Crushed is my go-to, what I stock my cupboard with. What’s called ‘tomato sauce’ in the can is too processed for my liking, with added stuff like sugar usually. Purée is thicker and smoother, so if I want to thicken it up then yeah, just reduce it. You could probably pulse the crushed tomatoes in a blender if you want something smoother like purée, but I like my sauce a little chunky.
Yep, we’ve got all sorts of Hunts tomato stuff in our grocery store, but I didn’t see this. I might have just missed it. If there’s a call for the recipe again I will look more closely.
Tomato puree is sometimes sold as “passata” or “strained tomatoes”, so you could look for that.
To tell whether they actually mean tomato paste, I look at the quantity. If it says one tablespoon, it’s tomato paste; if it says one cup, then it’s passata.
ETA: Stores around here put passata in the pasta sauce aisle rather than the canned vegetables aisle, in case that helps you find it.
That’s just a well-marketed, probably good quality cinnamon, but I believe it is cassia rather than “true cinnamon.”
Having sampled many varieties of cinnamon (thank you, Penzey’s!), I now only buy Vietnamese cinnamon, as it seems to be hands down the best. But the Kointje will be just fine - use it as you would any McCormick cinnamon from the grocery store.
Sumac is used in some middle eastern dishes. It’s kind of mildly tangy. I’ve seen it on flatbreads and on chicken. Sometimes I use it on deviled eggs instead of paprika.
Oh yeah, sumac is delicious! It goes well with most veggies. It’s also an ingredient in zaatar, a spice mix you can either buy or make yourself, for sprinkling on a flatbread with olive oil and then toasting. There are various recipes, but a classic zaatar tends to contain sumac, oregano, slightly crushed toasted sesame seeds, and ground pepper. I’m very fond of it.
ETA: what needscoffee said about oyster crackers. They usually seem to be served as a topping for tomato-based soups such as Manhattan clam chowder; I don’t personally recall seeing anyone put them on New England clam chowder, but that could just be because I stay as far away as possible from the stuff.
Often seen atop hummus and similar dishes, I use it anywhere I want a slightly citrus-y alternative to a sharp paprika, so on almost any egg, chicken, or fish dish.
And as for Aleppo: that’s a tasty but quite mild chili from Turkey. I use it when a recipe calls for crushed chilis and I am not sure of the heat tolerance of the people who will be eating my food.
(As an aside, I feel uniquely suited to this thread, having mostly grown up in New England, where oyster crackers are common, spent 17 years in Indonesia, and another 5 and a half in Egypt.)
