Friends,

Today has been a revelation! While shopping at our Sam's I came across what was, to me, a new item: Kettle Cuisine's Pomodoro sauce. Some traditionalists will chide me for purchasing premade red sauces, but sometimes we have gifts to build and crafts to make, and we are just too busy to make a sauce. For such times, there are quite a number of good premade sauces.

For the longest of times I have been loyal to Michael's of Brooklyn fresh tomato and basil sauce, which comes in 24 oz jars, which usually retail between eight and twelve dollars. It has been the standard for me, and is better than many restaurants' red sauces, especially on the Gulf Coast, and especially in Fairhope (I'm looking at you, bino's). Behind Michael's, I would rate La San Marzano's tomato and basil sauce. Popular sauces that I do not enjoy include Rao's (it tastes nothing like that served in the restaurant) and Classico. Lidia's has always been right in the middle.

Today, I must move on from Michael's and announce that Kettle Cuisine's Pomodoro sauce is my new favorite and the only red sauce I will be purchasing. Although the ingredients do not indicate that San Marzano tomatoes are used, it sure does taste like it, such is its tanginess. The closest comparison I have had is the side of red sauce that comes with the delectable calzone's at America's best pizzeria, Lucali. While many of the aforementioned sauces add some basil to the sauce, Kettle Cuisine overloads it to give the sauce the freshest taste. This sauce is not bottled -- it is recently made and has to be refrigerated -- and the flavor is the reward. Sam's sells them by the two pack. $8 gets you two 32 oz containers.

Next to the sauce in the fridge section was Taste Republic's cauliflower linguini. I have tried several vegetable based pastas before and did not like any of them. I decided to give this one a shot, and it was not bad. Of course, it was not as good as real pasta, and no where close to the marvelous, peerless pasta of Impastato's. But for relatively healthy, relatively low carb pasta, I have yet to have a better one. For two 9 oz packages the cost was $10. I was surprised just how filling even half a package was. Because it is laden with cauliflower powder, it really hits the stomach quickly and satiates the appetite. I normally eat about 16 oz of dry pasta in a sitting, but the 4-5 oz of the cauliflower pasta filled me quite well.