Sauce Talk, Italian Family Recipe Discussions

Sauce Talk... Here, I have placed some of my email correspondence in regards to my recipes that may answer a lot of questions and give you some good tips along the way... and the best part is they're just plain fun to read! Good Italian food really brings back so many wonderful memories. If you have any wonderful memories and or tips in regards to great Italian cooking you grew up with, feel free to send them to me and I'll throw them up on the site. Ciao.

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Anthony!
Absolutely fantastic recipe. I have made this recipe about 4 or 5 times now and it truly is a thing of beauty. After my grandfather's sauce, this is the BEST thing I have ever tasted in my life. The closest I have tasted to my grandfather, Angelo's sauce. I am doing the double batch this Friday (two seperate pots like you suggest) for the family. I'm taking the day off of work to make this as it is an all day event for me! One thing I'd like to add though...the first time I made your sauce I made the chops along with everything else but the braciole. Everything to a T. But growing up my grandfather made his sauce with pork spare ribs and since everytime I tasted your sauce it made me think of him, the next time I made it I used the space ribs instead of chops. I brown the ribs like just like I would be making the chops before submerging them in the sauce. It came out great! The meat falls right off the bone just like his did, the bones are literally clean when you pull them out of the sauce and it adds such a great flavor. If you're in the mood to switch up your hallowed recipe try the ribs! I can't thank you enough for sharing your recipe with the world and the painstaking detail that you put into it. And for bringing back fond memories of my grandfather. I didn't think I'd taste anything even remotely close to his sauce again but you did it brother.

Thanks Again! Angelo

Hi Linda,
So glad to hear you are enjoying the sauce. My grandma would be so proud to know her recipes and traditions are continuing on. That is a very special recipe for sure. What makes it special is usually if your going to cook all day like this you are pouring some love into that cooking as well for those your are cooking for. That is the real secret. That is where the flavor and memory making stuff kicks in! Yes! Two pots!!! Love it!!! You know, I have heard this several times now. I find it so hard to stray away from how my grandmother used to do it, but I think I am going to have to break down and give the pork spare ribs a try! It's amazing how much flavor pig has :-) I am also honored to know that my sauce comes close to your grandfathers and am glad to hear it's not better. The sauce you grew up with should always be the best ever because along with the tremendous taste there are good times and fond memories of time spent at the table with family and friends and that is something very precious! I have a new recipe coming up on the site very soon for Chicken Soup with Homemade Semolina Pasta. My grandmother called this dish "Mellonbam Soup" Or "Mellan Bon Soup", I'm still trying to nail down the history behind this dish and the name. This is a wonderful chicken soup with Semolina pasta cooked with the soup in the last few minutes before serving. This is exactly how my grandma used to make and it's glorious! Took a while to get it, but I finally nailed it down. Now I just have to write out all the details. Here is a sneak peak Grandmom's Chickon Soup photo shoot! Anyway, I am happy to share my family recipes with you and am very glad you are enjoying them. Keep the traditions going. Nice to see people not afraid to be in the kitchen all day.

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Anthony!
I am 58 years old this year. I have spent soooo much of my life regretting that I didn't watch my mother cooking growing up. She was an incredible cook and now she has passed many years ago. I buy cookbook after cookbook trying to figure out the recipes I grew up with. Something was always wrong! Your website comes closer than any other that I have searched for years. I can tell these are my mom's recipes. Because you brought back my memories of her in the kitchen. I can know pass them on to my children and grandchildren. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the time you put into this website.

Linda

Hi Linda,
It warms my heart to know that I could help you out with getting these recipes back. I can so understand what you are talking about. These Italian grandma recipes are so special. It's why I have spent some much careful time getting all the special grandma tips written down finally! It's a journey I started about 15 years ago. A lot of hard work has gone into getting these recipes just right and emails like your make it all worth while :-) Any written recipes I have of my grandmothers are vague to say the least. Some sugar, some salt, cook until done, no oven temp, etc.... I did spend a lot of time in the kitchen with my grandmother when I was a kid so there are a lot of tips and tricks I remember. Others I had to slowly over the years extract from my Mom and my uncles.. Crazy Italians! Secrets that just takes years to finally be released! You have to be sneaky and get the relatives talking about the old days ;-) It took me many many times with much trial and error to finally get them to where I have them You just know when you have nailed it because the smell, the texture and the taste instantly takes you way back to your grandmas kitchen when it was simpler times and there was so much love and laughter share in the kitchen and at the time. It's quite emotional! It's so much more about the food! I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. ... for example... Christmas, grandma makes her special Anisette cookies that ONLY come out during Christmas and it's been a whole year since you had some.. MAGICAL! Or the sausage bread, or the ricotta cheese cake or.. oh MAN! I could just go on and on!!!!! Oh.. the 5 hour dinners that seemed to last forever... such a joyous time it was. Those traditions are slipping away! Keeping families at the dinner table is becoming a lost art. Fight to keep it going I say! We must not loose this. I am on a mission to get every single recipe my grandmother used to make spelled out in detail. It might take me another 20 years but I'm on a mission and someone has to keep the traditions in the family going :-) Happy cooking, Happy times and Share the LOVE!!!! It's really the most important part and is what makes all the food so wonderful.. it's the Love poured in!!!!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Anthony!
I just want to thank you for sharing your family's history and food with us. I think that this is truly the best site I have ever found. It shows the love and ca-passion for your family, and the truly great things that are missing in this America that we live in today. Your story tells how much that we have let the great family values and tradition, that we had we let slip away. I love to cook and have had many restaurants and Ii must tell you there are very few people that have the love and devotion that you show about your heritage and your family. Ii can relate to your story Ii was raised the same way, with the family around every Sunday, my uncle Danny playing the accordion and everything seeming to be OK. People helping other people and everybody looking out for there neighbors, it was a time for respect. We made our own wine and my grandmother made apple strudel every Sunday and chicken soup and she never used a recipe. You had to watch and learn and it never seemed to taste just like hers, but I think that is because hers was made from pure love of her family. It is to bad our kids never understood what we tried to explain to them. It is something that you had to be raised with in your life. I am older now and I miss all the good times that we shared growing up and I tried to explain them to people but people don't seem to care or just don't understand because they never got to share such a great time in our lives. Almost all the old timers are gone now and most of the family doesn't seem to CARE, their all trying to buy bigger houses and get rich. But you like me had riches that few people had, even if sometimes we did not know it. The old timers did not have a lot of money buy they had a lot of love that money cannot buy, so thank you for your wonderful recipes, and your wonderful love of your heritage and family!

