Exposing excessive salt, sugar in processed foods; plus, organic spaghetti from Italy

MARONE! Sugar is just as worrisome as excessive sodium in pasta sauces. A half-cup of Frescorti-brand Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce contains about 2 teaspoons of sugar in addition to 27% of the maximum amount of sodium you're supposed to consume in one day.

SWEET TOOTH? Rienzi-brand Marinara contains a little over 2 teaspoons of sugar and 25% of the maximum daily recommended sodium in a half-cup.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- If you love pasta, shopping for a bottled sauce without too much salt and sugar involves a lot of label reading and Google searches.

Although the "Nutrition Facts" label on jars of marinara and other sauces gives you the percentage of the maximum daily recommended sodium in a half-cup, the amount of "sugars" is given only in grams.

A Google search reveals 4 grams is equal to one teaspoon of sugar.

So, the Frescorti-brand Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce I saw in the Paramus ShopRite has 2 teaspoons of sugar in a half-cup.

The Rienzi Marinara nearby had a little over 2 teaspoons of natural and added sugar in a half-cup.

To reduce the salt and sugar in the pasta sauce you prepare at home, blend half a jar with a low-sodium alternative, such as ShopRite's Wholesome Pantry Organic (8% sodium in a half-cup), or with a can of no salt added or low-sodium crushed tomatoes.

For example, Tuttorosso Crushed Tomatoes (no salt added) lists 1% sodium and 3 grams of "sugars" in a half-cup.

Another way is never to salt the water you use to boil your pasta, and if you use anchovies, to drain the can of oil and rinse the tiny fish before adding them to your sauce.

I also usually add red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, dried herbs and red-pepper flakes.

BETTER: Of the three bottled pasta sauces I saw at the Paramus ShopRite last week, Botticelli-brand Tomato & Basil had the lowest amount of salt and sugar. Still, with 20% sodium and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a half-cup, Botticelli had more salt than Victoria-brand sauces.

TWO SIDES OF GAROFALO: A 16-ounce package of non-organic Garofalo Linguine from Italy, above, was a pricy $2.89 at the Paramus ShopRite, Forest Avenue and Route 4 east. For Garofalo Organic pasta, you have to go to the Costco Business Center on South River Street in Hackensack.

ORGANIC SPAGHETTI: I bought eight 1.1-pound packages of Garofalo Organic Spaghetti for about $1.49 each at the Costco Wholesale Business Center. The best-if-used-by date is September 2020.

ORGANIC PASTA AND ANTIBIOTIC-FREE SHRIMP: For dinner one night, plus plenty of leftovers, above and below, I used a package of Garofalo Organic Spaghetti and 2 pounds of Responsibly Farmed Shrimp from Whole Foods Market in Paramus ($9.99 a pound); extra-virgin olive oil, fresh garlic, a can of organic diced tomatoes, some organic pasta sauce, red wine, anchovies, dried herbs and other seasonings.

Organic pasta

In the last few years, I've become a big fan of organic whole wheat spaghetti and other shapes from Italy, including the brands sold at ShopRite, Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's.

In fact until recently, whole wheat was the only organic, non-GMO pasta available for a reasonable price at the North Jersey stores where I shop (currently about $1.50 for a full 1-pound package).

Now, the Costco Business Center at 80 S. River St. in Hackensack is selling packages of Garofalo Organic Spaghetti and other shapes, including Gemelli (twins) and Penne Rigate.

Pasta Garofalo was first produced in 1789, according to the Italian company's website.

But the site seems somewhat dated, as in this entry:

"We could boast about the fact that Pasta Garofalo has been considered the quality pasta par excellence since the twenty year Fascist period" -- a reference to former Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, who was strung up in April 1945.

If some Italians are taking this long to get over Mussolini, imagine how long some Americans will take to get over President Trump.

OTHER SHAPES: The Costco Business Center also bundles six 17.6-ounce packages of Garofalo Organic Gemelli, Penne Rigate and a third shape for $9.49 or about $1.58 each.

