Creamy Orzo II—Don’t Buy Cheap Tomatoes!

Quick note: always buy the good tomatoes! It wasn’t until I read The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper that I realized that the brand of canned tomatoes I bought even mattered. Since reading their wise words, I’ve generally been buying Muir Glen or Hunt’s Organic. Well, tonight I skimped and bought generic diced tomatoes and learned a valuable lesson. Not only was the flavor of the store-brand tomatoes less dynamic, but the cheap tomatoes were also poorly packaged. When I made this recipe the first time, I used Muir Glen diced tomatoes. The recipe says to drain them, and when I drained the Muir Glen, I was left with lovely little chunks of tomato. Period. When I tried to drain the cheap tomatoes, I realized they were packaged not in water, but in a thick purée, which was impossible to separate from the chunks. Ergo, my sauce was too runny. Yuck. Alas, lesson learned. The good tomatoes are worth it. Every time. Even for Monday night pasta.