George

P.S. I am Croatian and was raised with Italian friends and I can relate to everything you said God bless.

Hi George,
Oh yes, I so agree with you. So much has been lost in regards to family being together and spending time with each other and just enjoying the simple things. I remember having dinners on Sunday that would last at least 5 hours long. Sitting at the table, several course meals with much love and laughter through the entire time. Such great simple times. I have my own family now and I try very hard to keep that going. Sitting at the table for dinner time is maintained as something very important. I guard that against this world of business and fast food and overwhelming media we now live in. The times I remember spending at my grandparents house, those long meals, the amazing smells and food. It was all really quite wonderful and your right, I definitely appreciate it more now then I did then. I remember grandma Salerno always saying "mangiare, ottenere grandi" (Eat, get big!). I learned to take small plates of food so I would always have at least three plates of the main dish. This would make grandma so happy she would be beaming. You want to make an old Italian lady very happy? ...have 3 plates of her food! :-) You are 100% correct about the pure love for her family making the food great! That really is what made it great! My grandma Salerno was always in the kitchen, pouring in all the love that she had into her cooking for us! It was very special, there is something very special about that. I catch a glimpse of that when I cook for my family now. You just love to see them enjoy the food that you worked all day making. Brings joy to your heart. What your are talking about, the old times with family and great food is something extremely hard to explain. My website which is a labor of love for the food and for my grandma who used to make it is my little attempt to try to share what I felt and to try and keep that going for other families. I just love it when a young couple just married, a wife finds my site and learns how to cook an amazing meal for her family and she rights back and shares how much fun she had cooking all day with the family and with the family helping out and how much they all enjoyed the food and most importantly their time together. That just makes my day when I get those emails and I get a lot of them. It's like it's almost a new concept to some, spending all the time in your kitchen and with your family :-) Well, it just makes all the hard work and effort all worth while. Peace to you and long life and happiness and share the love and keep those good times going. Take time out to have a long meal and laugh and love at the table. You know it's funny, just typing this I remembered a time when my grandma Salerno was teaching me how to grate fresh Parmesan by hand. I remember telling her how hard it was and she just said, just keep grating, and no cheating, use the small holes not the large ones!!! That was a special time. I really cherish those memories so much.! Thank you for your nice letter. God bless you too.)!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
Anthony, Anthony, Anthony.. love to your wife, lucky lady and thank you so much.. you wouldn't believe my three sons, Armand, Peter and Paul hugged around me as we read your recipes and howled. MOM !! Armand said:" He's related to us!!" We are the Campanile family although their Dad died many yrs. ago and I am now Diane Beverly (he's a redneck southern boy from VA,) quite a change but he's ok he love's our food only thing bad I could say about him is he eats pickles with my spagett! We tease him unmercifully.. Also Mama Campanile taught me to par boil pork neck bones briefly.. rinse them then fry them ...then put them in the sauce.. We fight over them at the table!!! And pork braciole (definitely NOT good for you) I make once in a blue moon from pork skin.. I find this in Spanish grocery stores.. We are from Jersey City and live in Orlando now for the past 40 yrs. Home of the "rat" so if you guys ever come to see Mickey.. you must let us know and we can cook up a Sunday meal to share. Mi casa es su casa. Ciao!

Diane

Diane,,
So glad you love the sauce pages. They are a labor of love for sure! I love to share these recipes and love the stories I get back. So many grandmom's never shared these secrets! Anyway, please tell Armand, Peter and Paul that Anthony says Hi and they better know how to cook some good Italian and keep it going for their kids. Make sure you teach them about having big dinners at the table and learn how to laugh and love and enjoy family. Tell them I said "love your family! capiece?" ;-) ... pork neck bones in the sauce? Sound wonderful! Happy cooking and happy times :-)!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Dear Anthony and familia....
I will go to your site first thing in the morning when I have time to relish it... Glad you found us, we printed everything you ever wrote in your recipes and made our "Anthony" book. I had to make three books for my three sons, so they got one each for xmas!! It was the best present they received all three said... (do they love to cook or what?) take care.. I will visit your site often for updates... with Love.. from our house to yours.... Ciao, Diane

Diane,
Wow, you made a book from the site.. Three even! I am honored and I know grandma Salerno would be so pleased to see her meals being shared with others families. Good long meals with family at the table laughing and loving, it's just so important and becoming a lost art. I'm so glad to share these with you and thank you for teaching those boys to cook. It's important! Happy cooking, Anthony ~8-) Anthony

Anthony...Meatballs! The BEST I EVER MADE!!!
I am originally from Providence, Rhode Island where we specialize in your kinds of Italian/American dishes-and I always thought I was a pretty good Italian cook, UNTIL I stumbled upon your site by accident and started reading-Your site is VERY funny/witty AND educational-I could not stop reading-I finally had to go to the printer and printed out several recipes-The sauce and meatballs one came out first-I made the sauce with the two pork chops-Amazing-I would NEVER have thought of that-I made the meatballs,too, but WITHOUT the Parm Cheese-also skimped on parsley, and did not use the whole-wheat roll-good, but boring- Tried it AGAIN last week, following your meatball recipe to the T this time-Spent $9.00 on real parm/regg. cheese, got a whole-wheat roll from Fresh Market(which you have in N.C.) and did it right-lots of Italian chopped parsley! These meatballs were SUPERB! (Did not forget the SUGAR!) My husband was floored, me too! I even collect Italian cookbooks when not cooking from scratch daily, and YOUR RECIPE was the BEST! I am still in SHOCK! Next time, I will take photos to send to your site-I LOVE the visitor photo section! I have been cooking Italian food from scratch since 1972, and now that I am hooked on your site, I am going to try the other recipes also. GRAZIE! as we say in Providence. Susan, now living in Satellite Beach, Florida (I buy my stuff in Orlando).

