I recently got to try these great tomatoes from Pomi. It’s refreshing to try a product from a company who prides itself in having no preservatives, being low in sodium, using no pesticides or herbicides. These tomatoes are very versatile.

The tomatoes that go into these BPA free containers are grown in Italy and contain NO additives, citric acid, added water or artificial colors.

I emailed my good friend Paula of bell’alimento (her site is amazing by the way) and asked her what her favorite simple tomato sauce recipe was. She said use olive oil, onion and garlic, cook for a little while and add fresh basil at the end. Yummy and you can’t get simpler than this! This sauce is perfect on pasta, as a dipping sauce or even as a pizza sauce.

It’s really that simple to make. In less than 30 minutes, you have a really great tasting and easy to make tomato sauce.

Simple Tomato Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, small dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
26.46oz container of chopped tomatoes, Pomi brand
salt and pepper
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

Directions:

Heat oil on medium heat for two minutes in a french oven. Add onions and cook until slightly browned, four to five minutes. Add garlic and heat for about 60 seconds.

Add tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water. Cover and set to low heat. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Add fresh basil, mix and add more salt and pepper to taste.

Buy It

I have started seeing Pomi being offered at my local grocery store and you can also purchase on Amazon for under $40 for a case of 12.

Win It

One winner chosen at random one case of Pomi chopped tomatoes. Retail value $50.00.

Mandatory Entry

Tell me about your favorite tomato sauce recipe. Have a link to one? Please share! (1 entry)

The mandatory entry must be done otherwise the bonus entries will not count.

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4. Tweet about this giveaway w/ link and leave a link to your tweet. Use the sample tweet below or the tweet button at the bottom of this post.
   Pomi Tomatoes #Giveaway http://bit.ly/qjRX8n via @TheLittleKitchn
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• This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only (I’m very sorry to my international readers).
• Leave a separate comment on this post for EACH entry to make all of your entries count. (If you already like on fb or subscribe via email, just leave a comment saying so.)
• At the conclusion of the giveaway, the entry drawn as well as the mandatory entry will be checked and verified. If your entry cannot be verified at that time, it will not count.
• You have until 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 to enter.

One random winner will be chosen via And the Winner is plugin from all comments submitted in this post. Once the winner is chosen, the winner will be contacted via email and if winner does not respond within 48 hours, winner forfeits prize and another winner will be chosen at random.

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Disclosure: I received the same product the winner will receive. Opinions are always my own. And some links in this post are affiliate links.

A Simple Tomato Sauce Recipe with Pomi & Giveaway © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

When we think of comfort food, we sometimes think of buttery, beefy, potatoey, or cheesey dishes often slaved over on the stove or in the oven. But sometimes comfort food can be linked to a memory or memories. This dish reminds me of my siblings and what my older sister, Quyen, would make for us on the weekends or during the week after school. My Mom worked a lot and sometimes two or three jobs and our older sister, Quyen, was our second Mom. She made us plain crepes (how gourmet, right?) and sometimes this tuna pasta salad that I’m sharing with you today. When you have limited options and groceries, you make do. My sister didn’t realize it at the time but what she was doing was bringing us comfort, feeding our bellies and creating lasting memories.

Having a connection and special bond with your siblings is very important. That connection lasts through tough times and I’m so thankful I have my sisters and my brother. Recently, I had a conversation with my sister, Quyen, and we decided that we would needed to have a sibling retreat. She lives in a different country and we’re finding it hard to keep in touch with each other. We’re going to try to reconnect at a different location every year and just spend time together. No spouses, no kids. Often, we get so busy and I’ll go a few weeks without even talking to one of my sisters, who lives just an hour away from me. With life being so short, we realized we need to do this and create even more memories together. And I can’t wait to cook with my sisters and brother.

This is my version of Quyen’s tuna pasta salad, it’s really easy and I love to make it and just have a bowl to snack on in front of the tv and will even take it for lunch. It’s a great dish to serve at a little party.

You may even have all of the ingredients on hand. I recently threw a party for a couple of friends after Bosch Appliances contacted me and one of the first things I thought of was to make this dish.

