Anthony's Pasta Sauce, Meatballs and Bracoile Photos! Visitors Photos

Anthony's Pasta Sauce, Meatballs & Braciole
Visitor Photos!

This is a section of the site where I will be posting photos emailed to me by visitors. Below are photos that visitors took while having a great time making the sauce. :-) Please feel free to submit any photos of your culinary experience while making or eating this sauce recipe and I will promptly get them up on the site! I would welcome them. It's great fun to see people enjoying the whole Italian cooking experience! You can snail me me photos as well :-) Send me 100's it's ok...

These photos were sent in by Adam,

...coming to you from New Zealand!

~ Thanks for the photos Adam! :-)

Kiora (good health) Anthony,

Thanks for sharing your great recipe and itunes music stream, Spaghetti sundays here in NZ are becoming a bit of a regular thing, two weeks in a row in fact the neighbors are getting use to the Italian booming acc

The left overs I have for lunch on Mondays are starting a trend amongst my staff and now insist it's ok to drink wine on monday lunchtimes.

Any cheers once again.

~ Adam

These photos were sent in by Jim,

...coming to you from Dallas, Texas, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Jim! :-)

Anthony, I have been wanting to make this since I saw it on your web site. Came out
excellent....I just added a few chopped onions with the garlic!:-) Thanks, Jim

Oh man! Just look at that Spinach Frittata!!! Jim did a great job! This is such a tasty dish! Wonderful to have this as a sandwish with some fresh Italian bread, thinly sliced and lightly toasted.

Above is a wonderful presentation for this tastey treat! My grandmother used to make this with Asparagase, delicious!!!!! Really goes great with a nice glass of red wine! Jim deviated slightly from my recipe and added onions, shown on the left. Looks good! I'm going to have to try that next time I make it.

Click HERE for more photos of Jim's cooking experience!

These photos were sent in by Nathan,

...coming to you from Syracuse, Utah, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Nathan! :-)

Dear Anthony,
I was always under the impression that a meat ball was just a rolled up ball of hamburger. I recently made a trip to San Fransisco for business. I was in a carnivorous mood, but could not find a steakhouse with less then a two hour wait. I settled for a quaint little Italian place where I insisted on Meatballs to satisfy my need for meat. What an explosion of taste. It was then that I vowed to discover the secrets of good Italian food. I goggled my way to your web site and spent the next two weeks planning sufficient time to try your recipes. My kids and I followed the recipe to the letter and were rewarded with a fantastic meal. (despite the fact that it cost me $72 to buy everything I needed...I didn't have anything, and I needed a good Movie to go with the meal. We now refer to your sauce as the seventy two dollar sauce...and worth every penny.) Not only was the meal great, but the time spent with my kids making it was priceless. I have rediscovered cooking. Thanks for a fun recipe to make and read. ~ P.S. Today is my day off and the kids have requested $72 sauce for dinner. It's off to the store for sausage. Thanks.

Sincerely, Nathan

Well, this girl is ready to go! All the shopping is done, OK Dad let's get moving! :-) in this photo above, you can see there is a lot of stuff here! We can see why this is known as the $72.00 sauce in this family. Nathan said he had nothing in the house that was on the list. This was including all the spices. It can add up if you are starting from scratch on "all" the ingredients. But be encouraged, it's all worth it :-)

Oh, I just LOVE to see a Dad spending quality time with his children! These photos just warm my heart. Way to go Nathan! Children remember most, the "time" parents spent with them when they where younger.... The love shared and time spent with them is what remains deep down in the heart :-) Italian cooking is great for quality time like this. There is a lot involved and sometimes it can take all day, what a great opportunity to spend time with your children.

Nathan,
Hey, I just noticed from the photos that you tackled the sausage as well. Great stuff isn't it? I just love how your handling the sausage and stiring the sauce at the same time, lovely! :-) The meat and all the wonderful tasty grease that goes along with it really adds a lot to the overall flavor and depth of the sauce :-) Good to see you tackled more than just the meatballs. ~8-) Anthony

Anthony,
Yea I even did the chops. The Braciole seemed a bit much to tackle the first time around. I just got back from the store to do it again at my wife's request. Amazing 'cause she doesn't like spaghetti. I have to swap for linguine. By the way...The left overs made a great lasagna. I haven't looked at the lasagna recipe, but the $72 sauce with the sausage was awesome. With Much gratitude. ~ Nathan

P.S. The kids loved the bread too. Perhaps a finished product photo will make it your way after today.!