Susan... now living in Satellite Beach, Florida

Hi Susan,
I"Funny, witty AND educational..." WoW! Thanks for the compliment. I think things like recipes should be entertaining and fun to read. I read recipe books and they are just so boring, so business like! Common, it's just cooking, make it fun and interesting and get the whole family involved, that's what I say :-) Another thing about cookbooks, most of them have very little photos if any at all and if they do give you photos it's ONE, one photo of the final product... hmm.. but what do I do in the middle and what's this whats-ya-macallit your talking about here and where do I find this very strange food product your mentioning that I never heard of and what kind of meat exactly? I mean what park of the cow? There are so many parts.... so on etc... I have a dream that one day I will have a cookbook made and it WILL have MANY photos and explanations and actually be user friendly and fun to read. I have always felt that when people write about something they should just write like they are having a nice conversation with you. Anyway... , so glad you took the time to walk through the meatball process step by step exactly :-) I find it very fascinating how many people will make the recipe but will not follow it exactly; they always want to throw in their own twists. It is the nature of Italian cooking really. Actually it is quite rare to have this kind of Italian recipe all spelled out in detail with measurements even! When I was a kid I would help my grandma cook a little bit. And she NEVER measured anything, she put some of this and some of that and tasted and then put some more, she just knew! It was like magic! My Mom would do the same thing! How do you know what to put in I would ask. The answer?.... You just know. It's all a matter of tasting. Well, 44 years later and 100's of questions and a LOT of trial and error I nailed it! I finally have it figured out and now.. I NEVER MEASURE! LOL!!! I understand now, she's right, you just know! The key is you have to make the recipe over and over and over until it's just second nature, that’s the trick! The big secret really is the amount of love you pour into the food when you are cooking it for love ones. That's what makes it all taste so good! The visitors photo section is my favorite part of the site, that and the sauce talk section. I actually have about 22 pages of email conversations I need to get up on the site. It’s so much fun conversing with people about the sauce and their family history and what they remember about their Italian grandmas. Just a blast!!! I would love to receive some photos from you to add to the site. I look forward to them. Satellite Beach, Florida.. Oh, you’re up by Palm Bay and Melbourne with Vero Beach just south right? I used to go to Vero beach and Jupiter beach a lot. I loved Jupiter beach. I lived in Fort Lauderdale for about 12 years. Enjoyed my time there a lot, but now loving it in NC :-) Well, I have to dive into work now. Have an amazing day!!

...Happy cooking, Happy Times and share the LOVE!,

~8-) Anthony

Several Months later....

Dear Anthony,
I am a long term fan of your sauce and meatballs, always making it! I am leaving for Providence, Rhode Island and I just re-printed out your printable version of the whole 10 page recipe to bring up there with me! I will be cooking up your recipe to everyone I know up there (We have a Little Italy called Federal Hill where I can REALLY stock up on Italian goodies!). After I unpack myself at my Mom's house, I will be heading up to THE HILL, as we Rhode Islanders call it, and load up on egg biscuits/Sardinian olive-oil (the BEST!) San Marzano Tomatoes in BIG cans/Anisette cookies (these are HOMEMADE up there) and lots of other stuff. Then, I will start cooking! I plan to introduce everyone up there to your very well written, amusing site! And the recipes are great! In the old days, I always made watery sauces-never was taught to use tomato paste! Now, thanks to you, what an improvement! I also love your reader's tips-Used the fennel seeds once-Prefer the sauce without them, though I love fennel! maybe I put too many in. They are like cooking with lavender blossoms-only need a few! Ciao!

Yours truly, Susan of Satellite Beach, Florida, formerly a Providence... Italianized-American girl.

Hey there Susan.. you Italinized-American girl,
So glad to hear you are always making the sauce. Nice to hear it was printed out and traveled to Florida :-) I hope it made many stomachs and souls happy. That's a good thing. Big meals are not being made enough these days. It's all fast food and processed food and quick eat and run. People are forgetting the art of just cooking all day and having a nice long meal with the family. It's so important! So much love and laughter is shared at the table, people are missing this simple joy they could be sharing with each other. Anyway, I was just in Florida for Christmas. I was in Ft. Lauderdale visiting family. I used to live down there for 10 years. I'm a Massachusetts boy that moved to New Orleans then Ft. Lauderdale, then North Carolina. OH, how I love North Carolina. I am NOT leaving this place ever. I think I have finally found home :-) ...Homemade Anisette cookies.. Is there anything better? I think not :-) Yeah, the fennel tip was a good tip, although I usually make the sauce with the sausage, so I don't normally add the fennel. ooooh, water sauce.. no paste.. oh that's not good. I'm glad your using paste now. So, what is the name of this (best) Olive Oil your speaking of? I want to try. Can it be purchased online? OK, well. I'm off to make some homemade country style Italian bread. I'm on my 5th try in the past 2 weeks. I almost have it nailed down perfect! I am SO excited about this. I have been wanting to master Italian Bread for a long, long time! My grandmother would be so proud to know that her grandson can now make Italian bread. I just wish she was her so I can server her some fresh baked Italian bread and see the smile on her face. Well, happy times, happy cooking and share the LOVE!

... click Here for more sauce talk with Susan of Satellite Beach, Florida...

Dear Mr. Baker,
I am writing to thank you for sharing your recipe for pasta sauce on your Web site, SpaghettiSauceAndMeatballs.Com. I love to cook. It brings me a lot of enjoyment. And I'm good at it. I can make French dishes, seafood dishes, and a Turkey dinner that all would blow your socks off. But I've never been able to make a good pasta sauce. I've tried many recipes, and none of them made the cut. Tonight, I made yours, following your instructions to the letter, including the constant stirring. I even added the garlic, for which I have never developed a fondness. And it was simply fantastic. Just perfect. Now I can make my own sauce, and it's going to be yours -- for years to come. I'll always call it Anthony's sauce, and I'll tell people about your Web site. Thanks a lot for filling a big hole in my love for cooking. Best to you and yours.

P.S. If you ever have a problem with your computer or need help choosing a new one, don't hesitate to give me a holler.

