I had no idea when I walked into the kitchen what I was going to make for dinner.

I had gone grocery shopping this morning and knew what we had in the larder… It was really more a matter of how I was going to throw a few things together. I zeroed in on the sausage – fresh onion and apple pork – and then the escarole. A huge head that’s going to take many meals to consume. I figured Nonna won’t eat the escarole, so I pulled out some small shell pasta and then a can of cannellini beans. She won’t do beans, either… I figured I could start the sauce and then pulls some out for her and finish it off with all the goodies we like.

My new ingredient, today, was a bottle of Passata. Passata is a tomato puree of sorts, made with uncooked crushed and strained tomatoes…

no skins or seeds that you don’t need…
Acapulco Gold is bad ass…

Oh, wait… where was I?!?

Back to Passata… I have seen it in recipes, lately, and thought I’d see what the hype was all about. So far, I like it. It tasted like ::drum roll:: tomatoes. The Wegman’s Passata is organic, made in Italy, and, at $2.99 for a 24oz jar, is a mere 20¢ more than three cans of their 8oz sauce – without the added salt and herbs and such. And… It’s in a glass bottle with a resealable top. As handy as the little tube of tomato paste…

It tastes like tomatoes.

I’m thinking that we could put up a few dozen bottles of this this summer from our garden bounty. I did a fresh chunked tomato sauce last year… I could break out the food mill… It’s really easy to sit back in February and think of all the things you’re going to do in August…

On the other hand… I will be retired…

Tonight’s dinner…

I cooked up leeks and sausage and added about a cup of passata.  A bit of salt & pepper. I pulled some out for Nonna and then added cannellini beans, a bit of crushed red pepper, some chopped  escarole, and cooked little shell pasta. Parmesan cheese on top. Nonna just got the pasta in her sauce.

I heated everything through and called it dinner.

Naturally, I had more than enough, so Victor packed the leftovers up for lunch, tomorrow.

Life is good!