Eating Out + Eating In: $13.50 for a Greek Salad, brunch in Red Bank and fish stories

DID THEY SHRINK THE SALAD? I met a friend for lunch at the Suburban Diner, 172 Route 17 north in Paramus, and paid $13.50 for a Greek Village Salad. He ordered a Turkey Club Sandwich with French Fries, Onion Rings, Russian Dressing, Cole Slaw and Pickles on the side, photos below, and paid $11.95. I feel I was penalized for trying to eat healthy.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The Suburban Diner in Paramus appears to have downsized some lunch items, judging from the skimpy Greek Village Salad I had there the other day.

The popular Route 17 diner was expanded and completely renovated in 2012, and since then I've enjoyed meeting a friend there, usually ordering one of the big lunch salads.

But after an absence of more than a year (or maybe two), I found that the Greek Village Salad I ordered for $13.50 on Oct. 2 wasn't that big.

And though salads usually are healthy, this one had way too much salty feta cheese and olives, too much bread, and too little chopped cucumbers and greens.

I gained 6 pounds during a vacation in Iceland in August, when I filled up on fish, bread and beer.

Since we returned, I've tried to stick to my traditional bread substitutes -- sweet potatoes, organic quinoa and organic whole-wheat pasta -- and their lower carbs helped me shed the extra weight in about a month. 

So, all that bread in Suburban Diner's Greek Village Salad wasn't welcome, but there wasn't that much else to fill me up.

Meat substitutes

When eating out, I rarely have a problem finding substitutes for the meat and poultry I haven't eaten since 2010, but that wasn't the case on a day trip to Red Bank for a 3-course brunch and a play, "A Raisin in the Sun," at Two River Theater.

The day was arranged by WBGO, the jazz station in Newark, for members who paid one price for brunch and the theater. Jazz 88 is a media partner of the Red Bank theater.

Three of the four main courses listed on the limited menu of JBJ Soul Kitchen on Oct. 8 contained meat or poultry, and I didn't want the fourth choice -- Soul Kitchen Fall Pancakes with Candied Peanuts, Cinnamon Whipped Cream and Home Fries -- which had too many carbs and too much sugar.

A least for dessert, we were able to choose fruit salad over a cake.

BRUNCH IN RED BANK: This Pepper Frittata was listed on the menu of JBJ Soul Kitchen in Red Bank with Monterey Jack Cheese and a side of "Pork and Potato Hash." When I told the server I don't eat meat, she said the restaurant couldn't offer a substitute, so I was served only the small red pepper frittata.

The restaurant described my first course as Farm Vegetable Soup, but the bowl held only this thin broth and a scattering of vegetables.

At JBJ Soul Kitchen, my wife chose Teriyaki Beef with Soy Glazed Fried Rice, Fried Egg and Seasonal Green for a main course, above, and started with the Spring Into Fall Salad with Red Wine Poached Pears, Maple Vinaigrette and Feta Cheese, below.

I tried some of my wife's salad, and was sorry I didn't order it instead of the soup.

JBJ Soul Kitchen, 207 Monmouth St. in Red Bank, doesn't serve "soul food," but takes its name from Jersey shore rocker Jon Bon Jovi's JBJ Soul Foundation. The non-profit community restaurant serves paying customers and those who cannot pay. A second JBJ Soul Kitchen is in Toms River.

EATING IN: I assembled a pocket-bread sandwich with four fish -- leftover fried whiting from a takeout dinner; red snapper and a tuna-and-sardine salad we prepared at home; plus homemade pesto and tzatziki, sliced tomato and organic salad greens.

TAKE-OUT: In September, the opening of Paula's Soul Food Cafe at 331 Main St. in Hackensack proved wildly popular, judging from the crowds we encountered when picking up takeout on two successive Saturday nights. On Sept. 30, my wife picked up three Fried Whiting Dinners ($13 each), but Paula's staff needed an hour to fill the order. Paula's has a full soul food menu, including ribs and fried chicken, but also offers fresh wild-caught fish.

Fresh wild salmon

The four-month run of fresh, wild salmon at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro ended this month.

On Oct. 3, I picked up a skin-on fillet of wild Coho Salmon for $9.99 a pound.

Starting in early June, Costco offered fresh wild Sockeye Salmon from the Copper River, and later Sockeye and King Salmon, which were marked "Product of USA."

Only Coho Salmon was available in the last weeks.

