Enjoying homemade pesto, pan-fried fish, pasta with sardines and more

Homemade pesto -- basil from my garden, garlic, grated cheese, pine nuts, salt and extra-virgin olive oil -- is a savory accent on a wedge of sweet-potato frittata.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Fragrant basil leaves growing abundantly in my garden are just a distance memory, but I still have one decent portion of homemade pesto in the freezer.

Although pesto is most commonly used as a dressing for pasta, it's versatile enough to spread on a sandwich or to accent a fish fillet just off the grill.

I also use it in omelets and on frittatas. 

Until Costco Wholesale unveiled Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto in 2013, I always made my own pesto in large batches using a blender recipe that could be frozen before the addition of grated cheese.

You'll find the recipe here: 

How to enjoy pesto without pasta

Now that my plants stand withered from the summer heat, I'll return to enjoying Costco's refrigerated pesto, which uses basil leaves from Italy.

Season one carton or 16 ounces of liquid egg whites mixed with grated cheese before adding the mixture to a 10-inch preheated pan with olive oil. As the crust sets, you can add sweet potato slices, boiled separately until you can pierce them with a fork. Then, move the non-stick pan into the broiler until the crust browns (about 15 minutes at a low broiler setting).

Pesto, which requires no heating, can be added to a frittata after it is removed from the oven. I also added crushed Aleppo pepper.

I used homemade pesto and organic pignoli nuts to dress an 8.8-ounce package of Delverde-brand Tagliatelle Nests with Spinach from Italy. These mouth-filling noodles take only about 5 minutes to reach al-dente perfection. I use unsalted water because there is plenty of sodium in homemade or Costco pesto.

A 10-inch egg-white omelet can be stuffed with Costco's smoked wild salmon, pesto and Mexican-style salsa, all sold under the Kirkland Signature house label. I made this omelet with my own pesto.

I had my omelet for breakfast with a baked sweet potato and grilled Chinese eggplant.

I thought I had found a good buy on wild-caught Gulf Shrimp at H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry, above and below, but when I turned over the bag, the ingredients included salt and sodium bisulfite, a preservative. I passed.

An unusual item at the Little Ferry H Mart is jackfruit, sold in large pieces for around $5 to $6. If you buy one, make sure you refrigerate it when you get home.

I rely on the Korean supermarket for fresh whole fish at low prices, such as this porgy my wife seasoned and pan fried in olive oil ($2.99 a pound). Three porgies came in under $10. I also picked up baby mustard greens, which were on sale for 78 cents a pound.

Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti from ShopRite in Paramus dressed in Victoria Marinara, Moroccan sardines and fresh cherry tomatoes. I added a little extra-virgin olive oil and a few ounces of red wine to the sauce, plus dried Italian herbs and red-pepper flakes.

A heart-healthy dinner for four with leftovers: A 1-pound box of whole-wheat pasta, a 40-ounce jar of marinara and three or four cans of sardines, mashed with a fork before you add them to the sauce. I left a few ounces of sauce in the bottle and used them to poach two organic eggs for breakfast the next day.

Leftover whole-wheat pasta is a great bread substitute at breakfast.

Dozens of free samples, including the full-fat cheeses I rarely buy, are available at Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St. in Englewood, above and below.

I had a hard time resisting marinated cherry size fresh mozzarella, left, and sampled three with a toothpick.

On Friday, I hit the jackpot with one of Jerry's restaurant-quality take-out dinners made with a soft-shell crab. The complete dinner included string beans, pasta, a stuffed mushroom and a cucumber salad, marked down to $5.99 after 4 p.m.

Other Meals To Go were built around a grouper fillet, chicken picata or sausage. 

At ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east at Forest Avenue in Paramus, the store-brand of Greek Non-fat Yogurt with Fruit was on sale this week (75 cents each), and seemed a better buy than other brands, including Oikos, Chobani and Fage. At home, I opened one of the ShopRite cups, below, but found it wasn't full. The cup holds 8 ounces, but contains only 5.3 ounces of thick yogurt and fruit, the net weight listed on the side.

Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice carries a badge from the Non-GMO Project, telling consumers the oranges weren't grown using genetically modified seed. 

