Safeway Crushed Tomatoes (28 oz.)
Item Purchased: Safeway Crushed Tomatoes (28 oz.)
Location Purchased: Dominick’s / 3145 S. Ashland / Chicago, IL
Price: $1.89 + tax
Purchased on: 01/27/08
Review: If I had my druthers (which, I’ve learned, has a prerequisite of having loads of free time), I’d happily bop along to old soul records while dancing badly around my kitchen wearing nothing but boxers and old ripped t-shirts and cook everything I ever ate from absolute scratch. Since, however, my druthers days and boxer baking days are a ways off, I have to take a few shortcuts. One of the culinary shortcuts I enjoy taking is making a batch of fresh tomato/marinara sauce every week or so to have on hand in my fridge. From this, I can make anything from pasta to pizzas to Caribbean style seafood dishes. Everything I use is fresh: the aromatic vegetables (celery, carrots, onion), the herbs and spices, etc… Everything, that is, except the tomatoes. Instead of seeding and stewing and simmering for 4+ hours, I grab a couple of cans of crushed or pureed tomatoes like these, chop for 10-20 minutes or so, and simmer for just over an hour.
I’ve used other brands of crushed tomatoes in the past, but I tend to keep coming back to trusty ol’ Dominick’s for the simple reason that this is the only brand of canned and crushed tomatoes that is easy to find in my daily vicinity that haven’t been already mixed with garlic or other additions. One shortcut is fine, but I’ll be damned if I’ll have my garlic pre-chopped for me. While tomatoes are the base of any good red sauce, it’s the other elements that give the sauce its unique characteristics in my mind.
Dominick’s crushed tomatoes are slightly sweet and lack the tinny flavor that many canned vegetables possess, making these cans of red base a shortcut I can live with.
Until that day when my boxers play a more prominent role in my life…
…of course, I’m in my boxers right now. I can afford myself some druthers.
Rating: 3.75 / 5
February 13th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
For canned crushed tomatoes, you can’t beat 6 in 1. Maybe a little less readily available, but well worth the trip to a further away store to stock up.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I look for tomatoes that have no salt added. Everytime I Use canned tomatoes that have salt added, I forget that and end up oversalting the dish.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:08 am
[...] batch of tomato marinara/sauce that I keep on hand for my cooking needs. Instead of going the purely canned route that I usually take, I thought I’d mix it up with a bit of canned and a bit of fresh. [...]