Whole Foods: 10 ways to think outside of bottled pasta sauce

Whole Foods Market suggests poaching two eggs in bottled pasta sauce. I served them over leftover organic quinoa for breakfast, and found using a soup spoon the easiest way to eat the comforting dish.

Instead of grated cheese, I used a vegetable peeler to add shaved Grana Padano from Costco Wholesale. I also used a little extra-virgin olive oil and Italian dried herbs, in addition to the black pepper recommended by Whole Foods.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I stopped at Whole Foods Market in Paramus to pick up naturally raised oxtails for the meat eaters in the family, and grabbed a copy of "The Whole Deal," a store publication with coupons, recipes and other advice.

As I was leafing through it at home, I got a kick out of "10 things to do with pasta sauce (beyond pasta)."

I have lots of bottled sauce around -- 40-ounce bruisers from Victoria and Paesana -- and smaller jars from The Silver Palate and ShopRite.

So on Saturday morning, I tried the first non-pasta suggestion -- Eggs in Purgatory.

I simmered 1 cup of Silver Palate Tomato Basil sauce and a little olive oil in a small pan, cracked open two organic eggs and topped them with shaved Grana Padano Cheese, black pepper and dried Italian herbs.

I found a glass cover for the pan that helped cut the cooking time.

One cup of pasta sauce for two eggs seemed like a lot, but I used an 8-inch, non-stick pan and followed the recipe.

On Saturday morning, I used The Silver Palate Tomato Basil sauce.

Chili, Spanish rice

The next two suggestions are chili -- just add beans and chili powder to pasta sauce -- and Spanish rice.

For the rice dish, Whole Foods suggests cooking 1 cup of rice and substituting 1 cup of pasta sauce for 1 cup of water.

Then, you stir in capers, green olives and chopped green onions.

I might try this with 2 or 3 cups of organic brown rice. I have capers, pitted black olives and scallions in the refrigerator. 

Fish in pasta sauce

Another suggestion I like is poaching fish fillets in pasta sauce, a variation on my own recipe of poaching cod, haddock or wild salmon in Mexican green salsa with added fresh lime juice.

On Thursday, I bought a 24-ounce jar of Whole Foods Roasted Salsa Verde for $3.99, and a 16-ounce jar of Roasted Chipotle Salsa for $2.69.

Both are free of the MSG that is now being added to a onetime favorite, La Costena Mexican Green Salsa.

The frozen Coleman Oxtails were $7.99 a pound, and each of the two packages I bought weighed more than 2 pounds.