Turkey Pesto Meatballs

It's been years since I've updated this blog. I'm not even sure this is going to work. Just to dip my toe in the water here's a recipe I made.

We are on day 4, yes, four of being trapped in our own home. Winter Storm Nemo/ Charlotte dumped 40 inches of snow on our hometown. One might say we won! We will tell you we've lost. Being stuck at home for 4 going on 5 days is not a win. Tonight I did win. It was a bit of cooking by braille, I felt my way around. Here is what I had in the house, thawed ground turkey, plain bread crumbs, eggs, premade pesto from Costco, and Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle from Penzeys.

I think it was 1.25 lbs of ground turkey
about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of premade pesto
about 1 ounce of Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle
aboud 3/4 cup of bread crumbs
1 egg white
I mashed it all together until my fingers were numb. The turkey was still quite chilly as I didn't take it out of the freezer until this morning because I was POSITIVE we would be plowed out and able to leave to go get dinner. Anyways. I wrapped a baking pan in foil, wiped it with olive oil and rolled my turkey meatballs placing them on the oiled foil. I bake them at 375 degrees for 20ish minutes. I think I overbaked them, because you only need to heat turkey to 165 degrees, but they were still fantastic. No photo for this as it is a test.

Bananas Foster

This is a showy dessert. Thankfully it is super simple, and super bad for you, but why not indulge every now and again. I was invited to a girls night and thought this would knock them off of their collective feet.

Yes, that is fire you see coming from the pan, who doesn't enjoy dessert and a show? I do recommend using long matches to ignite the alcohol as not to singe your brows and or face.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar

4 bananas
1/4 cup rum

1 long match

vanilla ice cream

Melt the butter over medium heat, once melted add the brown sugar. You want to stir this until the sugar is melted into the butter. Add your sliced bananas and heat on both sides. When the sugar, butter, banana mix is bubbling get ready. TAKE THE PAN OFF THE HEAT then add the rum. Quickly stir to heat the rum then ignite the rum with a long match. If you have a gas stove some may say you can use the flame of the gas to light it, I wouldn't but do what you wish. Serve the bananas over vanilla ice cream. In this picture we gilded the lilly with whipped cream, totally over the top and yet quite enjoyable.

Mustard & Dill Salmon

Here at the abode we are trying to be more diet friendly. Though we are all big fans of fried with gravy it just isn't kind to the waist-line. This dinner took about 35 minutes to prepare from start to finish. I served it with couscous to have a starch, I do love a rounded meal.

INGREDIENTS

Spice Rub:
1 teaspoon each dried mustard, dill
1/2 teaspoon salt & black pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme

4 6 oz salmon fillets
2 teaspoons honey
8 cups spinach leaves
1 clove minced garlic (I use my microplane to grate the garlic right into the pan, be sure to have your spinach ready to go in or you will burn your garlic and have to start over)

1/2 cup red wine (Something you would drink, not cheap "cooking wine")

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

I began by making the spice rub, drizzling honey on the salmon and sprinkling the rub on the fish, reserving about 1/2 of the rub. I added olive oil to a large pan, grated in the garlic and quickly added the spinach. I filled the pan, let it cook down and filled the pan again to be sure to have enough. Spinach cooks down a lot so it is better to aire on the side of too much than too little. I also didn't salt it. I was worried as it cooked down it would be too salty. I suppose a small sprinkle would have been okay.

I took the spinach out of the pan and set it aside to stay warm. I heated some oil and browned the salmon. Once browned on both sides I put it in a 300 degree oven to cook through, you want it at 130 degrees. While I waited for the salmon to cook I added the wine, Dijon mustard and left over spice rub to the pan and reduced it to make a nice sauce.

To plate I made a pile of spinach which I laid the salmon on. I drizzled the red wine sauce over the fish and placed a rounded scoop of couscous on the side. Enjoy!

Moules Ravigote

The man of the house made a delicious dinner Saturday night which consisted of mussels and shrimp. Super simple idea, good ingredients, good flavors and you get a great meal. He also thought the 3 of us needed 2 pounds of mussels, silly man, that was way too much. What to do with left over mussels, toss them right, they can't last that long, or can they?

