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.

Cucumber kimchi, Cypriot olive oil, wild lox and more

Cucumber kimchi, with onion and sweet pepper, came from Jeon-Ju Jan Chi Jip, a small Korean catering shop at 200 Broad Ave, in Palisades Park (201-944-0471). I also found tofu and a half-dozen small, shrink-wrapped fish, below. The three dishes made for a nice, no-fuss dinner.

Taking into account portion size and price, the shop gives good value, with many items costing $5.99 and $6.99.

Three-liter tins of 100% Greek extra-virgin olive oil are on sale again for $14.99 at the International Food Warehouse, 370 Essex St., Lodi. On Saturday, I bought two more tins of this unusually thick and fruity olive oil from Cyprus that works out to about $5 a liter.

Costco Wholesale provides a terrific way to end a meal with Parmigiano Reggiano and reduced-fat Swiss cheeses, left; organic unsulfured, sun-dried Calimyrna Figs, top; and sodium-free almonds I roast at home and dust with Vietnamese cinnamon.

Costco Wholesale's Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon costs $15.59 for 1 pound (packaged in two half-pound pouches), the first price adjustment I have seen in well over a year. The old price was $15.39.

Costco Wholesale still has the best price on smoked wild salmon, even with a 20-cent price increase my wife encountered last week.

The sockeye salmon is sliced and preservative free: Ingredients are salmon, salt, brown sugar and natural wood smoke.

Compare the color of this wild salmon to the artificially colored farmed fish used in the vast majority of smoked salmon, and the choice is clear.

My wife also brought home a 10-pound bag of sweet potatoes for $5.99. Costco stocks them only for holidays.

That night, she boiled a few sweet potatoes with Kabocha squash, then mashed them with olive oil to accompany wild-caught sea bass from H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Englewood.

The mashed sweet potatoes are also wonderful for breakfast as a foundation for two organic eggs fried sunny side up.

Then, you can break the yolks over the sweet potatoes and eat them together. Who needs bread?
 

Sunset-brand Beefsteak Tomatoes at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack were looking a lot better at the end of last week, above. A 5-pound box was $6.99. I used them sliced in a frittata with whole eggs, egg whites, low-fat milk, shredded cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and Organic No-Salt Seasoning, below.

 

Wild salmon in a box

Image via Wikipedia

The boxes have been on my counter since Valentine's Day. Inside, there are 3-, 4- and 5-ounce portions of wild-caught Alaskan salmon, hardwood-smoked without preservatives.

The meaty fillets are in aseptic pouches, and the pouches are inside shrink-wrapped cardboard boxes. The fish doesn't require refrigeration -- one reason I don't feel compelled to eat it. That's a lot of packaging, and the boxes are much bigger than necessary. (Photo: Coho salmon.)

The other day, I assembled a breakfast sandwich on toasted baguette, opening one of the pouches and, after draining a little liquid, adding the fish to some sliced smoked wild salmon from Costco, hummus, tomato with za'atar thyme mixture and lettuce. As I ate, the only off note was the dry salmon fillet.

I bought the smoked fish from Kasilof Fish Co. of Marysville, Wash., online at www.iLoveSalmon.com.
Once it's gone, I don't think I'll get more.