Pesto, sweet pears, smoked wild salmon, garlic and more

Mouth-filling Garofalo Whole Wheat Pappardelle from Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood is wonderful dressed with Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale with added pignoli nuts, also from Costco.

Ripe Bartlett Pears from Costco Wholesale are perfectly at home in a salad of red-leaf lettuce from H Mart; Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, also from Costco; and tomatoes from our garden.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

First, get good ingredients. Then, assemble them into great meals at home.

That's where Costco Wholesale in Hackensack comes in.

Many of the meals we prepare are based on Costco ingredients, including a growing selection of organic and non-GMO items.

Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto, a refrigerated product made with basil from Italy, is great for dressing pasta and salads; adding to frittatas just out of the oven or using as a sandwich spread.

Nothing else matches the rich taste combination of fresh basil, grated Italian sheep's milk cheese and extra-virgin olive oil.

A roll-up of red-leaf lettuce, reduced fat Jarlsberg Swiss cheese, smoked wild Alaskan salmon and canned fish salad -- pink salmon, yellow-fin tuna and Moroccan sardines, dressed with Dijon mustard, lime juice and ground cumin -- has Costco written all over it.

An egg-white omelet stuffed with smoked wild Alaskan salmon and served with an organic brown rice-lentil-quinoa combination and slices of Jersey beefsteak tomato covered with melted Swiss cheese. Most of the ingredients are from Costco.

My wife boiled Kabocha Squash from H Mart with lots of peeled Christopher Ranch Monviso Heirloom Garlic from Costco Wholesale, then mashed them with extra-virgin olive oil. This morning, I did the same with sweet potatoes and added two Italian cheeses, shredded Parmigiano Reggiano and grated Pecorino Romano, both from Costco.

Great prices at Costco

A 6-pound box of Bartlett Pears from Oregon were $6.99. They were ripe and ready to eat.

A 2-pound package of sliced Jarlsberg Lite Reduced Fat Swiss Cheese was $8.99, an increase of 50 cents.

A 22-ounce jar of Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto was $7.99.

A 3-pound bag of peeled Christopher Ranch garlic from California was $5.99 (must be refrigerated).

A 10-pound bag of Earthbound Farm Organic Carrots were $7.99, and three 1-liter bottles of Bolthouse Farms Organic Carrot Juice were $7.39.

An appealing change in Egg Whites from Costco Wholesale

A wedge from a 10-inch frittata made with Kirkland Signature Egg Whites, which now look milky when you pour them out of the carton, below. When Costco Wholesale first introduced the product, it poured clear, and that proved disconcerting for many who liked the old Real Eggs, which had several added ingredients, including sodium and yolk-like coloring.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a welcome change in Kirkland Signature Egg Whites, how to add body and flavor to an egg-white frittata, cooking organic brown rice with lentils, memories of Nathan's in Coney Island and the state of free food samples.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The only ingredient listed on a carton of Kirkland Signature Egg Whites is "100% liquid egg whites."

But in a subtle change, Egg Whites appear milky when poured out of the carton, not clear.

It took a while for me to warm up to the new product, which replaced Kirkland Signature Real Eggs.

But I've learned to add reduced-fat shredded and sliced cheeses, chopped garlic and other ingredients to give Egg Whites more body and flavor.

I made a 10-inch frittata with a 16-ounce carton of Egg Whites, three whole organic eggs, shredded Kirkland Signature Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese and a leftover reduction of organic diced tomatoes, red wine, garlic and fresh herbs that I had used to prepare wild salmon.

After I finished the frittata under the broiler, I added Aleppo pepper and several teaspoons of refrigerated Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto.

I ate a wedge with mashed Korean sweet potatoes and stewed tofu, both from H Mart. 

Organic brown eggs from Costco Wholesale with Aleppo pepper and shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese from Italy, available in wedges at the warehouse store for $11.29 a pound. I served them with leftover organic whole wheat fusilli pasta. The reduced-fat, aged cheese also can be added to salads or eaten with fruit, such as the ripe black figs I bought today.

In an electric cooker, I combined Lundberg Organic Brown Long Grain Rice, left; Tru Roots Organic Sprouted Lentil Trio from Costco, Kirkland Signature Organic Diced Tomatoes; organic chicken stock and whole garlic cloves from Costco; salt and extra-virgin olive oil. The result is a protein-rich one-dish meal or a tasty side dish, below.

I ate the organic brown rice-lentil dish for breakfast today with a small wedge of frittata and leftover snow pea leaves from Lan Garden on Route 46 in Ridgefield.

A Nathan's in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn is decorated with a mural and framed photos of the Coney Island original, where decades ago, I often enjoyed a fillet of fish sandwich instead of the famous hot dogs.

Today, the closest Nathan's comes to the fillet of fish sandwich is a heavily battered Fish and Chips, which I didn't try. And this Nathan's serves beer, but not coffee.

Grazing on free samples

Jerry's Gourmet & More at 410 S. Dean St. in Englewood and Costco Wholesale in Hackensack offer free samples seven days a week, but most other food stores restrict them to the weekends.

The Korean supermarket chain called H Mart appears to be cutting back on free samples at some of its stores, especially on Fridays.

On Friday night at the Little Ferry H Mart, one of the bigger stores in the chain, only one woman was offering free food samples.

The Fort Lee H Mart and the Super H Mart in Ridgefield usually have at least a half-dozen food sampling stations.

At the Englewood H Mart today, I tried a few kinds of fruit, a spicy preparation of baby octopus and noodles.

Cheese festival

At Jerry's today, there were a couple of dozen full-fat cheeses available as well as tiramisu, bread to dip in olive oil and other samples.

At H&Y Marketplace, a Korean supermarket in Ridgefield, I tried samples of fruit, conch, octopus and Japanese somen noodles.

At Costco on Friday, I enjoyed spinach-and-cheese ravioli, and pizza, among other samples.

At Whole Foods Market in Paramus on Friday, I loved a little fresh mozzarella served on bread with a small basil leaf and balsamic vinegar glaze, and a tiny serving of Olivia's organic salad mix with dressing.

The samples are small -- perfect if you are on a diet and want to skip lunch. They also allow you to indulge in tiny portions of food you normally don't eat, such as pizza, bread and full-fat cheeses.

I made one purchase at H&Y, a 2-pound tray of California Black Mission Figs for $6.99 (1 Remsen Place, Ridgefield).

At Jerry's, I picked up two half-liter bottles of Ponti Primus Balsamic Vinegar of Modena from Italy for $1.99 each.

Ponti, which calls itself the No.1 brand in Italy, doesn't add color to its balsamic vinegar.