We picked out the left over mussels and saved them in the fridge. I happened across a recipe in Julia and Jacques Cooking At Home Cookbook. I admit it, I love cookbooks and read them like regular books. This wasn't a difficult recipe by any means, but it was time consuming. Thankfully I am a chopper and tend to dice things into little bits, so this recipe really worked well with my knife skills. It is hard to tell in the photo, but there are a bunch of mussels, nestled in their shells, covered in the ravigote. I served a simple salad of romaine, tomatoes, and shaved Parmesan with a faux Caesar dressing along with the mussels, it was a nice light dinner. It would have been even better enjoyed on the deck in June with a nice white wine. If you want to just cook the mussels and make the ravigote sauce you can do that too.

INGREDIENTS

For the ravigote sauce:

1 1/2 Tbs minced shallots or scallions

1 1/2 Tbs Dijon mustard

2 hard boiled eggs, finely chopped

2 Tbs chopped gherkin pickles

1 Tbs capers

1 Tbs chopped parsley

2 Tbs Chives (I didn't have any)

1 Tbs white wine vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)

2 tsp lemon juice

4 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp Tabasco

1-2 cloves minced garlic

Mince, chop, and dice all of the above items that need chopping. Then add the wet ingredients. Spoon the sauce over the mussels and enjoy.

Blueberry Shite with Hard Sauce

Don't let the name fool you, this dessert is a family favorite; and in my family we drop the "e" in shite. This recipe came from my grandmother. Rumors had circulated about her not giving out recipes in their entirety as to be the only one that could make it just right. After the experience I had this morning trying to put this "shite" together I feel I can attest to the fact she may have left some important details out of many a recipe. Here is the exact recipe I had to follow.



For the dough & crumb top:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup crisco shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon


For the filling:
1 pint blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
tapioca
cinnamon


Mix. (Ingreased dish @3500 for 35 min.) Pat crust on bottom & sides, add blueberries and crumbs on top.


You may be thinking to yourself, but Michelle, my oven doesn't go up to 3500! I know, mine doesn't either. Needless to say, this recipe needed a little help in the specifics department.

Here is what I actually did.

For the bottom crust and the crumb topping:

(Using a pastry blender mix the following)
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup crisco shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Add in 2 egg yolks, this will be a "sandy" mixture, and quite dry. I reserved about 1.5 cups of this mix for the topping. I pressed the remaining mix into an ungreased 9"x 13" glass pan. Atop the crust I added about 2 quarts of frozen blueberries that I mixed with 2/3 cup sugar, a rounded tablespoon of tapioca and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Sprinkle the top with the reserved crumb topping. This did take much longer to bake than it said on the card, about an hour to be exact. I wanted the top and bottom crust to be brown and it took some time to get there.

For the hard sauce, I am sure some of you will freak out about this. If you have a bun in the oven or have health issues you may want to forgo the raw egg in this topping. The eggs do give the sauce a richness and a lightness, but how bad can butter and sugar be without some eggs?

Hard Sauce
1 stick soft butter
2 cups powdered sugar

Once this is blended add in 2 eggs beaten with 2 teaspoons of vanilla. I used the KitchenAid for this, and I got a nice light and fluffy mix. Refridgerate this sauce until you are ready to serve. You should also note this really isn't a sauce at all. It is a topping of sorts. It is "hard" as the name implys.

For service cut a piece of the blueberry shite, best when warm and top with hard sauce, I promise this is a great dessert, just not a well written recipe. Enjoy

Fancy Salad 1

I like to try new things, when I do I generally drag my parents down with me and make them eat it too. This time it worked out as a plus.

This salad began with mixed organic baby greens, I wanted arugula but was not able to find any. I sliced a red bartlett pear to top the greens. I followed the pear with the mascarpone dressing. I really loved the sharpness of the mixed greens, against the creaminess of the mascarpone dressing.