Jim

Hey Jim,
Hey, so glad I could help you find the right sauce. Problem with finding a good recipe is that there is no measuring if you make it like grandma did. Grandma would say, you put, you taste, you put some more, you taste and you just know when it's done :-) Well, I had to ask a LOT of question and I never did get the "whole" recipe until I talked with my grandmother, "ALL" of my uncles and my Mom before I got the "WHOLE" story and all the secrets. But I am very glad I have written down every single detail for this wonderful sauce that I remember from my childhood. I wanted to make sure this tradition kept going. The problem with most family's today is that they don't want to cook all day anymore, nobody has time, they are all too busy with today face-paced life-styles :-( Big meals with the family is becoming a lost art and that is a sad thing. For me and my house, we will eat large and cook all day and sit at the table and actually talk to one another :-) Peace my friend and keep on cooking. Have a fantastic day!-)!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hey...... Anthony!
I just happened to come across your website while where? Uh….at work. Imagine that? Anyway, you more than likely know by now that I am Italian. Well, to be exact….I am Italian on my mother's side. She's from Calabria. Dad, well……he's Sicilian. Oh, and they came here when my mother was pregnant with me. I guess you could say I was an import. :o) My childhood was for the most part very interesting since we were the only Italian / Sicilian family on my block. It was really great to here my mother yell my full name at the top of her lungs……"Roxana Maria Giovanna Lucia Vitale" while standing on the front porch. Yep….real fun. Then there was my brother, Umberto Nunzio Geno Vincenzo Vitale ( we just call him, Rob ) and my sister, Rochelle Alena Faustina Lena Vitale ( we called her, Chelle ). During the Christmas Season did your family celebrate the "The Feast of the Seven Fishes" on Christmas Eve"? My family sure did. The main course was the stuffed female eel (the Sicilian side)…oohh….yum! Then the broiled bacala with olive oil and breadcrumbs. To this day I can not stand the smell of eel. You know then muscles, calamari, shrimp.etc…..We also gave gifts on January 6th (the Epifiano). My mother said we still had to behave after Christmas so "La Befana" ( the female Santa ) would bring us gifts. I've looked at your recipes and I am going to try your version of "Braciole". I have the recipe of my nonna ( my dad's mom ). Like most of those old school nonnas she only had ingredients but, no measurements. What she gave was written down on a napkin. Through trial and error I have it down now to a science on how to make friggin' braciole. I've given you below two of my familia's Christmas recipes one for cookies and one for a side dish. Feel free to try them out.

SPUMETI (Chocolate-Hazelnut Meringues ):
1 lb. Hazelnut meats, coarsely chopped
1 lb. Powdered Sugar
2 + cups Flour ( the + is because you might need to add more depending on the temp in the kitchen )
2 tbls. Cocoa
5 - 6 egg whites
2 tsps. Cinnamon
Preheat over to 325 F. Cut brown paper to fit 2 baking sheets and grease lightly. Put hazelnuts, powdered sugar, cocoa and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add egg whites. Mix well until is blended. This the tricky part……you have to first add 1 cup of flour and mix. Then add the 2nd cup of flour and mix. The batter should be the thickness of like, pancake batter. If not keep adding flour until it is. That's the reason for the "+". Scoop out balls with a spoon and put onto the baking sheets. 1 inch apart. Bake for approx 25 minutes.

ZUCCHINI IN AGRO DOLCE (Sweet and Sour Zucchini):
3 tbls olive oil
4 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbls vinegar
1/4 cup water
Salt & Pepper to taste
3 tbls pine nuts
1/4 raisins
In a large skillet, heat oil and sauté the garlic to you see the oil bubbling a little. Add zucchini and sauté on both sides until it's golden. Add the pine nuts, raisins, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Mix the vinegar and water and pour into the skillet. Cover and simmer real slow until the zucchini is tender. Maybe about 10 minutes. When done you let sit and serve at room temperature. Well….I'm going to be going now. I've taken up a lot of your time here. Plus I should get back to work. I hope you do enjoy these recipes.

Ciao Bella!, Roxie

Roxie,
Man! I just can't believe you were surfing the Internet at work.. geesh! “Roxana Maria Giovanna Lucia Vitale “ …wow! Nice name! :-) Mine was much shorter being yelled from the porch.. Annnthooooooooonyyyyy!!!! I would hear that when I was in the woods with my friend about a 1/2 mile from the house. My Mom could really project. Dinner time.. I had to be home for dinner! Very important! :-) Well we did not call it "the feast of seven fishes", or at least I was never told we were celebrating that, but every Christmas we ALWAYS had tons of fishy stuff!! I remember saying when I was a kid, can't we have something that's NOT from the ocean? My favorite though was Crab, we always had Alaskan King crab with Christmas Eve dinner. As well as Calamari and a bunch of other fishy stuff of which I can't remember. Lobster was in the mix as well. The shell stuff they could never get me to eat, the muscles and oysters and clams.. I drew the line there, would not touch it. But there was usually pasta for one of the courses. Christmas Eve Dinner and Christmas Day Dinner were very long dinners... Hours long in fact. Great fun! I have kept the same traditions going with my family, we still have all the fishy stuff now but the differences is, now I love it all, well accept for the slimy oysters and muscles and clams, I still avoid those. However I do like Ipswitch steamers, those are yummy! :-) Difference also is that we now have Lasagna in the mix because My youngest son insists on it! Wow, never heard of the female santa thing... interesting.. Yep.. wish those grandmas wrote down some details. I remember one recipe my mom has for one of my grandmom's cookies and no kidding.. here are some of the direction... Put some sugar, add some salt, there were some measurements, but this is the kicker, at the end of the recipe it said "Cook Until Done".. Oh love that one!!! WoW! I can't tell you the pain and agony and effort and trial and error I have gone through for the past 20 years or so (I'm 45 now), trying to get the sauce and meatballs and braciole to come out tasting like my grandmas. I was so close after countless attempts, but something always seemed to be missing, something very small and subtle.. then one day I was talking with my Mom and poof... Out came a deep dark secret that my grandmother used Salt Pork when she was cooking the sauce. WHAT????? I said? Your kidding.. You never told me this.. I've been making the sauce all these years and nuttn', not a peep..... Then My Uncle Johnny.. I talked with him.. Oh yeah.. You mean your Mother never told you about the salt pork? (very important he says)!!! Auuuuggghhh!! Its-a-like pulling teeth to get all the secrets! So she would cut up the salt pork into little bits and fry them up in the pan and then brown the meatballs in the salt pork fat.... FLAVOR!! Secret flavor I was missing!!! Then you take the little bits of nice crunchy salt pork and you throw some in the braciole.. Secrets!!!! So that was the last thing I was missing. After that I was content. I had finally figured out how to recreate my grandmothers sauce. Not an easy thing, you must have perseverance and tenacity and a passion to get it right. Like you said.... "Through trial and error I have it down now to a science on how to make friggin' braciole." that statement really says it all. I can hear the anguish in it, the pain, the suffering and frustration.... You got it.. You finally got it! :-) This would be a very hard emotion to share with someone who did not grow up in an Italian family. Thanks a lot for the recipes, I will definitely try them out!! Looks like some tasty stuff!!! I will be trying out that cookie before Christmas. :-) Will let you know how it comes out. Happy cooking and happy times!!!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

... click Here for more sauce talk with Roxie.

