today at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Part of the cheese section at my Hackensack Costco.

Say reduced-fat cheese

I picked up three reduced-fat cheeses at my Hackensack Costco today -- thin-sliced Jarlsberg Lite Swiss, a wedge of aged Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy and the same great cheese, shredded and bottled, for use in frittatas, omelets and pasta dishes.

A 2-pound package of Jarlsberg Lite is $8.59. The Parmigiano Reggiano is $10.69 a pound in a wedge, and $13.59 shredded in a 16-ounce plastic bottle that carries the Kirkland Signature label.

The Italian cheese is made from part skimmed cow's milk, and aged more than 24 months.

Parmigiano Reggiano has been made in Italy since before the Renaissance, according to tiny print on the plastic wrapper only a teenager can read.

The milk comes from provinces surrounding Parma, and the wedges have "nutty and sharp notes," with crystals of calcium throughout.

The package suggests shaving the cheese and drizzling it with olive oil, but you can also eat it with fruit and nuts, such as roasted almonds dusted with cinnamon, or add shavings to fried eggs sunny side up.

The package recommends trimming the inedible rind, cutting up the wedge into three or four pieces and wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap. 

I don't wrap them. I store them in Snapware, plastic containers I found at Costco that have rubber seals.

A restaurant-quality takeout dinner from Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood included grouper with pesto under a tomato slice, center; stuffed zucchini, caponata, snap peas and dumplings. 

Meals To Go

Jerry's Meals To Go -- complete, restaurant-quality dinners -- are still North Jersey's best bargain in takeout, whether you pay the full price of $7.99 or the reduced price of $5.99 after 4 p.m.

I plate the food and reheat it in the microwave for about 4 minutes.

After 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon, I found dinners with salmon, tilapia, grouper and shrimp. Pork and chicken also are available.

Jerry's is at 410 S. Dean St. in Englewood (1-201-871-7108).

If you go, don't miss the retail store at Balthazar Bakery, 214 S. Dean St. in Englewood, where the crusty baguettes are still only $2.
  

Another Jerry's takeout dinner included shrimp with prosciutto and spinach; spaghetti with seafood and three vegetables.

Meat-free turkey day 

For Thanksgiving, Whole Foods Market will be 
selling a Vegan Dinner for 1 and Trader Joe's will offer a vegan Turkey-Less Stuffed Roast with Gravy.

The Vegan Dinner for 1 ($16.99) is 100% meat-free Gardein roast stuffed with "a savory mix" of vegetables, wild and brown rices, and dried cranberries.

You also get butternut squash puree, cranberry orange relish, green beans with almonds and vegan wild mushroom gravy.

Trader Joe's roast weighs 2.5 pounds ($9.99). Ingredients include soy, peas, wheat and ancient grains, and it comes with stuffing and gravy.

Fat-free and cream-free pasta sauces, a $2 baguette and much more

You don't have to keep kosher to like these marinara sauces.

Editor's note: Today, I bring you further adventures in food shopping -- from kosher pasta sauces to imported whole-wheat pasta to a great $2 baguette.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

This week, I found two pasta sauces that prove less is more.

Both are from a company named Gefen and both are kosher for Passover, but that's not why I bought them.

One of the marinara sauces contains no olive oil and is fat free. The other is a "Marinara Style Vodka Sauce" with vodka, but no artery clogging cream.

The cream-less sauce helps Jews observe the ban on eating meat and dairy at the same time, but also is perfect for people like me who are lactose intolerant.

Each 26-ounce bottle was $2.39 at ShopRite in Paramus.

Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood has a terrific selection of imported pasta, and three or four different brands of whole-wheat pasta from Italy, such as the two above.

Jerry's is on South Dean Street, near Route 4 in Englewood.

Jerry's in Englewood

I stopped at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood on Wednesday for olives, balsamic vinegar, whole-wheat pasta and coffee beans from Italy, and nibbled on free samples of smoked mozzarella and other cheeses.

Jerry's has more varieties of 100% whole-wheat pasta than any other store I know, but prices are higher than the $1.39 I pay for a 16-ounce package of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Fusilli or Penne.

Jerry's sells three or four brands of whole-wheat pasta and shapes include spaghetti, fusilli, farfale and pappardelle or wide, mouth-filling ribbons.

I bought a pound of Colavita Fusilli or spirals for $1.49 and a pound of Garofalo Farfalle or bowties for $1.99. 

Whole coffee beans from Italy are being sold at a new, lower price at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood. I save about $5 or more a bag compared to my usual source.

Whole coffee beans

I have been buying Lavazza whole coffee beans from Italy at Amazon.com, but Jerry's often beats Amazon's prices.

On Wednesday, I found new, even lower prices, only $16.99 for a 2.2-pound bag of Lavazza Crema e Aroma beans, which I use in my built-in coffee machine.

That's about $5 less per bag than at Amazon.

Assorted Italian olives with whole garlic cloves were, as usual, $3.99 a pound, a great price.

Ponti Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, a brand served in many restaurants in Milan and Venice, was $1.99 for a 16.9-ounce bottle. 

The bottles are lableled "Primus" and "It matures in precious oak casks," and the vinegar is free of artificial color.

The mirror that helps customers exit the small parking lot at Balthazar Bakery in Englewood. The retail store opened in late November 2002.

 $2 baguette 

Balthazar Bakery in Englewood has repaired the convex mirror that gives customers driving out of the parking lot a view of traffic racing along one-way South Dean Street in Englewood.

In the photo above, the red car is leaving the lot and the black vehicle parked at the curb is blocking the driver's view of oncoming traffic.

So, even with the mirror, the driver has to nose his vehicle into traffic before getting a clear view of what's bearing down on him.

It's hair raising. Imagine what it was like in the years before the mirror was installed.

I stopped at Balthazar for two baguettes -- the best $2 loaf of bread in the metropolitan area. 

You can see the bakers at work through plate-glass windows in the retail store.

The mound of butter waiting to go into croissants was about the size of a Fiat 500.

The circular from Fairway Market in Paramus calls this tilapia "pretty darn perfect."

  

Pass on Chinese fish

Does any other country have a worse food-safety record than China?
  
No. 

So, I was surprised to see that Manhattan-based Fairway Market in Paramus is selling farmed tilapia from China for $3.99 a pound.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch labels tilapia from the United States and Equador as "Best Choice."

Tilapia from China and Taiwan are called a "Good Alternative," but shouldn't Fairway be selling the best, not the second best? 

Fairway also mailed three coupons, each good for $10 off a purchase of $75 at the Paramus store.

That's a 13.3% discount, and I'm not sure it's worth a trip to Paramus, and having to endure all that New York attitude.