For the dressing:

2-4 tablespoons of mascarpone cheese

Juice and zest of one lemon

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Blend together everything but the oil, waiting until the end to add that in. You may need a splash or two of vinegar if the dressing is too thick.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

It was a week of everything pumpkin; pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pies, and pumpkin ravioli. I couldn't find a recipe that I really liked so I mixed a bunch of different recipes together. I did not make my own pasta. This was a personal choice, I have never wanted to make my own pasta. You can buy perfectly good wonton/ egg roll wrappers at the grocery store that serve the same purpose and are much less labor intensive than making your own pasta. However, if you are a glutton for punishment, feel free to make your own pasta. For the sauce I went simple, butter, sage, salt, pepper and a bit of red pepper, next time I would add enough sage so there was one sage leaf for each ravioli.

I began by making my filling. I mixed the pumpkin, ricotta cheese, tomato paste, nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar, salt and pepper together. Now that I think about it, an egg may have been a good idea, but I didn't have any issues with the filling staying together.

Next I cut my egg roll wrappers in half. I couldn't find wonton wrappers, so I had to substitute with eggroll wrappers. Once I put a full teaspoon of filling in the center I ran a wet finger around the edge of the pasta to help seal the pasta. I dropped the pasta and cooked until done in salted boiling water. I can't say how long really, just test the pasta to be sure it is cooked.

You want the sauce finished and waiting for the pasta. I melted a stick of butter and 14 sage leaves in a pan and let it go brown, not dark brown, but just brown. The sage leaves get crisp and are quite yummy with the ravioli. I added salt, pepper, and red pepper to the butter. As the raviolis finished cooking I dropped them into the sage brown butter sauce. Plate and enjoy!



INGREDIENTS

1.5 cups pumpkin puree
.5 cups ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons tomato paste
salt, pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (grated fresh from an actual nutmeg if you can)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon brown sugar

Eggplant & Sausage with Radiatore

I have a crush, on eggplant. I love it, I can't get enough of it! I didn't follow a recipe for this dish, just threw it together using flavors I enjoy. I was being bit lazy and bought a jar of marinara sauce. (I have yet to find a homemade marinara that I love.) I used Victoria brand sauce, which was quite good. While I was opening the jar the sauce spilled onto my shirt, which I then licked off and thought "wow, this is pretty good!"

I began by slicing my eggplant into rounds, laying them on a wire rack on a cookie sheet, and sprinkling them liberally with salt. This is called purging the eggplant. You can find lots of information on it by doing a quick internet search. Basically it helps remove excess water from the eggplant. After the salt has had a chance to work it's magic, I let them sit for about 30 minutes, rinse the eggplant with water and dry with paper towels.

I cut the eggplant into bite size pieces and tossed it into a bowl with the chopped squash. I drizzled it all with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I poured the veggies onto a foil lined cookie sheet and into a 450 degree oven. I let them roast for about 20 minutes until they were cooked the way I wanted them.

I also wanted some meat in this dish. I bought some Chef Bruce Aidell's Sundried Tomato with Mozzarella Cheese smoked chicken and turkey sausage. I sliced it on an angle and heated it in a pan. Looks yummy right?

After the sausage was heated I added the jar of sauce to the pan. Then the roasted eggplant and squash went in. I drained my pasta and reserved some of the cooking liquid in case the ricotta needed to be thinned. I stirred in about a 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese to the pasta. It wasn't too thick at all so I didn't need any of the cooking liquid. I put some pasta on the plate and finished it by topping it with the roasted veggie sausage sauce. This was quite yummy if I say so myself.

INGREDIENTS

1lb eggplant

1.25 lb squash

25 oz marinara sauce

1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese

Chef Bruce Aidell's Sundried Tomato with Mozzarella Cheese Smoked Chicken and Turkey Sausage

Hello again!

I have been on a bit of a break from blogging. I had quite a summer and needed some "me" time. Now that summer has come and gone, and fall is about to drop it's last leaf I am going to try to pick up on blogging.

I also need to apologize to two very close friends, M&C. We took a bunch of time and wonderful ingredients and made Beef Wellington. I saved the pictures of the event so I could blog about it later. As it turns out I did not save the pictures. Phooey!