EATING IN: I grilled fresh wild Coho Salmon and served it with a reduction of organic diced tomatoes, red wine and garlic; homemade pesto and fresh herbs, above and below.

A week later, I served grilled Coho Salmon with homemade basil pesto and a homemade yogurt sauce called tzatziki (non-fat Greek Yogurt from Costco Wholesale, shredded cucumbers, minced garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice and dried dill).

TZATZIKI: Shredded cucumbers, non-fat Greek Yogurt and extra-virgin olive oil are three of the ingredients in tzatziki.

The skin-on Coho Salmon fillets spend 8 minutes on a preheated stovetop grill with spray oil (6-7 minutes for medium), turned once. 

A week ago, the Teterboro Costco offered only artificially colored farmed salmon, above. Another case held antibiotic-free farmed salmon.

Other wild fish at Costco

Costco's refrigerated case offers other fresh wild fillets, including Atlantic cod and haddock, flounder, ocean perch and monkfish.

Smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon is available year-round for use in omelets, salads and sandwiches. 

FISH & VEGETABLE MEDLEY: Serving pieces of fresh wild cod ($7.99  a pound at Costco) coated in Asian Indian spices and baked under a mantle of organic diced tomatoes, pitted olives, capers and grated Parmesan Cheese, above and below.

I lined a large pan with parchment paper, added fresh spinach, extra-virgin olive oil, serving pieces of fish, lemon juice and the other ingredients. The fish was ready after 15 minutes in a preheated 400-degree oven.

CHEESY FRITTATA: With the return of cooler weather, I prepared a 10-inch frittata with eggs (whole or whites or both) grated cheese, seasonings and dried herbs -- 4 cups of liquid in all. I poured the liquid into a preheated non-stick pan with olive oil, and added plum tomato slices, more grated cheese and Costco's Organic No-Salt Seasoning, below. When the crust was set, I moved the pan to broiler until the crust browned. I added homemade pesto as the frittata was cooling on the counter, then cut it into wedges with a spatula.

BREAD SUBSTITUTES: Organic quinoa from Costco Wholesale is one of my bread substitutes (above with  Jamaican-style ackee and salt fish, below with an omelet stuffed with wild smoked salmon.

I put 2 cups of organic quinoa, 4 cups of organic chicken stock, a can of organic diced tomatoes, a can of organic chickpeas or beans, olive oil, sesame oil and a little salt in an electric cooker, and choose the "white rice" setting.

Two more bread substitutes are organic whole wheat pasta, above, and sweet potatoes, below. The best sources for organic whole wheat pasta in a variety of shapes are Whole Foods Market and ShopRite (both charge $1.50 or less for a 1-pound package).

I bake sweet potatoes at 350 degrees until they are soft and the natural sugar oozes out of them (takes at least an hour). I also boil cut-up, skin-on sweet potato with peeled garlic cloves and mash them with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings, including cinnamon, curry powder and red-pepper flakes.

A wedge of frittata served with a baked sweet potato and Mexican-style salsa.

Eating In + Eating Out: Sugary yogurt, pesto with fish, red shrimp, bargain Italian

Hunting for yogurt with less added sugar, I decided to try no-fat Fage Greek yogurt from Costco Wholesale, but the idiotic packaging was a complete turnoff -- with the fruit preparation in a small compartment and thicker-than-usual strained yogurt in a big compartment. Just out of the refrigerator, the fruit mixture was too thick to flow into the yogurt, defeating the package design.

Yoplait Light has only 10 grams of sugar and 90 calories per 6-ounce container, compared with 16 grams of sugar and 120 calories in Fage's 5.3-ounce container. With a doubled coupon, Yoplait Light fat-free yogurt was 40 cents each at ShopRite, Forest Avenue and Route 4 east in Paramus, below.

There are far too many choices in the yogurt aisle.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

With added sugar turning up in dry red wine, bottled pasta sauces and other products, I'm starting to worry about all those sweetened yogurts I've been eating.

Lately, I've started buying non-fat Greek yogurt, which adds a guilt-free creaminess to fish and egg dishes.

If I want to indulge my sweet tooth, I can drizzle a little agave syrup over the plain yogurt.

