Homemade Pasta Sauce with Dei Fratelli Tomatoes

How many of you like to have tomatoes on hand for salsas, sauces, chili, etc? I certainly do! And recently, I got to try a brand new to me, but one that has been around the past four decades: Dei Fratelli

This is a family company whose name translates to "of the brothers". One look at their website & products and it's immediately apparent that they pride themselves on family and quality. They have a lot of variety on their product line, including low sodium options. I am one who definitely thinks there is far too much sodium in a lot of foods we eat, so I like to buy low sodium/no salt added products when available. Consequently, we tried everything on Dei Fratelli's low sodium line.

Immediately, I was very pleased with the ingredients--especially the salt content (if you'd like to check the nutritional info out, it's easy to find on their website, which is fantastic!)! A 210mg sodium content difference per 1/2 C serving between the two cans! Wow! So, that's great, what about the taste?

As part of our taste test, we made a homemade pasta meat sauce. Here's what we used:
1 28oz. can Crushed Tomato with Basil & Herbs (no salt added)
1 28oz. can Whole Tomatoes packed in puree (no salt added)
14 oz. (1/2 of one can) Tomato Puree (no salt added)
approx 2 lbs. ground beef browned with onion & garlic
2 cloves minced garlic
1T olive oil
sea salt, basil, oregano, thyme, garlic powder, italian seasoning blend> all to taste

The color of the tomatoes was great--a nice, deep red color! And, the taste of our sauce was really good! We definitely did need to add salt in order to get the taste right, but it was FAR less than would have been if salt was already added to the tomatoes.

We were impressed enough that I immediately went online to see where I can purchase them as I've never seen Dei Fratelli in the store and was disappointed to learn that they distribute primarily in the Midwest, Central, and Southeastern states. So, no in-store luck for me. But, you can order online!

I can't wait to use the rest now to make some homemade salsa! YUM!

Have you used Dei Fratelli? Do you have a favorite tomato brand or do you just buy whatever is on sale?

Disclosure: This post was written for Family Review Network and Dei Fratelli who provided the complimentary product in exchange for my honest review. For more information, read my disclosure policy.