I also made those wonderful peanut butter cup cupcakes to share with my friends, Kathy, Katie, Kelly and Nancie. It was fun to share my favorite Tassimo drink, the chai latte with them. That was almost everyone’s favorite…Kathy loved the Starbucks espresso latte. After the party, they all got to take home a T20 brewer and some fun accessories, courtesy of Bosch!

I would love to hear about what foods bring you comfort, do you have any memories from your childhood that have to do with food? Or what is your favorite comfort food?

Tuna Pasta Salad with Celery & Egg

Ingredients:

14-16 oz. box of macaroni or corkscrew pasta
5 oz. can of solid white albacore tuna, in water (refrigerated), drained
4 celery stalks, diced (I use Dandy Fresh brand)
4 boiled eggs, refrigerated, peeled & then diced
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 lemon
salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Cook pasta acording to the instructions on the box, allow to cool and then refrigerate.
2. Combine cold tuna, celery stalks and cold diced eggs together in a large mixing bowl and add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Add macaroni pasta and mix well. Add mayonnaise and mix well.
4. Add more salt and pepper to taste and squeeze as much lemon juice as you want into the pasta, to taste. Refrigerate and serve cold.

Tips:

• You can prepare all of your ingredients the day before serving but I wouldn't add mayonnaise and lemon juice until you're almost ready to serve this dish.
• I forgot to mention initially that I used whole wheat pasta and have used regular pasta in the past, it tastes great either way.

Disclosure: Bosch Appliances provided the Tassimo brewers for my friends. I received no compensation for hosting the party or this post. Duda Farm Fresh Foods is a sponsor of mine. All opinions are always my own. Some links in this post are affiliate links.

Tuna Pasta Salad with Celery and Egg © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

The description on the menu includes portobello mushrooms and a basil-marsala cream sauce. Why not make it easy on myself and make it in the slow cooker like the red wine-braised recipe? After it was done cooking in the slow cooker, I removed the beef to allow it to rest and strained the sauce from the slow cooker and put it into a fat separator (my new favorite kitchen tool – the Oxo brand fat separator) and reduced the sauce, added sauteed portobellos and 1/2 cup of heavy cream.

The results? Amazing! I’m thrilled it out worked! I used store-bought tortelloni and it worked out awesome. This is a dish that may just enter into our regular rotation. My husband isn’t too crazy about tortelloni or tortellini so he had his with fettuccine which was also great! Add your favorite garlic bread or buttery rolls and you have Italian comfort food at its best.

Using a fat separator to remove the fat from a sauce or gravy is much faster than skimming it.

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Tortelloni in a Marsala Cream Sauce (Slow Cooker Recipe)

Ingredients:

4 pounds bone-in short ribs, meat and bones separated
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, chopped medium
1 carrot, peeled and chopped medium
1 Tbsp minced fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
2 Tbsp minced fresh basil or 2 tsp dried
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups marsala cooking wine
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 large portobello mushrooms, remove gills, cut into quarters and sliced
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 small tomatoes, seeded and diced
9 oz. package of refrigerated cheese tortelloni

Directions:

Place beef bones in a microwavable casserole dish and microwave, 10 to 12 minutes; add to slow cooker.

Use paper towels to dry short rib meat and add salt & pepper. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a French oven at medium high heat for 4-5 minutes. In batches (if needed), brown short ribs on each side for about 7 to 10 minutes; add to slow cooker top of the bones. (Repeat for each batch.)

Add garlic, onion, carrot, thyme, and basil to French oven and cook over medium-high heat until onions are translucent, 4 to 6 minutes. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, mixing the entire time.

Whisk in wine and vinegar, use the whisk to scrape up browned bits at the bottom of your French oven. Reduce for about 5 minutes until the alcohol is reduced. Add drained tomatoes to wine sauce and simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Add wine sauce to slow cooker.

Add broth and stir in as best as you can in slow cooker. Add bay leaves to slow cooker. Cover and cook for 9 to 11 hours on low or 5 to 7 hours on high.

Remove short ribs to platter and add foil but do not cover tightly. Allow meat to rest at least 15-20 minutes before slicing.