Anthony!
I came across your site about a year ago and tried your meatballs and gravy recipes first! Now, I have to say, coming from an Italian family on both side, married to an Italian for over 30 years, I always did what MY grandmother and mother did…the “Calabrese” way!!! I learned from the best also BUT until I tried your recipes, I never had people RAVE about my sauce and meatballs!!! No kidding! The first time I made them, my son kept dipping in the pan for more meatballs before they were even done! He wanted to know who made them…Ha! This past Christmas, at a family gathering, my husband’s cousin took home goodie bags of my meatballs and asked that I make him some!!! God rest my grandmother and mother’s souls but I don’t think I can go back to the family recipe!!! Then I tried the anisette cookies…another family favorite and recipe. Well, yours came out soooo good, got tons of compliments!! I want to say, too, I so enjoy reading your stories and letters from the public. Being Italian takes on a meaning of its own and in trying to keep the ‘traditions’ alive and savor the memories is something I am ever conscience of doing! Looking forward to reading more on your site and trying out other recipes. By the way, I told my cousin Chris about your site. He owns a very successful Italian Ristorante and is the last in line of 6 sons of a very successful and respected restaurant owner in Worcester , MA ! I can’t wait to hear his reaction and want him to share it with his father. Who knows? My uncle just may know some of your relatives!! Thanks again for a wonderful website.

Donna

Hi Donna,
Wow, what a compliment, leaving your family sauce for mine :-o... WoW. I will not let your family know. That could be serious! So glad to hear you like the sauce and the stories. It really is a package deal. Italian cooking is not just about the food, it's the family and friends and love that is shared while your doing all the cooking and eating and drinking and eating some more. There is such a large cultural experience behind the old Italian way of cooking and have large and long meals "at the table" actually talking with one another for long periods of time. Geesh, kids now talk more via electronics, social networks, cell phone texting, (how do they do it, little bitty buttons and big thumbs.. I just don't get it) way more then face to face. Sometimes I think the new generation coming up has forgotten how to communicate in real life all together. Very sad thing. I love the fact that my website helps bring families together. I get so many emails saying that they decided to tackle the sauce recipe and have never made a meal that involved ever before and how much fun they had with the family cooking. This brings much gladness to my heart and makes it all worth while. My grandmother would be so pleased to know her recipes are living on and tradition are still going like the old days. It's amazing you mention Worcester , MA ! My grandmother lived in Worcester and my Mom was born there. They lived in the Shrewsbury area. I spent a lot of good times there eating good food and listening to my Uncle Johnny play the accordion. Oh, such great memories! Keep "fighting" to keep those traditions going. Make the family stay at the table and talk to each other. It's so important! Turn of the friggn' TV and enjoy the family is what I say. Be sure to let me know what your cousin Chris says about the recipes. I hope he tries to make the sauce... He might be pleasantly surprised :-) Well, enough chatting for now. I have many more recipes "and" stories I will be getting up on the site soon as time permits. Here is a quick story I was just telling my younger son last week: When I have soup, I have to have a "big" spoon.. A table spoon. My sons set the table often and they give me teaspoons to have with my soup. I tell him, the younger one, I need a big spoon!... and that reminded me of my grandma Salerno . She used to drill it into me. You nedda biga spoon, what-you gonna do with that tiny thing, you can't get no food on it. You needa biga sppon Like-a this one. You use this one... and she would take away my little spoon... :-) Somewhere along the way that really stuck with me. I just can't eat soup unless I have a biga spoon! :-) Happy cooking, happy times and share the LOVE!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Anthony,
Boy, was I ever surprised to hear from you! Thank you so much for taking the time to write back! It's true; I'm a convert! I can't wait to tell my cousin Chris and show him your letter! So, your relatives are from Shrewsbury St! Are they the Salerno's that owned the Black Orchid? Have you heard of my uncle's restaurant? That would be the original "Rovezzi's" on Main St. His son Chris is the owner of "Rovezzi's Ristorante" in Sturbridge, Ma. Go to his website www.rovezzis.com when you have a chance!!! You are so right about keeping the traditions alive and sitting at the table and talking to one another. My 3 yr old granddaughter has no clue why I won't let her get up from the table when she's over!!! Have to talk to her parents about that one! Again, I look forward to reading more stories and finding more great recipes from you. I love the "biga spoon story"; who doesn't eat soup with a tablespoon? Thanks again and happy eating!

Donna,

P.S. Going to a family member's 80th Birthday on Saturday and will be bringing the anisette cookies!!!

Donna,
I'm working on adding more conversation to the website and I noticed I never got back to you on this one. It's crazy, right now I have about 50 paes of wonderful Italian family and food talk from the website, all email correspondence. Such wonderful reading! Anyway,, yeah, Shrewsbury St! Great little spot in MA. :-) No, they did not own Black Orchid. Wow! Rovezzi's Ristorante cooks awesome! Nice menu! Next time I'm in Worcester I will defiantly check it out! Who doesn't use a tablespoon with soup? Ha! Well I didn't until I got yelled at about it ;-) Yeah, teach that 3 year old right about the nice dinners at the table! Oh, thought you might like to know, I just added a new recipe on the website for Stuffed Peppers! I'm very happy to have this one up on the site and nailed down to exactly what my grandmother and mom made. Very happy indeed! Well, gotta run. Keep on cooking and keep the traditions alive and well!

Anthony

Salve Anthony!
I am hoping that your contact info is still in place....I can't "not" comment to you... I love your website......I have made your sauce recipe about a half a dozen times....OMG...thank you so much for sharing this...I KNOW this blows away any restaurant sauce I have ever had...in fact..I seldom order pasta and sauce in an Italian restaurant... because I know mine is better...but that was way before I made YOUR sauce....YOU blow them ALL AWAY!!!!...I am looking after my 87 year old Dad...full time...this is always a great project that peaks his interest...even though he is Polish... hahhahaha....Right on for you my friend...I hope all is groovy in your world.....thanks again for sharing!!!!!!

