Dave's Gourmet Pasta Sauce

Continuing with the theme of "holiday laziness," I also went grocery shopping last minute (like 8pm on Christmas Eve "shit-we-need-milk" last minute). Not to mention, several ingredients from last week's recipes were gone so I had to scrap the list, shop blindly, and hope for the best. Fortunately, I forced convinced my husband to come with me and he absolutely SHINES at spontaneous grocery shopping.  We  managed to find brats... in California (it's near impossible)... on Christmas Eve... with an hour left to shop... after searching for three months!  There they were, like the Star that led the Wise Men to Baby Jesus, so we were led by the yellow sales signs to the meat section-- and it didn't require 3 weeks of camel travel through the desert!

We also came across Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash Sauce and decided it would be amazing with gnocchi and kale. It was a good decision.  The results equalled this epic Christmas feast:

This was the first time I'd seen Dave's Gourmet and I have to say... I'm SOLD!  It's an all-natural, gluten free sauce made with All-American ingredients.  Pretty sweet.  

The ingredients are as follows: butternut squash, water, tomato paste, red bell pepper, evaporated cane juice, butter, celery, onion, garlic, sea salt, citric acid, and black pepper.  No MSG, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils... basically no unpronounceable ingredients over 9 letters or odd abbreviations with numbers. In fact, I might try whipping up my own version of this delectable sauce, but I'm happy these jars are available when I'm in a pinch or have a recipe that requires jarred sauce (I always cringe a little when I read that).

The sauce itself has a thick consistency with a sweet flavor (you can taste the red bell pepper) but no one flavor is overly potent-- it's about balance, baby.  With the (potato) gnocchi it ended up being super rich, so I think next time I'll try it with a tortellini or ravioli; however, the kale was a great accent. Kale with Butternut Squash is the new Peanut Butter and Jelly. 

Overall, I love Dave's Gourmet, can't wait to try more of their products, and think you should visit their website... NOW. 

Photo courtesy of DG site-- thanks!