Good buys on organic eggs, fresh whole fish, sweet potatoes, olives

PESTO AND EGGS: Two dozen Kirkland Signature Organic Eggs are a good deal at the regular price of $6.99, but at the Costco Wholesale in the Teterboro Landing shopping center, an instant coupon dropped that to $4.99. Here, I poached two eggs in marinara sauce, served them over organic brown rice and added pesto for the Italian colors: Green, white and red.

PASTA AND EGGS: Two organic eggs served over whole-wheat Garofalo Pappardelle -- a wide ribbon pasta from Italy -- with anchovies and sardines in marinara or what I like to call a seafood bolognese.

BIG EYES: Fresh wild-caught Ocean Perch look like Red Snapper, but at $2.99 a pound costs less than half the price. I bought these at H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike, Little Ferry, and poached them in a light sauce of organic chicken stock, sake, miso and minced garlic.

SWEET ON POTATOES: Three pounds of Organic Sweet Potatoes in a net bag are $4.49 at Trader Joe's, 404 Route 17 north, Paramus. Here, I drained steaming skin-on pieces with peeled garlic cloves I had boiled for about an hour, and mashed them with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings, including curry powder, cinnamon, red-pepper flakes, sea salt and black pepper, below.

SKIP THE BREAD: Mashed sweet potatoes, here with roughly chopped fresh mint, are a great bread substitute in a breakfast of eggs, fish and sauteed spinach. 

SWEET-POTATO FRITTATA: Organic sweet potato slices, Campari Tomato halves and Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale top a 10-inch frittata of whole eggs and whites, and two kinds of grated cheese, below.

FOUR CUPS: You'll need about 4 cups of whole eggs and whites for a 10-inch frittata. Set the crust of the frittata over a medium flame on the stove, finish under the broiler and add the pesto after you remove the pan from the oven.

PASTA WITH OLIVES: Cans of ShopRite Pitted Black Olives were on sale for 88 cents each at the Paramus store, compared to the regular price of $1.19. A 1-pound package of Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli was $1.29. Here, I prepared the fusilli and olives in a combination of marinara and vodka sauces, with three cans of Moroccan sardines. Two bunches of fresh spinach sauteed in olive oil and sake -- on sale for 99 cents at the Super H Mart, 321 Broad Ave., Ridgefield -- made a great side dish.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Celebrity chef pasta sauce, angry lobsters and organic sweet potatoes

At $7.69 for a 25-ounce jar at the ShopRite in Hackensack, celebrity chef and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich surely is laughing all the way to the bank, as the label on her hoity toity pasta sauce shows.

Prego, which is made by Campbell Soup Co., should explain what's "traditional" about adding sugar to pasta sauce, and using dehydrated garlic instead of fresh.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Should you pay more for such a basic as bottled pasta sauce just because a celebrity chef slaps her mug on the label?

Fuggedaboutit.

A 25-ounce jar of Lidia's Vodka Sauce lists "heavy cream" as the third ingredient, and for the privilege of clogging your arteries, you'll pay an outrageous $7.69 for it at the ShopRite in Hackensack.

Few pasta sauces are made from the short list of ingredients you'll find on the front label in the Victoria brand, and its delicious Vodka Sauce doesn't contain any cream, heavy or otherwise.

Victoria Marinara is available at Costco Wholesale, and ShopRite occasionally has great specials on all of the Victoria sauces.

Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Pastas from Italy are $1.25 a pound at ShopRites in Hackensack and Paramus or less than non-organic whole wheat pastas from DeCecco and Gia Russa, even when the latter goes on sale, lower right.

At the Hackensack ShopRite on Sunday, I was looking for salted codfish when I came upon a Battle of the Giant Lobsters, above and below. I was told they weighed 4 pounds to 6 pounds.

These big lobsters were $12.99 a pound.

Salted codfish

The Hackensack ShopRite had 1-pound bags of salted codfish from Canada on sale for $7.99, a discount of 50 cents, less than the price at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

I bought four bags, as well as a package of Luigi Vitelli Organic Whole Wheat Penne; two half-gallons of ShopRite Lactose Free Milk ($2.99 each); and antibiotic-free Readington Farms chicken drumsticks and thighs.

I used a coupon for $5 off a purchase of more than $40. 

The Trader Joe's at 404 Route 17 north in Paramus charges $1 a pound for organic sweet potatoes when you buy a 5-pound bag, above, but nearly $1.50 a pound if you buy only 3 pounds, below.

Sweet deal?

The Paramus Trader Joe's now stocks both 5-pound and 3-pound bags of Organic Sweet Potatoes -- a great bread substitute at breakfast or any meal -- but you'll pay more for the smaller size.

A 5-pound bag I bought on Monday afternoon contained small sweet potatoes ideal for baking until they are oozing with natural sugar, as well as larger ones for boiling and mashing with extra-virgin olive oil, skin and all.

This morning, I cut up about 3 pounds of big organic sweet potatoes and boiled them in a covered pot with more than a half-pound of peeled California Garlic Cloves from Costco Wholesale until they were soft (about 40 minutes).

I used a half-dozen seasonings -- sea salt, cinnamon, curry powder, garam masala, black pepper and red-pepper flakes -- and a generous pour of olive oil before mashing them.

You can fry two organic eggs sunny side up and when you eat them, break the yolks over mashed sweet potatoes for a breakfast that is both filling and comforting.

  

Sweet-potato frittata, fresh wild coho salmon fillet with lime and pesto

Slices of boiled organic sweet potato and a fresh tomato, as well as chunks of Pecorino Romano sheep's milk cheese, set this 10-inch frittata apart.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A thick potato omelet from Spain -- tortilla espanola  -- was my inspiration for adding sliced sweet potatoes to my weekend frittata. 

First, I boiled the organic sweet-potato slices to soften them.

I used a mixture of four whole organic eggs, 8 ounces of liquid egg whites, a little low-fat milk and grated Pecorino Romano cheese, and poured all of it into a hot, non-stick, 10-inch pan with olive oil.

As the crust set over a medium-high flame, I layered sweet-potato and fresh tomato slices into the egg mixture, and added small chunks of Pecorino Romano.

I finished the frittata under the broiler, took it out of the oven and added Aleppo pepper and Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto.

The sweet potatoes were from Trader Joe's, and most of the other ingredients came from Costco Wholesale.

Wild-caught coho salmon fillet accented with Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto, both from Costco Wholesale.

Easy wild salmon

My wife brought home a 2-pound fillet of wild Alaskan coho salmon from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack  ($10.99 a pound).

I cut the skin-on fillet into six pieces, put them on parchment paper in a large pan, squeezed on fresh lime juice and added a couple of pinches of Aleppo pepper.

You can also use paprika or another mildy spicy red pepper or even red-pepper flakes in moderation.

The fish went into a preheated, 375-degree oven.

I removed one of the pieces after 8 minutes (rare) and the rest after 12-13 minutes (cooked through).

I spooned on Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto after I took the salmon out of the oven.

I served the salmon with Lundberg Wild Blend Rice prepared in an electric cooker, and finished the meal with a salad.

Simple and delicious.


Related articles

• Costco Wholesale's fish buyer is casting a wider net
• Why are my Costco bananas sweating?
• Diet food never looked or tasted this good