The folks at Tuttorosso recently contacted me to review some of their tomato products and I must say I was flattered – this was totally out of the blue. I agreed immediately, mainly because I am familiar with Tuttorosso’s canned tomatoes and have used them in various recipes with great success.

OK, let’s get the disclaimers over with now. I am not affiliated, in any way, with Tuttorosso. I was given some product to rate and Tuttorosso is providing the same great package to one of my lucky readers (more about that at the end of this post.) So let the review begin.

I received three cans of Tuttorosso tomato products, a drink coozie, a great little pot holder, a handy Cooking Conversions refrigerator magnet and three recipe cards.

So far I’ve made a couple of dishes with the products I received. I used the whole tomatoes in a slow cooker recipe for some tasty chicken thighs with olives and tomatoes that I will blog about soon. This was a recipe handed down from my grandmother and I know she would approve!

What I like about these whole plum tomatoes is how fresh and firm they are. Quite nice for a canned product, with a great flavor and nice aroma. They are easy to break up simply by squishing them with your (clean) hands.

Today I share one of the recipes included in my package from Tuttorosso: Quick and Savory Pasta Sauce. Of course, I could not follow the recipe as written and substituted ground Italian sausage for the link variety, plus made a few other changes such as adding green peppers, onions and crushed red pepper. The result – awesome! The tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes were flavorful and again nice and fresh. Brad especially liked this and I think you will too.

Ingredients for Quick and Savory Pasta Sauce (Makes 6 servings)

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium sweet onion, diced small
• 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large green pepper, seeds and membrane removed, diced small
• 1 pound ground Sweet Italian Sausage
• 1 can (28 oz.) Tuttorosso Crushed Tomatoes with basil
• 1 can (29 oz.) Tuttorosso Tomato Sauce
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried sweet basil
• 1 tablespoon sugar (cuts the acidity of the tomatoes)
• Kosher salt to taste
• Crushed red pepper to taste

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Saute the onions, garlic and green pepper for several minutes. Add the ground Italian sausage, cook until browned and drain well.

Return the sausage, etc. to the skillet and add the crushed tomatoes, sauce, sugar, oregano, sweet basil, salt and crushed red pepper. Simmer on low for 20-25 minutes.

Serve over pasta of your choice with some garlic bread and a nice salad if so desired.

The Giveaway

I love Tuttorosso’s tomatoes and think you will as well. Tuttorosso is providing a package, much like the one I received, to one lucky reader. How do you enter? It’s easy — just do one of the following:

• Like Kel’s Café on Facebook
• Subscribe to Kel’s Café’s blog (www.kelleychisholm.com)
• Already doing one or both of these? Thank you! Just like this post and you will be qualified to win!

A random drawing will be held on 12/10/12. Good luck!

Bon appétit!

Eat drink and be merry!

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