...Oh man! Would you just look at these meatballs frying in the pan. I can almost smell them! Yum!

These photos were sent in by Jeff,

...coming to you from New Jersey, USA!

~ Thanks for the photos Jeff! :-)

Anthony,
I live in Jersey but have a house in Vermont that has a wood burning stove. I've been thinking about doing a slow-cook on the wood stove with your recipe. Think it'll turn out well? I've got to try it just once. My mother told me that her grandmother (from Naples) used to slow-cook sauce in a large black pot placed out side and let the sun heat it up. She would leave it out side all day. Jeff

Well, you can definitely see by the photos that Jeff followed through and really did make the sauce over the wood burning stove and he said it came out just great :-) Looks wonderful!

Below, I have placed some tips from Jeff in regards to cooking over a wood burning stove and a tasty secret tip as well :-)

Thank Jeff!

Above we have the sauce slow cooking over a nice wood burning stove somewhere in Vermont :-) There was a slight problem with the temperature. Jeff said it was getting a little too hot, up to 500 degrees F. See the Alien looking thingie below? That is a simmer plate, it helps you control the temperature :-) Jeff calls this a "SimmerMat black heat diffuser" but I still say it's some kind of Alien device, use with caution ;-)

Anthony,

My first attempt at cooking sauce on my wood burning stove turned out better than I thought. My wife described the taste as "mellow", and I would agree. It was one of the best sauces I've made to date. First: Controlling the temperature on the surface of the stove proved more difficult than I thought. I tried to keep it at around 300 to 350 degrees---but it soon got up to 500 and the sauce began to boil. Plan B: I placed a simmer plate under the pot and brought the temperature down and the sauce began to simmer once again. A simmer plate is designed to be used on an electric stove to prevent scalding and it works equally as well on a wood stove. A simmer plate is an absolute must if attempting to cook sauce on a wood stove because of the temperature control problem. Not all simmer plates are created equal, some work very well and some not at all. Avoid those that have handles as it may prevent you from centering the pot. This is the one I used and it worked very well; IMCG SMOC1 SimmerMat black heat diffuser. After 4 hours of simmering and 1 hour to let it steep, the meatballs, sausages, pork & braciole were tender. The flavor was great. Next time I'm going to start out using the simmer plate and try for a 6 hour (or more) cooking time. The nice thing about cooking on a wood stove using a simmer plate is that if you really get it to simmer you don't have to worry about stirring every 15 minutes, just set it and forget it.

But wait... There's more! :-)

A tip in regards to the Olive Oil and Garlic bath... .What I do is run the garlic through a press put it in a cup or jar, add olive oil and let it sit over night before using it the next day. Really good. Also: A tip I received from my uncle about tomato sauce: he used RedPack whole plum tomato's and puts them in a blender to make his sauce. I used Tuttorosso brand but tried my uncle's method in Vermont on the wood stove. There was a noticeable difference in the flavor. Much better. My uncle's reputation as a great cook is well known in this area. So much so that Geraldo Rivera wanted to do a story about him a while back. One more tip... Concerning wine, have you ever tried 'Fortissimo'? If not try it just once. It's a great tasting red wine and if you don't like it you can always cook with it. The guy that owns that liquor store where I buy it told me that in the summer time when many Italians come up to NJ from Florida the sale of Fortissimo goes through the roof. Then in the Fall when they return to Florida the sales drop. That should tell you something.

Jeff .. Here is a cool link I found to a kit for making your own Fortissimo wine and here are two places where you can buy Fortissimo Shop #1 - Shop #2 :-) Anthony

These photos were sent in by Forrest,

...coming to you from San Fransisco, California, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Forrest! :-)

Forrest found out that it's much better if you have friends over to make the sauce, especially when those friends are family!

There were four chefs in the kitchen to create the feast; Forrest in the Hawaiian shirt, his sister, his sister's son, and mama. This was a good team effort with chopping, stirring, mixing and singing! Way to go guys!!! It looks to me like your sharing the LOVE, and that's what Italian cooking is all about!

Click HERE for more photos of Forrest's cooking experience!