Grilled Peaches

I love sweets. Ice cream, cake, pie, you name it I love it. My waistline does not like sweets and reminds me by swelling each time I indulge.

It was hot and I did not want to heat up the house by turning on the oven. I live in the dark ages and don't have central air, crazy I know! We had peaches so I figured why not do something with them. I had made drunkin peaches last Sunday so I couldn't do that. Grilled peaches was it.

I cut them in half, removing their pits. I brushed the fleshy side with vegetable oil, no need to use olive oil here. I got the grill good and hot and put the peaches, flesh side down. How long you leave them on the grill will depend on their ripeness. Once they had grill marks I turned them onto their skin side. I put a bit of honey in the center of each peach. The possibilities of what you could put in the center of the peach are endless, cointreau, butter & brown sugar, really anything you would like. As the skin began to pull away from the flesh of the peach I took them off the heat. I did serve these with ice cream, but I ate only the peach.

Insalata Caprese

Doesn't that sound fancy? Insalata Caprese. All it really is, is a salad made up of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. I have said it in many posts and I'm sure you have heard it elsewhere. For something like this you want to use the best, freshest ingredients you can get your hands on.

For the Caprese on the right I sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella (from Costco) into about 1/4 inch slices, alternating the tomato and the mozzarella. (Use a serrated knife to slice the fresh mozzarella.) I scattered a chiffonade of basil over the top of the tomato and mozzarella. Right before I served it I added salt, pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

You can make this in indivdual servings as well. If you stack the tomato and cheese that would be a cool effect. You can also make it on skewers. Use grape tomatoes and the tiny balls of fresh mozzarella. In between stick pieces of fresh basil. When you are ready to serve you can drizzle with extra virgin loive oil and dust with salt and pepper. However you decide to serve it besure for each piece of tomato you have enough cheese to go with it. This is a simple, yummy dish. Enjoy!

Broccoli Rabe with Sausage and Orecchetti

This is such a simple and delicious dish. Don't forget, use the best ingredients you can get your hands on.

You want to start a large pot of water put on to boil with a palmful of salt. This way you can drop your pasta once your broccoli rabe and sausage are ready. The orecchetti is the last thing you add in this dish.

Next heat some olive oil in your pan. Remove your sausage from the casing and roll into balls or cut into chunks, totally up to you. I used sweet sausage here, though I myself do not eat sausage for the fear of "chunkers". You want to cook the sausage until it is browned on both sides. It doesn't have to be cooked through, just browned on both sides.

Next chop up your broccoli rabe into bite sized pieces. As you can see in photo I used the stems as well. Broccoli rabe can be bitter if you don't cook it long enough. Some blanch it before they cook it with the oil and garlic. I did not blanch it this time, I sauteed it in the pan until it was a bit softer than al dente.

Carefully slice the garlic and toss into the oil. If you would like a little heat add some red pepper flakes. Once you can smell the garlic toss in your chopped broccoli rabe. You want to saute this until it is cooked to your liking, I prefer it just past al dente. You want to drop your pasta when you have about 10 minutes left on your broccoli rabe. When the pasta is done toss it with the sausage and broccoli rabe. You may want to add a splash of the pasta cooking water. Salt and pepper.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 lb of Orecchetti
1 bunch of broccoli rabe
2 links of sausage
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1/2-1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

Bruschetta

I love apps!!! I get board easily and having a mass of different items to nosh on thoroughly amuse me. Bruschetta can vary in preparation. The base of most bruschetta is toasted bread rubbed with a clove of garlic, then drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. When I say bruschetta I mean all of the above with tomato, salt and pepper. Sometimes I go crazy and add basil, balsamic vinegar, or mozzarella; my 'rents like to add prosciutto.

If I am feeling chef-like I will prepare a plate of bruschetta like you see in the photo. Other times I will make roll-your-own-bruschetta; toasting the bread, rubbing it with a clove of garlic, leaving the adornments to my cohorts. Most times the adornments are made up of tomatoes, being a masochist the tomatoes are usually peeled and seeded, some extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and at times a splash of balsamic vinegar.

