LITTLE ITALY BECKONED
Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French.
Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. ~Alice May Brock
Chinatown rubs up against Little Italy in lower Manhattan, with one colorful and distinct community of people around the corner from another. Seeing an Italian food shop, I was drawn into it, the aroma of aged cheese greeting my sense of smell as soon as my nose entered. Customers were crowded in front of the L-shaped counters, the food purveyors behind, looking, every one, as Italian as could be, helping one customer at a time, totaling the sums in pencil on paper bags.
Grabbing a Take-A-Number, I noticed it read, “41″. No one was ruffled in the least when the next number was called: “15!” I did notice that as subsequent numbers were called and no one stepped up, about a third had seem to have left the shop unassisted. They probably didn’t think it was worth the wait. I was not one of those customers; the importance of this local, family-owned (I’m guessing) shop was evident, it’s authenticity palpable. I was only too happy to wait.
I wandered, fascinated by the jars and bottles of European and, mostly, Italian origin.  My inveterate reading extends to food labels, and I was content to peruse the olive oils, pasta sauces, tinned and jarred fruits of the sea, biscuits, capers. And then I saw something I wanted.
Ready Cherry Tomato Sauce. Made by Agromonte, it said right on the front of the label, with a photo of tomatoes. Turning it over, the ingredients listed:
Cherry tomatoes (97%), extra virgin olive oil, salt basil, celery, Keep away from light and heat.
After opening, keep the product in the fridge and serve within 7 days.
The Nutrition Facts listed:
8 mg salt.
Let me repeat that one. This jar of tomato sauce contains 8 mg of salt per 8-oz serving. That’s 8 mg of added salt, not sodium inherent in the main ingredients. How refreshing is it for a company to add less than a dash of salt? Less, indeed, is really more. I knew right away I was going to love this tomato sauce!
Check out this site (I can only send you to the Home page; click on Products on the top tab, then Specialties on the left sidebar to see the products I’m talking about):
The one I bought is “Cherry Sauce,” so called because it uses cherry tomatoes. But look at the ingredients in these five products. All ingredients are whole foods except for two: ascorbic acid in one product, and citric acid in another. (These are natural components of citrus fruits and are usually added to preserve, flavor or enrich food products.) Notice that there are no unpronounceable substances, and no sugar in any of them except for the one with eggplant, which can tend to be bitter. On their website newsletter, (go back to the Home page, click on newsletter on the sidebar) they talk about their tomatoes, specifically calling them out as “non-GMO”.
If an Italian food company can make a marinara sauce with only eight milligrams of added salt per serving, why can’t American companies? If an Italian company can make a marinara sauce without chemicals, preservatives or sugar, why can’t American food producers? I suspect the answer is simple: they don’t want to.
Today’s preparation makes good use of that Ready Cherry Tomato Sauce, meatballs made of sausage from the lovely Italian shop. Meatballs in Marinara can be put over your pasta shape of choice, or you can use noodles made from rice or mung beans for quicker cooking. I use tiny cinnamon cap or enocki mushrooms because they don’t have to be sautĂ©ed before adding. If I were using white button or crimini mushrooms, I would lightly sautĂ© them before adding to the sauce.
Most tomato sauce needs about a half day, at least, to simmer, incorporating all the flavors into a rich sauce. However, if you begin with an off-the-shelf marinara sauce, you can add to it and the cooking time is minimal. See what suits best. The vegetables are added mostly for texture, making a hearty one-dish meal, perfect for taking to work for lunch. Leftovers are even better than the first go-round.
