Marinara Sauce

Item: Prego Pasta Bake Sauce What you get: Enough to make an 8-serving casserole Cost: About $4 Nutritional content: Three Cheese Marinara sauce -- 100 calories, 4.5 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 650 milligrams sodium, 11 grams carbohydrate, 9 grams sugars Preparation time: 40 minutes in oven Review: In an unscientific survey I conducted, all the men I know who had tried this product absolutely loved it. The women, on the other hand, weren't so...

Josephine Feige, a matriarch renowned for her cooking who had been a Rosie the Riveter during World War II, died of renal failure Aug. 26 at Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Pa. The former Carney resident was 90. Born Josephine Ferruggio in Baltimore, she was the daughter of a Sicilian immigrant barber, Peter Ferruggio, whose wife died shortly after giving birth to twin daughters. Being the eldest daughter, Josephine, then a 14-year-old, left school - she had graduated from eighth grade at St. Dominic's Parochial School - and raised the twins as well as her three additional sisters.

Man cannot live by fancy food alone. The craving for a solid homecooked meal will sometimes overcome. Nothing fills that longing like a hearty meatloaf.This rib-sticking recipe piles the meat and potatoes together in one delicious round, streamlining the traditional meatloaf in time and calories. The microwave cuts the cooking time by about 75 percent and the result is a fabulous, moist savory cake of flavorful meatloaf sandwiching a thick layer of mashed potatoes.A food processor makes fast work of this, but if you don't have one use some convenience products such as pregrated carrots from the salad bar.Store-bought refrigerated mashed potatoes also save time and are quite good, even straight from the package.

Yes, those jars of marinara sauce at the supermarket beckon when you are faced with the question, "What's for dinner?" But marinara is surprisingly easy to make and lends itself to many variations. I tried adding anchovies I had in the freezer to a can of crushed tomatoes recently for a weeknight meal. Their subtle flavor seemed to boost the taste of the tomatoes. Carol Mighton Haddix writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe analysis. LINGUINE WITH GARLIC MARINARA Makes 4 servings 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 small onion, sliced 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper, or to taste 1/4 cup each: dry white wine, water 1 can (28 ounces)

The most appealing thing about mysteries is how transporting they can be. The clues are intriguing to discern and the ending is fun to guess. But what I love best about mysteries is their sense of place. In author Tony Hillerman's Navajo mysteries, it is the arid desert of Arizona and New Mexico, the color of the mountains and the power of the changing weather. In the English mysteries of Martha Grimes, it is the bleak weather of England as seen through the leaded-glass windows of the cozy neighborhood pub. And in the gruesome murder mysteries of Patricia Cornwell, it is the aromatic Italian kitchen of coroner Kay Scarpetta.

Item: Costa Pasta SaucesWhat you get: 6 servingsCost: About $7.50Preparation time: Just minutes to heatReview: Lutherville entrepreneur Matthew Costa based his line of pasta sauces on recipes that his 90-year-old grandmother brought from the Abruzzi region in her native Italy. All of the flavors are built on her marinara sauce with additional ingredients like artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms. I tried the Sugo con Ovongole or marinara with clams. It was outstanding. The tiny clams are sweet and tender.

Yes, those jars of marinara sauce at the supermarket beckon when you are faced with the question, "What's for dinner?" But marinara is surprisingly easy to make and lends itself to many variations. I tried adding anchovies I had in the freezer to a can of crushed tomatoes recently for a weeknight meal. Their subtle flavor seemed to boost the taste of the tomatoes. Carol Mighton Haddix writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe analysis. LINGUINE WITH GARLIC MARINARA Makes 4 servings 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 small onion, sliced 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper, or to taste 1/4 cup each: dry white wine, water 1 can (28 ounces)

We're not sure where the idea of putting crab meat in marinara sauce came from, though it's been around for a while. The makers of Grandmom Concetta's Original Crab-inara Pasta Sauce say they use a recipe that dates to 1929, from a grandmother who used to serve it to relatives visiting the New Jersey shore. Some Marylanders like to give these bottled sauces as gifts, and Chesapeake Bay expatriates order them for a taste of home. But which crab marinara tastes best over pasta? We boiled a batch of penne and conducted a blind tasting of three sauces to find out. kate.

This vegetarian Italian "casserole" is mostly a stove-top preparation. Instead of making our own marinara, we're using a good-quality jarred version. (But nothing's stopping you from using your own!) Cooking the ingredients on the stove top, then popping a pan into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese and warm all the ingredients together, gives this entree the feel of a long-cooking casserole, minus the long cooking. If you want meat, add chopped pepperoni to taste when you heat the sauce and mushrooms, or just use a meat-based pasta sauce.

While mozzarella sticks are one of the more expensive members of the deep-fried family, their utter deliciousness justifies the $5-or-more price tag. We ordered the dish from four local restaurants and compared them. This is what we found: Mad River Bar and Grille 1110 S. Charles St. -- 410-727-2333 Hours --11 a.m to 2 a.m. daily The cooks at Mad River must have tossed a pinch of sugar into the deep fryer, because the mozzarella sticks, $6.25, came out more sweet than salty. They tasted odd, not bad, and after a little marinara sauce, we could barely notice the sweetness.