Using a strainer on top of a fat separator (not the one it came with because the holes are too big), strain braising liquid into fat separator. Set aside and discard solids.

Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil at medium heat in a braising pan or non-stick skillet for about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for about 4-5 minutes. Remove and place mushrooms on a clean plate.

Add set aside braising liquid to pan and heat for about 5 minutes. While the sauce is being heated, start a large pot of salted boiling water and cook tortelloni according to package directions.

Reduce the sauce in the pan's heat to low. Add mushrooms, half of the diced tomatoes and heavy cream. Reduce sauce for another 4-5 minutes and then leave on warm until you're ready to serve with tortelloni. Garnish dishes with remaining diced tomatoes.

inspired by Olive Garden's Braised Beef & Tortelloni

Disclosure: Olive Garden doesn’t know who the heck I am and this post does contain an affiliate link.

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Tortelloni in a Marsala Cream Sauce (Slow Cooker Recipe) © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

We have made this recipe twice and it has become our favorite lasagna recipe. This recipe is going into the favorites pile and will probably become a part of our regular rotation. The problem is it makes tons, too much for two people to eat. I have brought it into work and my co-workers love it!

Cook’s Illustrated recommends that we use Barilla’s no boil pasta and it definitely works. Also, for the roasted vegetables, I upped the amount of eggplant from one pound to one and a half pounds and that worked as well. I don’t know about you but it’s hard to get a full dinner from scratch made after a full day of work. Every time I have made this recipe, I roasted the vegetables the night before according to the instructions. Then allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes and then place into a plastic container where I let it cool for another 20-30 minutes before putting it in the refrigerator. The next night, I assemble the lasagna and there is no need to heat up the roasted vegetables.

Assembling the lasagna

Right before it goes into the oven

This picture really does not do it justice. The roasting of the vegetables is what gives this dish its depth of flavor.

Roasted Zucchini and Eggplant Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 pound of zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 1/2 pounds of eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch dice
3 Tbsp olive oil
4 minced garlic cloves
salt and pepper

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

12 no boil lasagna noodles from an 8-oz or 9-oz box
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese, about 4 cups
3 oz Parmesan cheese, about 1 1/2 cups

Directions:

1. Move oven racks to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Toss the diced zucchini and eggplant with garlic, salt, pepper and 3 Tbsp of olive oil.
3. On two cookie sheets covered in foil that is greased with olive oil, divide the diced vegetables and spread evenly over the cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Be sure to turn the vegetables occasionally and I even switch the cookie sheets' position. (As stated above, the roasting of the vegetables can be done a day ahead of time.)
5. Add 2 Tbsp of olive oil and 2 cloves of minced garlic to a pot at medium heat. Allow the garlic to cook for 30 seconds, don't burn the garlic.
6. Add the crushed tomatoes to the pot with olive oil and garlic. Add a little bit of salt to taste. Cook at medium heat for about 2 minutes. Bring down to simmer and cook until thickened for another 5 minutes. Mix in basil and salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce into a large measuring cup and add enough water to make about 4 cups.
7. In a 9x13 baking dish (I use a glass one), add about 1/2 to 1/3 cup of sauce and spread the sauce out.
8. Lay three noodles over the sauce and make sure they don't touch each other or the sides of the baking dish.
9. Spread evenly 1/3 cup of the roasted vegetables on top of each of the lasagna noodles you just laid down.
10. Take 2/3 cup of sauce and pour evenly over the vegetables.
11. Pour 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese over the sauce.
12. Repeat steps 8-11 twice.
13. For the final layer, lay three noodles on the top and spread evenly the remaining (approximately) 1 cup of sauce over the noodles. Be sure to cover the noodles entirely. Then pour 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese.
14. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and move your oven rack to the middle position.
15. Cover the 9x13 baking dish with foil that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
16. Bake for 25 minutes. Then, remove foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the cheese is "spotty" brown.
17. Allow the lasagna to cool for at least 15 minutes.

Slightly modified from Cook's Illustrated.

I hope you try this dish because it’s completely worth it! Do you have a favorite lasagna recipe? Which one’s your favorite? I would love for you to share with me links. Thanks!