Most times, I can be just as happy with a savory preparation, such as adding fresh and dried herbs, and extra-virgin olive oil, then eating it off of a plate with a spoon, wrapping it in Armenian lavash or stuffing the yogurt into a Syrian pocket bread.  

A dish I loved as a kid was mejadra -- cooked rice and lentils topped with a thin yogurt sauce containing peeled cucumber pieces and dried mint.

Sugar in wine

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says a 5-ounce glass of red table wine typically contains about 0.9 grams of total sugar, which may include added sugar, sugar from unfermented grape juice and sugar that occurs naturally in grapes.

However, the only way to find out how much sugar may have been added is to contact the producer directly, The New York Times reports.

One state, California, bars added sugar at any point in the wine-making process.

How sweet is it?

The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting added sugar intake to no more than 10% of daily calories, which is about 12 teaspoons or 50 grams, The Times says.

The American Heart Association recommends limiting intake even further, the newspaper said:

No more than 6 teaspoons (about 25 grams or 100 calories) per day for women, and no more than 9 teaspoons (36 grams, 150 calories) per day for men.

So, the 16 grams of sugar in one 5.3-ounce container of that Fage no-fat yogurt with a fruit preparation is more than half of the recommended daily maximum for women under the heart association guidelines.

You won't find a recommended daily limit for sugar listed on any nutrition label -- unlike all the other ingredients.

A homemade mixture of non-fat Greek Yogurt with minced garlic adds creaminess to a pair of organic eggs.

Two 32-ounce containers of non-fat Greek Yogurt were $5.99 at Costco Wholesale in the Teterboro Landing shopping center off of Route 46 in Teterboro.

After I removed the pan from the oven, I added Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and Greek Yogurt to Monk Fish Fillets prepared with fresh spinach, tomato, pitted black olives, capers, grated cheese and fresh lemon juice (20 minutes in a preheated 400-degree oven). Yogurt, pesto, fish, spinach and tomato were from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

I also prepared a pound of Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli ($1.50 at ShopRite) with Costco's Basil Pesto and Organic Pignoli Nuts, as well as fresh herbs from my garden.

Wild-caught jumbo Red Shrimp from Argentina cook quickly in organic chicken stock, sesame oil and sake, getting a shower of chopped fresh mint, oregano and rosemary before they were plated, above and below.

I sauteed cut-up sweet pepper, onion and garlic for several minutes before adding the shrimp, which we had to defrost, peel and devein, and turned them once during the cooking. They were ready when they curled up and turned white. The payoff for all that work is some of the tenderest shrimp I've ever eaten.

Argentinian Red or Pink Shrimp are sold frozen in 4.4 pound boxes for $24.99 at H&Y Marketplace, a Korean supermarket at 1 Remsen Place in Ridgefield. I bought the box on Sunday, but the sign carries April sale dates.

H&Y or Hanyang Marketplace appears to rent out space to independent merchants whose in-store concessions offer tofu, ginseng and other products. 

I steered clear of this display of Korean salt.

H&Y Marketplace sells Korean comfort food for less than H Mart, a bigger chain of supermarkets. Trays of kimbap, a seaweed, vegetable, rice and fish-cake roll, were $3.99 and $4.99, above, and japchae was $4.99, below.

H&Y's japchae is a meatless version of the popular translucent-noodle dish made from yam flour.

I drove to Al Dente Restaurant in Elmwood Park for Italian-American takeout on Saturday afternoon. A generous serving of Fillet of Sole alla Tagame with sauteed black olives, tomatoes, garlic, marsala wine and balsamic vinegar was $18.95 with vegetables, potato and a Caesar Salad. The same preparation of salmon was $19.50, and Jumbo Shrimp Oreganata over linguine was $18.50. 

Al Dente, formerly Giovanni's, also offers a three-course dinner daily from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. -- including entrees of chicken, veal, shrimp or pasta, plus vegetables, potato, salad, coffee or tea and dessert -- for $14.95 cash or $18.95 with a credit card. But the Early Dinner menu is not available for takeout. 

DETAILS: Al Dente Restaurant is a BYO in the Market Place strip mall at 430 Market St., Elmwood Park; 1-201-791-3000. Reservations recommended. A sign with the restaurant's new name is expected to go up in July. Website: New name, same owners