Given Rao’s success, the only surprising thing about Carbone, the perpetually buzzing NYC Italian American restaurant, creating its own line of pasta sauces was the fact that it took so long to do so. Carbone, the crown jewel of the Major Food Group restaurant empire, opened in 2013 and became “an impossible reservation almost instantly,” Helen Rosner wrote in the New Yorker. In the years since, Carbone has grown into “the most celebrity-studded restaurant on Earth,” according to Vanity Fair; an NYC export; a singular example of the whimsies of the elite; and a social media phenomenon (the search term has over 1.4 billion views on TikTok). Rao’s and Carbone aren’t just any restaurants; they’re restaurants that make lists for Celebrity Sightings and where the powerful share meals.
“The sauce category is a crowded one, but what it is lacking is a premium product that can stand up to what’s served in restaurants,” CEO of Carbone Fine Foods Eric Skae claimed — perhaps boldly, in the purview of Rao’s fans — in a press release at the line’s launch in March 2021. Now, that premium sauce category expands further: This month, Rubirosa — another of NYC’s hot-table Red-Sauce Joints,
... excerpted from EATER, October 7, 2022
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You read the previous 3 chapters? OK, all this being said, jarred Italian Pasta Sauce might be OK for those who can't cook, and those who aren't of Italian-American ancestry, but no "Self Respecting Italian" would ever dream of buying Sauce in a jar. "No way, no how." We grew up with our nonna's and mothers making the tastiest Italian Sunday Sauce Gravy just about each and every Sunday of our lives. It's a right of passage and weekly ritual of practically anyone who counts themselves as Italian-American of this great country of America.
Each Sunday our family would gather at one of my aunts and uncles houses in Lodi, New Jersey, and my aunts Fran and Helen would make our beloved Sunday dish of Sunday Sauce, aka as Gravy. The sauce was laden with Meatballs, Sausages, and Braciole that slowly simmered with tomatoes, garlic, and basil. First we'd have a little mixed Antipasto of Salami, Provolone, Roast Peppers, and Olives, preceding the main event, the Sunday Sauce Gravy with Maccheroni. We'd dig in and get our fair share, then relax a half hour or so, before we started on coffee and dessert, which conisted of Cannoli, Sfogliatell, assorted Italian Cookies and Cakes, and Espresso with Anisette for the adults.
They were warm and wonderful times at the Bellino's as we all gather with my mother (Lucia), her brother Jimmy, Tony, and Frank, aunts Wanda, Helen, and Fran, and my cousins Anthony, Phylis, Connie and JoAnne, and my brother Jimmy, Barbara, and myself. My aunt and uncles friends like, Charlie Palumbo, Jimmy Scarlotta, Alice Foggi, and other would stop by for coffee and dolce as well. These were and still are the most beautiful times of my life, those memories of Sunday meals with our Italain family. And of course we weren't the only one. These Sunday rituals of Sunday Gravy, maccheroni, Cannoli, friends, and family were practiced by a couple million Italian families all over America. We grew up with the most tasty Italian foods. We were the envy of our Irish and Polish friends, and we would never dream of buying and eating sauce from a jare. We always make it homemade (recipe ), "never ever store bought from a jar. Never" !!!
DBZ
AMERICA'S LEADING BOOK
On SUNDAY SAUCE ITALIAN GRAVY
