ABSTRACT: Review of Vito Marcello's Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce is a delightful all natural blend of chunks of tomatoes in a thick tomato pureé with a hearty burst of basil flavor.
CONTENT: I have to admit I love using tomato-based pasta sauces in many of my cooking endeavors, whether I'm making my Chicken Cacciatore, Chicken Parmesan, giving an additional tomato zest and flavor to my homemade beef stews, to simple pasta dishes. Rather than always sticking to the old tried and true well-known brands of pasta sauces such as Ragu or Prego, I'm always on the look-out to try brands of pasta sauce I'm not too familiar with. Recently I had the opportunity to try a brand of pasta sauce that just happened to be a new featured item of the week that was available in my local Duane Reade store.
I have to confess I never heard of the Vito Marcello brand before, but since I was planning to make my homemade Chicken Parmesan that night, I needed some kind of pasta sauce and decided to take a chance and I bought the 24 ounce jar of the Vito Marcello's Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce at a cost of $4.99. Being an avid reader of labels, I was impressed by the fact that the sauce had no preservatives in it and had all natural ingredients consisting of: blended tomatoes, imported Italian Plum tomatoes, Sweet Onions, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Natural Flavorings, Fresh Roasted Garlic, Salt, Pepper, a blend of Vito Marcello's special House Spices, and of course, the Basil itself.
Once home I began fixing my planned dinner and came the taste test itself. Upon opening the jar, I stirred it up a bit and saw that there were chunks of the plum tomatoes in a thick tomato pureé and I was very aware of seeing the basil itself, and no wonder it's called "basil" marinara sauce, for indeed there was a delightful burst and taste of the basil. One thing I found rather surprising however, was the fact that the sauce didn't have an overwhelming salty taste to it the way other pasta sauces may have. According to the Nutrition Facts on the label, one serving size, which is 1/2 cup has only 170 mg. of sodium, which is way below the usual 300 mgs. or more found in most other pasta sauces and ideal for anyone on a low sodium diet. I'm fortunate that I'm not on any kind of sodium restricted diet, however, I really don't care for overly salty foods myself and never add salt to my own cooking, so this made for an ideal pasta sauce.
Being curious about the Vito Marcello brand in general, I discovered that there is a website that lists other brands of his Pasta Sauces, which includes his Fra Diavolo Sauce, Puttanesca Sauce, Roasted Garlic & Eggplant, Sunday Sauce and Vodka Sauce, as well as his Classic Creamy Italian Dressing. As an added bonus on the website one can watch YouTube videos of Vito Marcello preparing some of his favorite dishes as well as the ability to download some of his recipes in PDF format. For those wanting a little background and history of the Marcello family in general, one can read how they got their start back in 1927 with their Marcello's Family Restaurant in Rhode Island and then later moving in 1988 and began Bellini's Restaurant in Conway, New Hampshire. The information on the website also indicates however, that the Vito Marcello's brand of sauces are unfortunately only available in the northeastern section of the USA, however, one can order directly on-line if one so wishes, and I just might do that, since the one downside is that the Duane Reade store that I bought the jar of pasta sauce only has the one flavor of Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce.
As for my planned dinner that night? Well all I can say is that my Chicken Parmesan which I served it with a side dish of linguine was a hit that night and I couldn't wait to use the sauce for my other recipes calling for tomato pasta sauce. On a scale of one to ten I would rate this sauce a sure winner ten!
The complete Nutrition Facts of Vito Marcello's Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce are as follows: One Serving Size which is 1/2 cup has 90 Calories, 25% Calories from Fat, Total Fat is 3 grams, 0 grams Saturated Fat, 0 grams Trans Fat, 0 Mg Cholesterol, 170 grams of Sodium, 13 grams of Total Carbohydrates which includes 4 grams of Dietary Fiber and 11 grams of Sugar.
Sources:
Life
Vito Marcello's Website:
Vito Marcello
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