Dear Anthony,
I found your delicious recipe when wanting to make some homemade pasta sauce. Thank you for having the best recipe to follow and enjoy! It is perfect with the step-by-step. Thank you! I've made it twice by myself and then invited friends over, but I found out it's better if you have some friends helping you make it! And what better friends than family? So the Grimshaw family got together, turned up "Il Barbiere di Sivglia" (one of my favorites) we did it up!

Like I mention, I've tried it, preparing it in widening stages. The first time I made it, I had the chops and sausages. The last time I made it, we added the meatballs, and those have got to be THE BEST! High fives to you my friend! Still to conquer are the Braciole. That's something to look forward to! Thanks Anthony for giving us a good day of fun love and food!

Warm regards, Forrest

These photos were sent in by Ken,

...coming to you from New Jersey, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Ken! :-)

Anthony, Here are nice pictures of The NJ Italians...with Sausage Bread! Today is Easter Sunday and we followed your sausage bread recipe exactly and it was delicious. We have been trying to duplicate our grandmother's recipe for years...but she took the secret to the grave with her...but your recipe revived the spirit and tradition...we are sure to try your other recipes. We are NJ Italians who love to cook..eat ..and talk about eating.. Ciao. Ken

PS...I make my own sausage...another good secret of nona.

These photos were sent in by Phil,

...coming to you from Falkirk, Scotland, UK!

~ Thanks for the photos Phil! :-)

Ok, if your in the UK, this is what your paste and sauce is going to look like. Tomato paste comes in a tube like you see here, and what I call a can of tomato sauce looks like the Passata in a box as shown above. Thanks for taking this photo Phil, this will help with future explinations!

Here we have Phil's wife Karen, she was not afraid to be in the photo, Phil admittedly was afraid ;-) Phil says she came in at the eleventh hour to steel some of the glory, hmm.. should we believe him?

Auh... the end product, the bread, the sauce, the spaghetti... yum! The meat must be hiding somewhere, Phil appears to be hiding as well ;-)

...and here is Phil's son Thomas, pounding that braciole meat. Oh look, his shirt says "animal", that is an appropriate shirt to wear when your pounding the heck out of the braciole meat! This part really helps the braciole get tender, plus it's fun :-)

From what Phil told me, Thomas did most of the work! Good job Thomas!!! WooHoo! Looks great! You would my grandma proud!!

Click HERE for more photos of Phil's cooking experience!

Anthony,
Yep - Made the sauce and it was great!!! (did meatballs, porkchops and braciole as well) Took a few pics so will try and get them across to you tomorrow... A rather belated note with some pictures from the sauce making session (apols for not appearing myself - I hate getting my picture taken - My son Thomas did most of the work and then my wife Karen stepped in for some glory at the eleventh hour......). The recipe is great and well worth the effort. I'm sure we'll make this again all too soon.

I'm originally from Newcastle upon Tyne which is north east england, but for the last five years have lived in a place called Falkirk (about 15 miles west of Edinburgh, 20 miles east of Glasgow (two great cities) in Scotland. Haven't tried the Carolina / North Carolina areas where you are - maybe next year (as visiting a friend in Oz this year). I have previously been to 'New York, Boston, Washington, Florida, Vegas (Grand Canyon / Monument Valley), San Fran, Yosemite (great place) etc.... Too much to see and do. USA is a great country with great friendly people. Take it easy and thanks for the quick responses - Have a fab weekend

Regards - Phil

These photos were sent in by Linda,

...coming to you from Oklahoma, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Linda! :-)

Dear Anthony,
I am part Italian and part Czech but only now am I beginning to embrace my Italian culture since it was not so much a part of my life growing up in Oklahoma. Anyway, I have looked for the perfect authentic spaghetti sauce and meatballs and garlic bread recipes and I am very much looking forward to trying out your very detailed recipes. I hope to accomplish this even by this weekend. I am excited about it and I do appreciate all of your step by step instructions. Again thanks for your website. I'll let you know of my success!!! Linda

Hey nthony,
As I wrote to you earlier, I made the spaghetti sauce and meatballs recently and now I will be making it again this next Saturday. After looking at your site today and seeing all the pictures sent in by other people who love your recipes, I have decided to not only make the spaghetti and meatballs but also try the braciole recipe. It is just that I have to make this perfectly as the guest I will be serving will be having great expectations and since I have never met them before I have to make a good first impression. They are actually in-laws that have not been so eager to meet me so you can imagine the stress that I will be under. Being part Italian I need to represent the Italian cooking very well. These people are used to eating at fine restaurants, eating on cruises etc. The pressure will be on........ I will let you know how it goes and this time I will take more pictures to send to you.