Aggie, Finger Lakes, NY

Hey Aggie,
Wow, what a great review! Especially coming from a New Yorker. You guys know good Italian! :-) Grandma Salerno would be proud! I am happy to share my family recipe with you. I have been spoiled as well. I have yet to have a sauce as good as my grandmothers, but then I'm a bit bias. Italian restaurants don't come close! The sauce MUST be made in a home with love ones present and cooking all day filling the house with smells that you can only get from a sauce cooking all day in the house. The sauce taste so good by the time you finally get to eat it, the smells from all day, the cooking of the Italian sauce, the browning of the chops, meatballs and sauce, the sauce.. the garlic, the olive oil...the wine! auh... just the best!!!! I wish you and your dad the best! Enjoy your time with him! My Dad just passed away and I miss him! I have found the Polish to be very similar to Italian when it comes to family and food and passion for both. ...and yes! Things are quite groovy in my world at present!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Anthony!
(although I doubt I will actually be contacting you personally), I just wanted to tell you, how much I enjoyed your grandmothers recipe for pasta sauce and meatballs. In my opinion, the only way to advertise for a particular recipe, is to do it like you did, the actual way people talk, make them feel comfortable and at home. Sometimes, when people read recipes, and the recipe calls for 1/8 tsp of something, folks don’t get the fact that really the amounts put down, are only a guideline. It’s not something written in stone. It’s not baking for gosh sakes. The other thing I wanted to ask is did you write your copy yourself or have someone write it for you with your input? The reason I ask this, is I am presently trying to break into the world of "copywriting" and was curious as to the language selections. I would like to write for you. Anyway, these were just a few things I wanted to say. The other thing is, if you haven’t done so already, You should start an Italian cookbook, called something like this: My Grandmother’s "Favorite Recipes" as told by my grandmother Do it exactly like "Anthony’s Pasta Sauce, Meatballs & Braciole." I’d love to work with you, but you probably don’t need or even want someone else, but the idea is good. Today, I am making your grandmothers meatballs and sauce and I will get back to you to let you know how superb it was.!

Thanks for your time. Respectfully, Jim

Jim,
Yep, you got directly to me. The website is a one man band :-) I wrote everything myself. I feel this is the way people should write and the way I wish they would, like you mention, in the form of someone talking to me, like conversational writing. When I write out a recipe I just basically write it all down like I was talking with you face to face and then go back and fix things that did not make sense, bad grammar, etc.. Glad you enjoy the writing style. I feel it definitely helps people understand how to really make the recipe and have fun while preparing it. I do have a cookbook planned for the future. You would not believe the amount of emails I get in regards to people asking me where they can buy my cookbook and that if I did not have one yet I should. I agree with them. I even have my Mom bugging me about writing a cookbook! Just don't have the time to dedicate to that yet, I'm married and have two boys, (1) 11 years old and (1) 14 (yikes! a teenager!!) and a wife sent by God and they take all my energy. I also have many more recipes I want to work through in detail. Each recipe really takes a lot of effort to work through the step by step instructions as well as all the photos and commentary to the photos. Also, the vision I have for the cookbook is going to be exactly like the site. I even want the cookbook to look like an old cookbook that has been sitting around the kitchen for years, complete with olive oil stains and such. It's going to be quite unique to say the least. Often I read through cookbooks and I am left with a longing for more details, more photos and more instruction. Thanks for the offer of helping to write. I might take you up on that when I decide to dive into the project, but that will be sometime from now I believe. Look forward to hearing how your Italian culinary adventure goes. Have fun with it and remember to share the LOVE! That's where the flavor is :-)

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

... click Here for more sauce talk with Jim.

Hi Anthony!
Let me first thank you for all the great recipes on your site. I especially love the garlic bread. I was wondering if you had a recipe for stuffed peppers, or are planning on putting one onto your web page? A restaurant in town makes them once and a while, but I would like to try to cook them for myself. if you don’t that’s ok, but I thought I would ask. Once again, thanks for all the information on your web site, I'm gonna try the homemade Italian bread next.

Brent

Hi Brent,
I don't have that recipe at the moment but thanks for reminding me of this lovely dish! My Mom used to make this all the time as well as my grandmother. I'm sure my Mom has this recipe. I will email her right now and jump on getting this on the site. She made it stuffed with rice and ground meat of some sort with a touch of red sauce in it. Very yummy it was! So glad you reminded me of this! Oh, do let me know how the Italian Bread comes out. I am so excited to have that on the site finally, it took me a long time to get all those details nailed down. The key to that Italian bread is to have a lot of patience to make it through all the multiple dough risings!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

A few days later....

Brent,
Well, I heard back from my Mom. Here you go. Stuffed Pepper Recipe (see below) :-) I will make this soon and get a nice photo shoot up of the recipe as well as nailing down the amounts. Typical Italian recipe from a Mom or Grandmom: "Some" rice", a "little bit" of tomato sauce".. etc... Only thing ever really nailed down from a recipe you get from an Italian Mom or Grandmom is the cooking time, well, if you’re lucky, sometimes you get, and I quote: “Cook until done”, ha! Hope it comes out well. This is the real deal, it's what I grew up with :-) When I was a kid, I remember only eating the filling because peppers grossed me out. But then when I got older I appreciated it more and really enjoyed every bite :-)

Anthony, (Stuffed Peppers Recipe)
I make it the way Grandma Salerno did. Cut the top off the peppers but save them to use as a little "hats" after you have stuffed the peppers. Clean the inside of the peppers, wash and drain. For the filling: Brown ground beef (season to taste, salt, pepper and a little garlic salt) and drain all the grease. Cook rice (she used long grained white rice), mix the rice with the ground meat. Add a little tomato sauce to mixture. Put filling in peppers and then put their little "hats" on top. Place peppers in oven with a little shallow amount of water and bake for about 50 minute. When selecting your peppers, try to pick ones that have flat bottoms so they will stand level in pan and not lean over. If you are serving them for a dinner party, select green, red, and yellow peppers for a showy presentation. Grandma would also use catsup in a pinch if she didn't have any tomato sauce at the ready. (I personally prefer the catsup).

Mom

...She didn't tell me what temp, but I'm assuming it's 350 degrees. That is the default temp, when baking temp is not shown in a grandma recipe, just cook it at 350 degrees and you should be fine :-) Or as grandma Salerno would, just cook it until it's done!

Brent,
On that Stuffed Peppers recipe.... set the oven to 375 for your 50 min. of baking time. Had to ask my Mom for that secret :-) I guess I was off on my guess a little, but the 350 probably would have worked as well ;-)

A few months later....