Roasted Zucchini and Eggplant Lasagna © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

Anyways, thanks to Georgia who found this recipe and shared it with me. She made it for our Bunko group once and it was very tasty. It’s a Publix Aprons meal and another one of my husband’s favorites.

The chicken is very tender and the lemony taste is not overwhelming.

Click here for the Lemon Chicken Pasta Recipe

Tips:

• I make this dish with bow tie pasta (just like Georgia did). Be careful because it calls for 8 ounces of pasta and bow tie pasta usually comes in 12 ounce boxes.
• I measure out the ingredients after I prepare the chicken. It’s a quick meal and it’ll be much easier if you have the capers & chicken base measured out along with the white wine and heavy cream.
• Chicken base is a soup base found in a jar in the soup section of your grocery store.
• I use Fragata brand capers, it’s in a skinny jar. It’s hard to measure straight in the jar so I pour some in a little bowl and measure from there. Don’t forget to put some of the liquid back into the jar if you poured too much out, otherwise the capers will dry out.
• I usually serve this dish with a salad.

Lemon Chicken Pasta © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

If you did want to add a protein to this dish, you could make the chicken I make for the fettuccine alfredo recipe.

Just a picture to show how I chopped the tomatoes and how they look while they are sauteeing.

It’s a very tasty dish and is usually ready in under 45 minutes.

Penne with Spicy Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you prefer)
2 Tbsp minced fresh flat leaf parsley
1 1/2-2 pounds ripe plum tomatoes (seeded and chopped)
salt to taste
1 lb dried penne pasta
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated (plus additional to top)
2 Tbsp romano cheese, grated

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of salted water to boil for the penne pasta. Cook al dente according to package directions. Drain pasta and reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water.
2. In a large pot over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute for 1 minute to release the garlic's fragrance. Add 1 Tbsp parsley and cook for a few seconds then add tomatoes. Raise the heat to medium-high and simmer briskly, stirring often, until the tomatoes break down and form a sauce, about 15 minutes. Add water as necessary to thin the sauce and keep it from sticking. Season with salt. Remove from the heat.
3. Add pasta to pot with sauce and toss. Add cheeses and toss again. Add pasta water if needed to thin the sauce. Top with additional cheese if needed and top with remaining parsley.

Modified from Williams-Sonoma Classic Pasta at Home, 1998

Penne Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

Click here for Emeril’s Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe

Sauteed Chicken Recipe

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into cutlets
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil
• fresh parsley, chopped

1. Heat frying pan to medium heat.
2. Salt and pepper pieces of chicken. Add parsley and drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive oil over chicken.
3. Flip over chicken and repeat.
4. Place chicken in frying pan (make sure it sizzles when you add it). You might need to bring the heat up to medium high heat. Cook chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side depending on thickness. Cook in batches if needed.
5. Allow chicken to rest under tented piece of foil for 5-6 minutes.
6. Slice into strips and serve over pasta.

After seasoning and adding parsley and olive oil, this is what the chicken looks like. I like adding olive oil directly to the chicken (drizzling it) instead of adding it to the pan so I don’t add too much. Too much olive oil and it’s more like frying in the olive oil instead of a sautee.

Chicken is done.

Yummy! I hope you enjoy!

Tips:
My husband loves adding crumbled bacon to his fettuccine alfredo, if you do this, you might want to watch how much salt you add to the alfredo sauce.
I have found a rhythm with these recipes since I have made them a bunch of times now.

1. I start the pot of boiling water first (be sure to add salt).
2. Then, I mince the shallots.
3. Then, prepare the chicken.
4. Melt the butter and cook the shallots. Add the heavy cream.
5. Whenever the water starts boiling, add the fettuccine.
6. Don’t forget to reserve that 1/4 cup of pasta water. Drain the pasta when it’s done.
7. Cook the chicken as directed above.
8. While the chicken is resting, mix the pasta together as directed in the recipe and don’t forget to season it and add parsley. If you don’t have fresh parsley, you can use dried parsley, I have done it and it tastes just fine.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.