To have yummy bruschetta you must start with good ingredients. Great bread is a must, I like the Chabaso ciabatta bread from Costco. I am sure if I got it directly from the bakery it would be even better, but I digress. I slice the tiny loaves and toast them right on the rack in the oven. This is not the time to whip out the squishy sandwich bread, you need good, crusty, chewy bread, something with a backbone.

Once the bread is toasted I rub it with a clove of garlic, then drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil. Again good extra virgin olive oil, not cheap oil! I salt and pepper the bread here as well. I top this with either sliced tomatoes or the afore mentioned peeled, seeded and diced tomato. Another light sprinkling of of salt and pepper. If you have any of those "fancy" salts use those. I need to do some more experimenting with the different salts, but that is another post. The key to good bruschetta is good quality ingredients.

Prosciutto & Melon

This is one of my many favorite dishes . During the summer it is the perfect light lunch to enjoy by the pool. The most important part of this dish is to have good ingredients. If your melon is not ripe it will not give the flavor you want. If do not get good quality prosciutto the flavors will not meld as they should. Cantaloupe is my melon of choice for this. The flesh of the melon has a smooth mouth feel and a great sweetness.

The melon in the photo is a galia melon. The galia melon is similar to a cantaloupe in mouth feel, it is not as sweet as a cantaloupe. Some people like honeydew for this dish. I am not a big fan of honeydew melon. I find it to have a grainy mouth feel and not very flavorful.

You can really plate this anyway you like. In the photo a piece of prosciutto is simply wrapped around the piece of melon. Anyway you plate it, it is a great dish!

Cowboy Caviar by Finny

I was lucky to attend a birthday party for a 1 year old. The birthday boy's mom, Irish, did a great job as hostess and chef! One of the apps she had out was a corn and black bean "caviar". I could not get the chips loaded with this salsa in my mouth fast enough. I am sure people were watching in horror as I stuffed my face. It turns out she got the recipe from Finny, another friend. Finny went on to tell me it was a Weight Watchers recipe so I figured I could finish off the bowl of the "caviar"!

There are many different variations of this "caviar". You can really add what you like and leave out what you don't like. I would recommend getting the GOYA brand of black beans. I bought the Stop & Shop brand figuring it wouldn't make a difference. It does. The S&S brand beans are a bit "muddy" and color the "caviar". Don't forget to rinse your beans before you add them to the mix. I happen to like a higher ratio of corn to black beans.

INGREDIENTS

2- 16 oz cans black beans rinsed & drained

1- 16 oz can of corn

1- 11 oz can of corn

about 1 cup of red onion

1 bunch of chopped cilantro (or to taste)

1/2-3/4 cup of ranch dressing

juice of 1 lime

Mix everything together, taste for seasoning and chill. Serve with chips.

Sangria

A friend was having people over and this seemed to be the perfect summer time drink. I did some research and found you can tweak your recipe to your liking. It may not be traditional, but it will be good. My neighbor introduced me to a brand of inexpensive red wine that I love, Opici Homemade Barberone Red. You don't want to use wine you wouldn't want to drink straight, so don't just go for cheap.




INGREDIENTS
5 cups red wine
16 oz of Sprite
1/4 cup cointreua
1/4 cup rum
all of the following sliced thin: 1 orange, 1 apple, and 2 peaches

Mix everything together except for the Sprite and let it sit at least over night. When you are ready to serve add the Sprite and pour over ice. This is quite a strong drink and you will benefit from sipping it, rather than gulping.

Beat by a pizza

Since I was young my dad has been the one to cook for our family. I always felt as though I was a bit different from my friends beacuse it was my dad that did the cooking, not my mom. I was so spolied I still to this day remember being taken to 500 Blake Street for my birthday. Everyone was raving about how amazing their brunch was. I can say with totally honestly that I was not impressed. My dad still thinks I am crazy because of that. I was formed into a food snob, and I revel in it! It is from my dad I have grown such a love for cooking and baking. This is not to say that I am great at it, but I love to feed people, it makes me happy.