...I am happy to say that I now finally have this recipe up on the site in vivid detail :-)
Check it out: Stuffed Peppers ...WooHoo!

Hi Anthony!
My goodness ... I found your website a few weeks ago when I was looking for an Italian cookie recipe. I'm taking an Italian language class, and on the evening of our final, we are all going to bring food. Of course I wanted to make something appropriate. My nonna lived with us until she passed away at age 83, and she was always in the kitchen. Last year my father passed away, and I have since then been so missing the smells and tastes that I took for granted for so many years. Unfortunately, nonna let us watch her cook, and we could stir or chop, but no actual cooking (and more often than not she was shooing us all out of her kitchen). Today I truly wish I had any of her recipes. In the wee hours of the morning I have been reading your recipes, your stories and looking at the photos -- they all remind me of "home" ... and if it wasn't after 1:00 am and my clanging in the kitchen would wake the dead, I would start cooking this very minute!

Berni

Berni,
So nice to hear from you. Glad I could bring back some great memories for you. I totally understand about the shooing out of the kitchen thing! Grandma Salerno did that to us grandkids and she would often not sit at the table and eat with everybody, she would just keep on cooking and cleaning and eat later when everybody was done cooking. But I did ask her a lot of questions. The only reason I now have these recipes nailed down to something that is actually written down is a very long story. But I can say that I could not have done it without number one, a love for my grandmother and such fond memories of those huge meals we used to have and my Mom and Uncles helping me out with deep dark secret I had to sneak out of them over the years. I can't tell you the joy I get after "finally" getting one of her recipes just right, in other words, tasting and looking just the way she made it. Pure joy when this is achieved. Many of these recipes I have to make several times, over and over until finally getting those measurements correct, so happy when I get there. Often there are just these tiny secret that have to be revealed by my Mom that only come up during conversations about food and how grandma cooked. Things like, OH yeah, did I ever tell you about the salt pork grandma used when making meatballs and bracioles? What???? I say, you're kidding, you never told me that secret! See, all these little things took years to be revealed! I'm happy to share them with you. Sorry to hear about your father passing away and the fact that you did not get Nonnas recipes. I hope these recipes I share can bring all that back and can be something you are able to pass on to your own family. Happy cooking and happy times!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

... click Here for more sauce talk with Berni.

Hi Anthony!
These recipes are almost the same as when I grew up in Astoria, NY (Queens). I moved to Redondo Beach, CA over a decade ago. The people I knew in the old neighborhood moved and the neighborhood changed. It was my mothers friends from Italy who did this wonderful food when I would visit as a boy thru my teens. I made the meatballs and spaghetti - the flavors, smells and taste brought me back to old days (yes I cried). Anthony, you did it. Your a great man in my eyes. There is a good feeling inside that was missing - bless you!

Sincerely, Pete, your pizan in California

Hi Pete,
So nice to hear from you! Queens! Those boys know some good Italian! That's a compliment to hear my sauce brought you back. I'm glad I could help you get that back. Cooking all day really is becoming a lost art and that is a very sad thing. Some of the best memories I have are sitting around the table for hours with family eating and eating and talking and drinking and eating some more!!! Great times! Now you must keep the tradition going! I remember bringing friends to my grandmothers house for amazing meals and they could not wait to eat her cooking! One plate was never enough, In fact, if you only had one plate of her food you would get yelled at. What, you no like-a the food? Have some more, your skinny, you need some meat on your bones. Here, I'll make you another plate, eat!! :-) Oh.. good times! I miss her so!

~8-) Anthony

Anthony - I made the spaghetti and meatballs this morning,
Okay, I’m a great cook! I was fascinated with the whole la familia atmosphere of your recipe site. I’m Greek and make stuffed grape leaves like no one else’s! Tonite my daughter’s boyfriend, an Italian food freak from New York, is coming to my house for dinner and I made eggplant parmesan and your sauce with the meatballs, sausage and pork chops. Tastes delicioso! Thank you! Do you own a restaurant? Can’t find this on your site. I cook to relax as I have a heavy duty job and it wipes me out. So I hunt for recipes like I wanted the taste of the Greek meatballs I had in Greece a couple of years ago and two weeks ago, I nailed it! Eating them was like going back to Greece. Okay enough of my crazy talk. I am running as I need to do two appetizers and peach cobbler, shower and make the table pretty...so thanks again.

Elaine, Sacramento California

P.S. first language was Greek and I too didn’t know I was American – that old Greek heritage stuff mimics the Italian way. I love it. Today’s generation doesn’t know what they are missing.

Hi Elaine,
I'm glad you enjoyed my site and I am also glad you picked up on the family atmosphere. A nice warn and fuzzy grandma family feel is exactly what I was shooting for. Italian cooking is so much more then just about the food as I'm sure you know being Greek. Greeks are so similar to Italians when it comes to passion for food and family! I have known some Greeks and I would have sworn they were Italians! No, I do not own a restaurant, I'm just a guy whole loves Italian food and spent a lot of time in the kitchen with my grandmother and mom and asked a lot of questions. Want to be your grandmothers favorite grandkid? Be very interested in her food! :-) Peach Cobbler!!! YUM!!! Blueberry Cobbler is one of my favorite deserts. You are right about today's generation missing out. My website is an attempt to try to get families back into cooking big meals and sitting at the table and enjoying each others company. I remember dinners that would last for 6 hours! Never left the table. 6 hours! Oh those were great times indeed!

Ciao,

Happy cooking, happy times and share the LOVE!!!, Anthony

Hi Anthony!
At My son Johnnie’s wedding on Saturday, I was talking to my cousins son Jerry Magnifico III. He told me about this website where I could get information on My Great Uncle Francis Clement Capozzi. I called it up this morning and saved it. I just finished going through it and was deeply moved by your story on Growing up Italian It brought me to tears. A little background, I am John Philip Magnifico the Son of Alfred ( Philip) Magnifico the Son of Ann Letizia ( Capozzi ) and John Magnifico from East Boston. Just about everything you mentioned in your story I can relate to. I didn’t think it was so special at the time but as I have grown older and the grand parents and aunts and uncles have gone and how things have changed I realize how blessed I was Growing up Italian. * If you would like information for the Family tree form Anna Magnifico’s branch I would be glad to give this to you as best I can.!