At the Costco Wholesale Business Center, 80 South River St. in Hackensack, a 2-pound bag of triple-washed kale was $3.89 on Thursday. A week earlier, I saw the same bag of kale being sold at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro for $5.39 -- a dramatic example of how prices can vary at the two warehouses.

Fish tacos, diners, cafe au lait, pappardelle and more

Four Mexican Tacos with grilled fresh tilapia and avocado at Taqueria Los Gueros in East Rutherford, including salsas, lime wedges, cilantro and extra spicy onions from the free condiment bar, below ($7.95).

"Extra spicy" is no idle boast when it comes to this fiery combination of onions, carrots and hot peppers. They are seriously hot.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When lunchtime hunger pangs strike, I usually reach for one of the energy or snack bars I carry with me.

But on Thursday, I knew I was only a couple of miles away from Taqueria Los Gueros, an informal Mexican restaurant with branches in Englewood, East Rutherford and Passaic city.

I loved the scrumptious Tacos de Pescado or Fish Tacos I had at the Englewood branch, but when I walked into the East Rutherford restaurant, I couldn't find them on the wall menu.

I told the woman at the register what I wanted -- fish, cilantro, onion, salsa fresca and avocado -- and she told me to order the Mexican Tacos, which come with a choice of meat or seafood, fried or grilled ($7.95 for four).

I also asked for seltzer, which was free.

East Rutherford v. Englewood

The East Rutherford restaurant is much bigger and busier than the Englewood branch, and the wait for the food was longer.

Although the tacos were as delicious as I remembered and made with two corn tortillas, I thought the piece of fish was smaller.

In Englewood, where one cook and one waitress work, the place is small enough for her to bring your tacos to the table; in East Rutherford, they take your name and you pick up the tray at the counter.

In East Rutherford, tortilla chips are served with your food, but I gave them back. Four tacos with grilled fish are $8 in Englewood, $7.95 in East Rutherford.

After you get your order, the next stop is to pick up salsas, lime and other additions to your tacos, above. You order at the counter below, where I found the employees both pleasant and helpful.

The East Rutherford branch of Taqueria Los Gueros is in a shopping center at 93 Route 17 south, East Rutherford. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (201-340-4361). On Tuesdays, some tacos are only $4.99 for five. 

The well-maintained Colonial Diner shining in the rain on Thursday morning (27 Orient Way, Lyndhurst; 201-953-3192).

The interior of the original diner, which is said to be about 70 years old. I stopped there with friends, but didn't eat or drink anything, because I was saving room for the fish tacos I was planning to have for lunch.

About four years ago, this addition was added, and it blends beautifully with the old diner. Check out the shiny ceiling with a scallop-shell design at the far end.

A large bowl of cream of potato soup was $4.10 at the Suburban Diner, 172 Route 17 north in Paramus (201-261-2605).

Mighty Leaf Organic Earl Grey Tea was $2.25 with refills of hot water.

A close-up of the Suburban Diner's Greek Salad with extra anchovies a friend ordered ($12.70).

The 16-ounce cup of Cafe Au Lait comes with a piece of chocolate for $2.75 at Aroma Espresso Bar in Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus (use the mall's J.C. Penney entrance).

A few ounces of 100% whole-wheat Garofalo Pappardelle from Jerry's Gourmet in Englewood dressed in Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack with added pignoli nuts, one of the ingredients in classic pesto that also is available at Costco. 

Mouth-filling pasta with pesto

Whole-wheat Garofalo Pappardelle from Italy has gone up to $2.59 a pound, a dollar and 20 cents more than a pound of organic whole-wheat pasta from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market.

But those stores don't carry this thick ribbon pasta in whole wheat, which fills the mouth and is completely satisfying, especially when dressed with Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale.

The last time I enjoyed the dish, I added a handful of pignoli nuts before tossing the al dente pasta and unheated sauce together is the warm pot I used to boil the pappardelle.

The only caveat is you need to cook the pasta about 3 or 4 minutes longer than the 8 minutes listed on the package.

100% Italian olive oil

Finding all-Italian extra-virgin olive oil isn't as easy as it sounds.

Many bottles and tins contain a blend of extra-virgin olive oils from Italy, Greece, Tunisia and other countries.

On Friday, at Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean Street in Englewood, I found a 3-liter tin of Colavita Extra-Virgin Olive Oil made completely from olives harvested and pressed in Italy.