Friday night here at the casa is pizza night. My dad will either make his own dough from scratch or he will buy the ready made dough and roll it out for the crust. This particular night my dad began by making his own dough. He carmalized onions, sliced meatballs, everything for this pizza. He was doing a bit of an experiment with the shape of the pizza. Tonight it would be rectangluar. The use of an airbake pan was employed given the shape of the pan. A choice Icarus himself would have decided against.

My dad figured out to make a homemade pizza more like that of your favorite pizza joint; you need to get the crust nice and crispy. To do this he cooks the pizza almost until it is done. About 10 minutes before it is ready he removes the pizza from the pan and bakes it the rest of the way directly on the rack in the oven. When he tried this time to remove the pizza from the pan he realized the pizza wasn't done on the bottom. He gave the pizza another few mintues and tried again. Still not done on the bottom. What could be wrong? This is the same method he has always used, sans the shape and pan.

Finally he had had enough and figured come hell or high water he was going to get this pie off the pan and onto the racks. He gathered his weapons of choice and began moving the pizza off the pan. My mom and I had the best seats in the house to witness this event. The moment he removed the spatulas and laid it on the rack it began to drip through the oven racks. For my mom and I think was a wonderful moment, given the comedic value. For my dad, he was mad to say the least. It turns out our chef had chosen the wrong pan. An air bake pan helps you to ensure you don't burn your cookies. The pan is two layers with air inbetween the layers again, so you get even baking on your cookies. This was the wrong choice for a man that wanted to delveop a crust on his pizza. The poor guy was really looking forward to this pizza! He had spent so much time on his mise-en-place. With a choice curse word and snap of his fingers he was off with my mom to cry into a black and tan at Fridays, damn that air bake pan, dammit to pizza hell!

Gazpacho

This is my favorite summertime soup! A friend's husband made it for dinner one night and reminded me of how much I love it!!! He put corn and sea food in his which was yummy too. I did steal his idea of garnishing with avocado, YUM!

I grated the cucumber into the soup. It worked out better than I thought it would. I also used my hand blender to zip it up a bit.

INGREDIENTS

28 or 32 oz can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes, chopped with juice

2 cups chicken stock

3/4 cup diced celery, english cucumber, & onion

2 cloves of garlic, I grate it in with a microplane

4 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons of worscestershire

salt, pepper, and tobasco to taste

The longer this soup chills the better. ENJOY!

A Perfect Margarita

Here at the casa we enjoy margaritas, A LOT! One summer we made it our job to find the perfect margarita. This one is made with Jose Cuervo , Cointreau, fresh lemon and lime juice and zest, served with a salted rim.

We tried many different brands of tequila, gold, silver, blanco, lots of them. Since this margarita isn't frozen the tequlia needs to be good. After much experimentation we landed on Jose Cuervo 1800. Of course you can use what you have on hand but we prefered the 1800. The Cointreau is just as important. The few ingredients in this drink need to stand on their own, Cointreau is much smoother a flavor compared to triple sec.

I juiced 1 cup each lemon and lime juice. Then I added the zest from 4 lemons and limes to the juice along with some sugar. The longer this mixture sits the better it is, over night is great if you have the time. Once you are ready to use the mixture strain out the zest.

INGREDIENTS

2 oz lemon lime juice

2 oz Cointreau

2 oz 1800 tequila

Shake with ice and pour into a salt rimmed margarita glass. Enjoy!

San Marzano Tomatoes, a Test

I am on the San Marzano tomato bandwagon! Honestly these tomatoes are what make peoples food taste that much better. Sauces, salsa whatever it is these tomatoes make it wonderful. I did a bit of a comparison yesterday while making salsa. I had two cans of San Marzano tomatoes, one brand was Cento, the other was Liuzzi. The Cento brand was much better than the Liuzzi brand. Cento had nice whole tomatoes, firm and not falling apart. The Liuzzi tomatoes where not whole, they were not firm and basically were falling apart.

I did take a picture, of the two side by side in my strainer. It is hard to tell the difference because the tomatoes are chopped up. The tomatoes on the left are the Liuzzi, the tomatoes to the right are the Cento brand. I should have taken the picture when the tomatoes were still whole, but I didn't realize how much better the Cento tomatoes were until I opened that can.