The Dish on Dreamfields

I love to eat. I really do. There are so many things to try out there, so many flavors, colors, and textures of food to try. Food connects people and defines them. And one of the defining foods of my life is Italian. Not only do I love to eat Italian, I also love to cook it. There is nothing like the aroma of Sunday Sauce (also known as Sunday gravy), which is a heady Italian tomato sauce containing a variety of meats (like pork, beef, and meatballs). It definitely makes my list of “last meal on Earth”. But of course, anybody who is Italian, has eaten Italian, or has heard of Italian knows that no sauce is complete without it’s own bed of pasta!

Because my family is a bunch of busy New York City people, we don’t have the time to cook up fresh pasta (gnocchi making is a one time a year event). So we buy our pasta. Unfortunately, pasta, like seemingly most good things, is high in carbohydrates and can be a no go for diabetics and waist watchers alike. So what do we do, those who want to have their pasta and eat it too? Well, we buy a box of Dreamfields.

Dreamfields is a brand of dry pasta (means from the box) that has only 5 grams of digestible carbs per serving. I know, I know the box says that it has 41 grams of carbs per serving, BUT Dreamfields unique manufacturing process (read more about that here) allows them to “protect” all but five carbs from being recognized by the enzyme looking for them. The non digestible carbs act as fiber in the colon. Sounds too good to be true you say? Well, I agreed –at first- I expected some awful tasting “heart healthy” wheaty mess. But there is no difference at all in flavor between Dreamfields and my favorite carbfull pasta brands like Ronzoni.

The Dreamfields website offers a plethora of information on their patent pending creation (and recipes!)- in case you’re still not convinced. They do offer a coupon for one dollar off on the right side of their homepage, when you sign up for their email newsletter. You can also find them on Facebook, where they like to run a few contests. At this time, Dreamfields only carries 7 pasta shapes: Spaghetti, Angel Hair, Linguine, Elbows, Penne Rigate, Rotini, and Lasagna.

As commercial-y as this sounds- I do love Dreamfields. It allows be to enjoy some of my most favorite dishes without the guilt or as many carbs. And as a chick with a love for her Italian eats, it’s a pasta worth enjoying with much relish!

You can find great recipes for Sunday Sauce all over the web, but I suggest that if you're going to do it then go all out and do it right. Almost Italian, a website started by Skip Lombardi- a professional jazz musician and author of La Cucina del Poveri, Recipes from My Sicillian Godparents, and Holly Chase- a writer, lecturer and tour operator- has a great recipe for Sunday Gravy as well as tons of interesting information on the history of said sauce. Or you can follow this recipe, from one of my most favorite cook/books (one of those books that acts as a cookbook and a story at the same time)- The Men of the Pacific Street Social Club Cook: Homestyle Recipes and Unforgettable Stories by Gerard Renny.


SUNDAY GRAVY