At $20.99, it worked out to about $6.99 a liter.

I also paid $6.99 a liter for organic extra-virgin olive oil from Turkey at the International Food Warehouse, 370 Essex St., Lodi.

Also at Jerry's, I picked up two complete Meals To Go -- restaurant-quality dinners with sausage, peppers and onions, fettuccine in a veal ragu, zucchini flower, heart of palm salad or a vegetable for $7.99 each.

Among the free samples, I loved the Truffle Cheese and the Smoked Gouda. 

Before Jerry's, I stopped at Balthazar, the artisanal bakery at 214 S. Dean St. in Englewood, for a baguette ($2) and half of a sliced batard of Pain de Seigle, its signature rye bread, which is made with beer (1.2 pounds for $3.50).  

$7.99 watermelons

At ShopRite in Paramus on Friday, watermelons with and without seeds were $7.99 each, but the latter were oblong and twice the size of the round, seedless ones.

I selected a heavy watermelon with seeds that a woman rejected because it didn't make the sound she desired when she thumped the end with her hand.

A 64-0unce bottle of Langers Cranberry Pomegranate Juice with no added sugar was on sale for $1.49 or $2 off. But a half-gallon of ShopRite Lactose Free 1% Milk was the usual $3.49.

Last Monday at the Paramus ShopRite, fresh free-range, grass-fed boneless shell steaks from Nature's Reserve in Australia were on sale for $6.99 a pound.

Golden Pineapples and Jumbo Cantaloupes were two for $5. 

I brake for fish -- not bread

Image via Wikipedia
Brussels sprouts are a frequent side dish to the fish, chicken, veal and pork in Jerry's Meals To Go. They are a low $7.99.

As I drove past Balthazar Bakery in Englewood the other day -- without lifting my foot off the accelerator -- I reviewed how drastically my diet has changed, and the benefits I've received.


When Balthazar opened a retail store in its production bakery just before Thanksgiving in 2002, I lived around the corner.


I'd walk over to pick up a wonderfully crusty baguette or a dozen dinner rolls and, once in a blue moon, an extraordinary fruit tart.


Even after I moved to Hackensack, Balthazar remained my main source for bread, and I'd stop in every couple of weeks to stock my freezer with dinner rolls and cut-up baguette for sandwiches.


I supplemented that with pocket bread, za'atar bread and spinach pies from the Syrian bakeries in Paterson -- I always had them in my freezer or refrigerator. 


But I gave up bread more than a year ago to lose weight, so on Monday, I kept on driving until I reached Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood, where I bought a $7.99 Meal To Go -- a multi-course, restaurant-quality dinner.


And because this month marks the 2nd anniversary since I stopped eating meat and poultry, I bought a Jerry's meal with blackened fillet of sole, rather than one with pork, chicken or veal.


The side dishes were a half-dozen grilled shrimp in the shell, Brussels sprouts, vegetable frittata and a small block of macaroni and cheese. All I needed to complete my dinner was a home-made salad and a glass of wine.


The next night, I prepared green-shell mussels from New Zealand I had purchased at H Mart -- they are blanched on the half shell and frozen. I sprinkled on some grated cheese and dried herbs and baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes.


Tonight, we're having fresh wild-caught haddock fillets from Iceland that I picked up today at Costco Wholesale ($7.99 a pound).


I went to Costco after meeting friends for lunch at the Grant Street Cafe in Dumont. I had a Greek salad and black coffee, and they had sandwiches or an omelet with lots of bread and french fries.


At Costco, I also purchased 4 pounds of frozen, cleaned U-15 farmed shrimp from Vietnam (13 to 15 shrimp to the pound) for $36.99 or about $9.25 a pound with a $5 instant Costco coupon.


By giving up bread and meat, and going to the gym five days a week, I've lost a lot of weight. I weigh 190 pounds, compared to a high of 228, and my cholesterol is around 140 -- much lower than before, when I ate meat and took a cholesterol-lowering pill.. 


Balthazar Bakery, 214 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-503-9717.


Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-871-7108.


Costco Wholesale, 80 S. River St., Hackensack; 201- 487-5471.

Many food claims don't hold water

Image via Wikipedia
If you want pure juice, don't buy Trop50.

