Pastorelli Sauce

I haven't done a product review on my blog before, but I'm going to start today.  I haven't cooked in a few days so I have nothing to add.  It was my birthday and we went out, but I already reviewed the restaurant.  Today's my dad's birthday, so I will be eating at my parents' house.  I thought I'd write about the putanesca sauce I'm using in my lunch.

I'm making spaghetti putanesca and I could make it from scratch easily, but today I went with the jar and a quick boil of pasta.  Easy, fast, and good.  Pastorelli sauce is sold more widely than when I first used it.  I first found it at a specialty Italian food store, Tenuta's in Kenosha, for about $3 a jar.  It's so good, like I made it homemade, and nobody can tell the difference in a pinch.

This jar is called "zesty putanesca" and it lists the ingredients.  What I like about the sauce, other than how great it tastes, is that the ingredients are natural and I can read them and know what they are.  Literally:

Tomatoes, tomato puree, onion, artichoke hearts, black olives, capers, extra virgin olive oil, portabello mushrooms, sea salt, sugar, garlic, basil, spices and crushed red chili pepper.  That's it!  No weird gums or colors or preservatives or things I can't pronounce.  It's made in Chicago.  Go figure.  I love Chicago Italian food, and I love my Chicago Italian too.  No surprise I love their sauce.

I've used their other sauces too.  David likes the Garden Marinara when he makes himself dinner.  I love the Spicy Sicilian Arabiata, and I use it for baking pastas.  It all bakes well, coats the pasta well, and doesn't need a thing to doctor it up.

It only has 70 calories in a half cup too.  Great stuff.  Grocery stores around here are starting to carry it for over $5 a jar.  If you can get to a specialty store, you might get it cheaper.  I still pay $3.19 at Tenuta's.

P.S.  I viewed the website to get the photo, but then I got lost in the story of the company history, which is a family history.  Amazing story.  These folks are responsible for Roma tomatoes, Contadina (though they sold it off years ago), jarred sauce after WWII when brides were still working, and several other food icons in America.  Shows what a little passion and ambition can get you.