This vegetarian Italian "casserole" is mostly a stove-top preparation. Instead of making our own marinara, we're using a good-quality jarred version. (But nothing's stopping you from using your own!) Cooking the ingredients on the stove top, then popping a pan into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese and warm all the ingredients together, gives this entree the feel of a long-cooking casserole, minus the long cooking. If you want meat, add chopped pepperoni to taste when you heat the sauce and mushrooms, or just use a meat-based pasta sauce.

We're not sure where the idea of putting crab meat in marinara sauce came from, though it's been around for a while. The makers of Grandmom Concetta's Original Crab-inara Pasta Sauce say they use a recipe that dates to 1929, from a grandmother who used to serve it to relatives visiting the New Jersey shore. Some Marylanders like to give these bottled sauces as gifts, and Chesapeake Bay expatriates order them for a taste of home. But which crab marinara tastes best over pasta? We boiled a batch of penne and conducted a blind tasting of three sauces to find out. kate.

While mozzarella sticks are one of the more expensive members of the deep-fried family, their utter deliciousness justifies the $5-or-more price tag. We ordered the dish from four local restaurants and compared them. This is what we found: Mad River Bar and Grille 1110 S. Charles St. -- 410-727-2333 Hours --11 a.m to 2 a.m. daily The cooks at Mad River must have tossed a pinch of sugar into the deep fryer, because the mozzarella sticks, $6.25, came out more sweet than salty. They tasted odd, not bad, and after a little marinara sauce, we could barely notice the sweetness.

If you're looking for quick and easy ideas to bring your family to the table, they're here in Betty Crocker's Easy Family Dinners (Wiley, 2004, $22.95). Many of the dishes featured in this 190-page book are hardly inventive. Ready-made foods such as fish sticks, hot dogs, deli meats and canned pasta sauce make frequent appearances in the recipes. Some, such as the Turkey-Cheese Wraps, are so simple that they hardly require a recipe. (Spread herb-and-garlic spreadable cheese over tortilla.

The most appealing thing about mysteries is how transporting they can be. The clues are intriguing to discern and the ending is fun to guess. But what I love best about mysteries is their sense of place. In author Tony Hillerman's Navajo mysteries, it is the arid desert of Arizona and New Mexico, the color of the mountains and the power of the changing weather. In the English mysteries of Martha Grimes, it is the bleak weather of England as seen through the leaded-glass windows of the cozy neighborhood pub. And in the gruesome murder mysteries of Patricia Cornwell, it is the aromatic Italian kitchen of coroner Kay Scarpetta.

It's possible to eat light at Caffe Brio but no longer required. The vegetarian ghost of the former One World Cafe in Federal Hill has finally been banished. Owner Rob Spinazzola acquired the popular vegetarian coffee shop in March last year but kept the same soy- and vegetable-based menu for a while, just adding a few animal-based items. Finally, last month, he introduced his own menu of fairly classic cafe fare, with light salads, sandwiches and pasta dishes as well as heartier entrees.

If you're looking for quick and easy ideas to bring your family to the table, they're here in Betty Crocker's Easy Family Dinners (Wiley, 2004, $22.95). Many of the dishes featured in this 190-page book are hardly inventive. Ready-made foods such as fish sticks, hot dogs, deli meats and canned pasta sauce make frequent appearances in the recipes. Some, such as the Turkey-Cheese Wraps, are so simple that they hardly require a recipe. (Spread herb-and-garlic spreadable cheese over tortilla.

With the limited time I have these days for life's major demands, I've had to streamline my entertaining plans. It's rare that I will labor over home-baked bread anymore; even dessert seems a chore. Rather than give up entertaining altogether, I've come up with a few standbys, such as casseroles. They make entertaining possible, but not exhausting.The recipe here is for a casual casserole and is filled with popular flavors of the moment. Pasta, pesto, poultry, some Italian style vegetables and a blanket of marinara comprise the dish.

A little of Little Italy -- that's what restaurateur David Cangialosi hopes he's bringing to downtown Baltimore. He opened Cangialosi's this week, next door to David & Dad's, the lunchtime eatery and carryout he has owned with his father since 1993. "I wanted Cangialosi's to be a really comfortable, warm, inviting place, and I want people in the neighborhood to come all the time," Cangialosi says. That's why he says he decided against the formality of tablecloths, instead opting for uncovered contemporary wood tables, set on the building's original hardwood floors.

Anacleta Liebling knows that the way to students' minds is through their stomachs. She starts her Italian cooking classes by handing out samples of a completed dish, such as a thick risotto made with three types of cheese, prosciuto and green peas. "Put something in your stomach, and then we talk," she told her class last week at the Restaurant Association of Maryland building in Columbia. It was the first noncredit class of a two-part series she is teaching this fall for Howard Community College.