Have you seen the TV ad for Trop50, which Tropicana calls "fabulously refreshing with 50% less sugar and calories"?


How do they do that, I wondered as I watched the ad from the maker of 100% pure orange juice on Monday night.


I found out when I looked at Trop50 labels at the Hackensack ShopRite this morning.


It is only 10% to 43% juice, depending on the variety (not 30% as I wrote earlier ). It is labeled a "fruit-juice beverage" and sweetened by PureVia -- called an all-natural plant extract.


McDonald's beef


Another TV ad from McDonald's seems to suggest the fast-food giant is using naturally raised beef in its hamburgers.


The ad shows a rancher, who says he supplies McDonald's, in a field where cattle are grazing -- what you'd see if the animals are grass fed 

Image via Wikipedia

and free range.


But the ad tells you nothing about whether the cattle are raised on antibiotics and growth hormones, and whether they spend most of their lives eating grain in the confines of a feed lot with hundreds of other animals.


Shrinking boxes


I've been buying mostly 100% whole wheat pasta, but many brands come in a box that is less than a full pound.


ShopRite, Barilla and other brands offer whole wheat or whole grain pasta in boxes that are about 13 to 14 ounces. Dreamfields Pasta boxes also hold less than 16 ounces.


Even on sale, they are not a good buy.


Last week, Jerry's Gourmet in Englewood had 100% whole wheat capellini from Italy in a 16-ounce package for $1.49. Trader Joe's sells a 16-ounce package of organic 100% whole wheat spaghetti for $1.39.


Coupon madness


The ShopRite in Hackensack today refused to honor a Progresso Soup Super Coupon from its sales flier that said "10 for $10.88" unless I bought the full number of cans.


Nowhere on the flier or coupon does it say "Must Buy 10" to get the price of about $1.09 per can compared to the Can Can Sale price of $1.25.


I left a message at Bergen County Weights and Measures in Hackensack.

Shopping notes

In one trip to Englewood today, I shopped at three of my favorite places for food -- H Mart, Balthazar Bakery and Jerry's Gourmet, where I sampled cheese and wine.

H Mart was almost empty, because the street was blocked by police for Veterans Day. I looked over the blue crabs, large Chilean sea bass fillets and fresh fish, then bought a Korean roll made with rice, vegetables and crab (not sure if it is artificial) and wrapped in seaweed ($4.99). I've sometimes heard this called finger maki. I also picked up plum tomatoes, a head of escarole and fresh collard greens. (25 Lafayette Ave., 201-871-8822.)

At Balthazar Bakery, I bought a quarter of the signature pain de siegle (sliced), a large, round, sourdough rye bread with a "B" stamped in the crust ($3.75 for a quarter). I looked longingly at the wonderful fruit tarts and other pastries, but bought none. (214 S. Dean St., 201-503-9717.)

At Jerry's, an employee was pouring Portuguese and Italian wines to go with the free cheese samples, and I tried them. I had hoped to find three complete dinners with wild fish, such as the Chilean sea bass I had recently, but had to settle for farmed salmon and farmed tilapia. The restaurant-quality dinners are only $6.99.

In the back of the store, there were a couple of cases of imported Pomi marinara sauce, from fresh tomatoes, in aseptic packages that don't need to be refrigerated. At two 26.45-ounce packages for $3.99, they were a good deal. Each would be more than enough for a half-pound of pasta. (410 S. Dean St., 201- 871-7108.)

I promise I'm not shilling for Jerry's

Here's another enthusiastic report on Jerry's Meals To Go, the complete, restaurant-quality dinners sold for only $6.99 at the Italian specialty store in Englewood. I promise that I pay for these dinners and Jerry doesn't know me from Adam.

The portions are sensible (12 ounces total), the food is delicious and healthy and the price is right for our uncertain economic times. When you finish one of these meals, you're left with a sense of well-being. The selections Saturday afternoon included fish, chicken and pork.

I plated my food, then heated it in a microwave: cod Livornese, topped with tomato sauce and black and green olives; roasted potatoes, crisp-tender carrots, broccoli and brussels sprouts, and a zucchini half stuffed with spinach and ricotta. I drizzled the food with a Colavita oil-lemon blend ($3.99 for a quart) that was available for tasting at Jerry's.

