BITES : Bun Cuisine

If you have been leading a totally sheltered life, “Buns of Steel Cookbook” may suggest something you could break a tooth on. Actually, of course, Buns of Steel is a best-selling line of workout videos starring Leisa Hart, who wrote the cookbook in question, subtitled “Recipes for a Totally Fit Body” (Summit, 1995). The book features quite a few photos of the vibrantly fit Hart dressed in workout togs and beaming encouragement.

Like most diet cookbooks, this is a mixture of low-fat recipes of varying degrees of palatability and a lot of high-minded cajolery. There’s detailed nutritional info on every recipe (Cal Prot Fat Carb Fiber Chol Sodium). If you’re a Buns of Steel fan, or somebody who has to go on a reducing diet, the recipes may look pretty good, but as usual a lot of them are slightly appalling to non-dieters. Hummus without tahineh sauce! Ratatouille without eggplant! Caesar dressing made with buttermilk and pepper-flavored oil! Turkey burgers that are one-third oat bran!

Notes From the Fiber Underground

Maybe you weren’t aware that there’s an oatmeal lifestyle. There certainly is, and it’s chronicled in Christine & Rob’s Food Talk, a Family Journal of “Informative & Fun Food Ideas,” which has apparently been publishing for three years. Christine and Rob Bartel make a gourmet brand of oatmeal, and their newsletter includes their adventures promoting the cereal, interviews with family members about oatmeal, oatmeal recipes and even an article titled “Great Oatmeal Getaways!” (hotels that serve Christine & Rob’s). We don’t know what it costs to get signed up, but the newsletter’s address is 41103 Stayton-Scio Road, Stayton, OR 97383.

Bye, Bye, Birdies

The city of Zwolle, Netherlands, was suffering from a plague of pigeons two weeks ago, so city officials deported them. Well, to be more exact, they caught about 1,400 pigeons and sold them to a pa^te factory in France.

A Slug of Sauce

Here’s another celebrity pasta sauce, and whoa, this one bears the name of Jake LaMotta, the ’49 to ’51 world middleweight boxing champion, whose life was portrayed in the 1980 movie “Raging Bull.” LaMotta’s Tomatta Sauce is a LaMotta family recipe for a thick marinara (pizza topping is one of the suggested uses) made with onions, basil, three kinds of tomatoes and extra-virgin olive oil.

In the New York area, where it is available in stores, the Bronx Bull’s sauce is being positioned against gourmet marinara brands like Patsy’s and Rao’s. Elsewhere, it can be ordered by calling (800) 526-6882 (that spells LAMOTTA, of course); four 16-ounce jars are $19.95 plus $5.95 shipping.

The slogan of LaMotta’s Tomatta is--you should have guessed this--The Sauce With the Punch.