Sincerely, John

Hi cousin John! Nice to meet you! :-)
Oh, so nice to hear from another cousin!! :-) Lovely! Glad you liked the story, it does paint a picture of a time long gone in America. I personally remember those huge Sunday afternoon feasts and is one of the reasons I have poured so much energy and time into my website which shares my grandma Anna Salerno's recipes. I have high hopes the families will actually sit around the table again and enjoy themselves with great food and much shared love! Problem is nobody wants to take the time to cook all day. Well, I force my family to have long dinners just to keep the tradition going. So much can be shared at the dinner table, relationships are sustained in this way, love is shared and happiness goes down deep. Guess it's a thing that is very hard to put into words. I would love to receive anything you have on the Anna Magnifico's branch, that would be fantastic!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

More about my Italian Grandmother and the Capozzi family here.

Hi Anthony!
I am so glad I found this site! My copy of your sauce recipe that I printed in 2001 is really gettin' nasty! I can't wait to try a bunch of other recipes, especially the eggplant parm. (I've never mastered this--sometimes great, often greasy). Anyway, I, a wasp raised on raw hamburg and yorkshire pudding, never had much success with sauce (gravy?) until I made yours for my husband, who said that it was better than his first-generation Italian mom's! Or any of his auntie's! It has become a staple here, and I've given it to everyone I know. Just wanted to say thanks, it's a silly thing, but a fellow from your background can understand the pride I feel when the family really enjoys what you make. It will be our traditional family recipe. Thanks again!

Sincerely, Jori

Hi Jori,
Raised on raw hamburger and yorshire pudding... oh my! ;-) So glad to hear you loved the recipe and found it again. I made several "important" additions since 2001. I have discovered some long lost secrets that my grandma Salerno did which my Mom"FINALLY" shared with me... Little subtle things like.. Oh yeah.. She used to brown the meatballs in salt pork fat... and I say WHAT?????????? I'm 44 years old and your are just NOW sharing this wonderful deep dark secretwith me? OK, tell me more!!! Then I started calling my uncles and asking them many questions about their moms cooking. You really have to pull out the important secrets or they are gone forever. I am very happy to share these with you and happy to know the tradition is being passed on. I totally understand the deep satisfaction you get when after you have worked hard all day on a wonderful meal to have your family/guests LOVE the food and to see them very satisfied with the meal. Makes it all worth while. Thanks for sharing your story with me, love to hear stuff like this about my grandmothers recipes. It would put a smile on her face is she new that people all over the world were making her recipes :-) I have many more to come, just slow going, I have to translate the recipe instruction like "Cook until done" and "Put in some salt" and so on... My Mom has a lot of hand written recipes of my grandmothers. I am slowly making my way through them all. Well, happy cooking, happy times and share the LOVE!!

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

Hi Anthony!
I was compelled to write after my brother forwarded me your website. We grew up in NJ and we were both under the impression that the Anisette Cookie was a family thing (a/k/a Nanny's Cookies) -- we had NO IDEA it was a classic known Italian Cookie. Nanny's recipe is a little different from yours: instead of adding spoonfuls of dough onto the pan, we roll out the dough and cut it into strips and shape the cookies like figure 8s or the shape of a ribbon or a knot. Mom would always make a special one for each of us by shaping our initial. We also put anisette in the icing. I have found that either people LOVE these cookies or do not like them at all. It's an all or nothing cookie. My father loved his before they were iced, and he would dunk them in his coffee. My brother loves TONS of icing. Throughout the years I would share with friends and be somewhat taken aback when they looked at me like "Eh. It's okay. Nothing great." WHAT? Nothing GREAT? Seriously...did you TASTE it? I wonder if our taste buds are biased because of the love our families put into them when making them, or because it's a tradition. I made "Nanny's Cookies" for the first time last year. Nanny made them every year at Christmas until she died. My mom made them every year since, but last year age was catching up to her and she wasn't able to stay in the kitchen for the 6 hours necessary to complete the cookie process. I took the job on. I did it to help out my mom and so that my brother would still be able to say (after 39 years) that he's never had a Christmas without "Nanny's Cookies." This is really saying something because my brother was in the military for four years - he was in Colorado, Afghanistan, Japan...My mom would bake them and ship them to him wherever he was. However, she would also have to bake a various batches of other Christmas cookies so my brother could share with the other military guys. He was very selfish when it came to "Nanny's Cookies." He would even try to ration ME when we were together...One for you, one for me. Two for you, one, two for me...You get the picture. I gained new respect for the generations before me....the cookie takes time and patience. I called my mom several times with questions and concerns. My first attempt was a success (although the cookies should have had more icing according to Tony, my brother). This year my brother and his wife attempted to make "Nanny's Cookies". They used cookie cutters (wrong). But I was proud of them for trying. He said they are quite yummy, even if they look like more like frosted biscuits than the traditional cookie. Although I was a little disappointed to find out that the Cookie is not a special family cookie, I was fascinated to learn that other families share in this same tradition (and enjoyed your website)...it will always be a Special Cookie to me.!

Sincerely, Gina

Hi Gina,
It’s nice to hear from you Gina. Glad you were compelled to write. I love getting these emails from the site. Such great reading :-) Oh the Anisette cookie. Oh Yes! This is a very special cookie indeed! It's funny, after I have read through your email I have just now realized that I have gone 45 years without a single Christmas going by without Anisette cookies :-) Like you. My grandma made them every Christmas, then my Mom made them then I learned how to make them, calling my Mom several times to get it all right. I still remember how proud I was when I finally nailed it after many laborious attempts, failures, very close but not quite there until finally success!!!! So I mailed my Mom some, they were perfect! Exactly like grandma Salerno's, I mean the taste, the structure of the cookie the look everything.. Perfect! I thought. So my Mom calls and says, you got the wrong sprinkles! Ugh.. Not wow Anthony, these are great, just like grandma's, good work son! Nope. All I got was, "Your used the wrong sprinkles".. Ha!!! Now I use the right sprinkles. Anyway, thanks for dropping me a note about the lovely Anisette cookie story. I think it's really special that your Mom mailed out those cookies to your brother. Auh the Love! That's really what makes these cookies so good! It's the love that is poured into them, you can taste it in every bite! There is a cute story about Anisette cookies from a Priest in Chicago; it's in the sauce talk section of my site located on this page. Great reading! He shared his Anisette recipe with me too :-)

Ciao,

~8-) Anthony

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