I split and toasted a Balthazar Bakery roll, poured some red wine and sparkling peach juice from Spain (in separate glasses) and dug in. What a great dinner.

Preparation tip: Don't heat this food or any other in plastic takeout or storage containers, which might transfer chemicals during the heating process; plate the food before heating and cover with a paper towel, not plastic wrap.

On the take-out trail in Englewood

Englewood is known for its restaurants, but it's also a great place for take-out -- Korean dumplings, French pastry, Jamaican jerk chicken and more.

Yesterday, I started a the farmer's market near the old train station, picking up Jersey tomatoes, bi-color corn and peaches at the Alstede Farms stand. My next stop was Balthazar Bakery on South Dean Street, where I bought a dozen assorted dinner rolls, a baguette and a crispy pissladiere.

About a half a mile south of the bakery is Jerry's Gourmet, where the free lunch lives. I sampled a half-dozen different full-fat cheeses (which I rarely eat), luxurious prosciutto di Parma, bread and toast before I purchased one of Jerry's incredible $6.99 dinners (shrimp, rosemary roast chicken and three vegetable sides), a Neapolitan pizza with vegetables and prosciutto-mozzarella bread (the last two for the freezer). With my wife and son away, there was no need to visit Ashanti's for jerk chicken, Gaboh Inc. for kimchi, Mandoo Inc. for dumplings or the Broadway Coffee Shop for Colombian empanadas.

For dinner, I started with the pissladiere, a pizza with a thin, crackling crust, caramelized sweet onions and four white anchovies radiating out from a black olive in the center. Then I heated the side dishes from the Jerry's dinner: sauteed escarole with beans, green beans with pine nuts and dried cranberries, and a stuffed artichoke, and ate them with some baguette. I also steamed the two small ears of corn (which weren't sweet). I finished with a small sandwich of the rosemary roast chicken.

And the winner is ....

My friend Bruce said I didn't express a clear preference in the previous post about Bartolomeo's and Jerry's Gourmet in Englewood.

The only reason I can see for returning to Bartolomeo's is to have an espresso, try one of their pizzas, or to have someplace to eat; it has seating for about 20.  Jerry's has far more selection of just about everything and a much wider variety of items for sale, including bread, cheese, wine, sea salt, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

And Bartolomeo's vacant second floor gives me even less reason to go there.

Bartolomeo's v. Jerry's Gourmet

My wife and me drove to Englewood today for a late breakfast at Bartolomeo's, the first serious challenger to the dominance of Jerry's Gourmet for Italian prepared food and groceries. What we found is a much smaller place with the quality but not the selection Jerry's has become known for.

Bartolomeo's is in an impressive new brick building at North Dean Street and West Demarest Avenue, less than a mile from Jerry's warehouse on South Dean in the shadow of an elevated section of Route 4. The former lags in the variety of cheeses and prepared foods, and doesn't sell any wine, but bakes pizza on the premises. Bartolomeo's also doesn't offer complete meals to go. Jerry's restaurant-quality meals, at $6.99, are among the best takeout values in North Jersey.

At Bartolomeo's, I struck up a conversation with an elderly Italian gentleman who said he was the owner. He said he had a successful business -- a store and adjacent pizzeria -- for more than a decade on Grand Avenue in Palisades Park, but that in recent years his revenues declined because the increasing number of Korean residents didn't eat a lot of Italian food.

The Englewood building has a vacant second floor, which is for rent. The man scoffed at my suggestion he open a pasta restaurant that serves a great bowl of spaghetti and meatballs or a Neapolitan pizza joint. Mentioning the wealthy residents of Englewood, Tenafly and nearby towns, he insisted only a high-end place that charged $200 a couple would be suitable for the space.

For our late breakfast, I had eggs, potatoes and peppers and my wife chose sausage, onions and peppers, both sold by the pound, $7.99 and $6.99, respectively. The hero roll we split was another 75 cents. You can get a cup of espresso at Bartolomeo's, and the store stocks a large selection of refrigerated and dry imported pasta, including dry pasta in crockery ($14.99).

And Bartolomeo's isn't nearly as generous with samples. I tried a couple of small, but delicious slivers of foccacia with olive and tomato there, in contrast to the half-dozen cheeses and salami I tasted the day before at Jerry's.