Thanks!, ~ Linda

These photos were sent in by Don,

...coming to you from San Jose, California, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Don! :-)

Here we have a nice leather bound 3-ring binder that Don made up from printing out most of the recipes from my site:-) Very inspiring! It is on my list to one day make a cookbook, this inspires me to get moving!

Step by step photos all printed up, recipes all tabbed and orginized. Very nice! i want one of these ;-) Well done Don!

Don has recently tackled the major task of making the Anessitte cookis and Peseta Bars? Oh... it looks like they came out just wonderful!!!!. Click the link just below here to see more photos from Don :-)

Auh, all the hard work really pays off in the end. Just look at that lovely pot of sauce! YUM! :-)

Anthony's Binder is already battle-tested with food stains during recipe prep.

Click HERE for more photos of Don's cooking experience!

Anthony,
I'll be making another batch of Anthony's pasta sauce this weekend and will take several digital photos of my Anthony's Binder (I call it my Italian bible). I place the binder on a small table in my kitchen, throw on a little Louie Prima on the jukebox then go to work. You will laugh when you see some of the photos because my Anthony's Binder is already battle-tested with food stains during recipe prep. The photos from your site printed beautifully even though they were low resolution. You will see them in the photos I email to you. By the way, what drew me to your site from the beginning was your hands-on illustrations. Most Internet cooking sites have few photos of recipe prep and contain just plain text recipes. You, however, guide the viewer through the entire recipe with your illustrations, which is exceptional. Your site is so different from the others because the viewer can feel the LOVE of Italian cooking jump right out at them from their computer! Don :)

Good morning Anthony,
Attached are photos of the 3-ring binder I made up from your website. It contains most of your recipes. It's right there in the kitchen every time I cook Italian and I depend on the step-by-step instructions and photos as a guide.Unfortunately I haven't yet developed the instincts of your grandma & mom ("a little of this & a little of that") so my "Bible" is indispensable! This past Saturday I made up a large batch of your famous pasta sauce and there's a photo of it here. Thanks again for all the help you've given me - it's greatly appreciated.

~ Don

These photos were sent in by Bill and Kazz,

...coming to you from Seattle, Washington, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Bill and Kazz! :-)

...Just too precious!

WE COULDN'T WAIT TO TAKE A PICTURE!

Thank's Uncle Anthony!

Anthony,
I could rave for pages about your meatballs and sauce but how's about if my grand-daughter just shows her pleasure and thanks. We owe you. If you're ever in Seattle stop by.

Thanks!, Bill and Kazz

These photos were sent in by Katy,

...coming to you from San Diego, California, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Katy! :-)

Ok, we see here all the necessities. Most important, the candels! Love those cendles! Katy is on the right here. Good job katy, it all looks deliciouse! I hope that Saprono's season opener was a good one.

Good family and friends and good food! Does it get any better? I think not! :-) It looks like Katy made the meatballs and braciole. She did the whole meal! WoW! Thatsa Lota Work! Trust me. But well worth the effort..

Anthony,
Here are some pictures of our Soprano's party as promised. People were fighting over the leftovers! I made your lasanga the next week and had to make two recipies so that my parents and aunt (in the picture with my husband and me) could take it home. Thank you so much, your site has opened up a whole world of italian cooking that I was too scared to even attempt before. That was my first lasanga, and boy was it good!

Thanks, Katy

These photos were sent in by William,

...coming to you from (North of) Chicago, Illinois, USA

~ Thanks for the photos William! :-)

Here sits William, enjoying the fruits of his labors :-) It's to just sit back and relaxed after all the cooking and just EnJoY!!!

Friends and family ready to dig in.. Yum!!! Un pane' tostato alla vostra salute' :-) (A toast to your good heath!)

Click HERE for more photos of William's cooking experience!

Ok, on the left here we have William taking care of the sauce. It's looking good!!! Don't forget to stirr the sauce! William has done a good job on the sauce here! It looks almost ready to go :-)

Anthony,
I have been telling all of my peeps about your site. This is the most comprehensive recipe site I have found. You give the shopping list, wine suggestions, even great music to set the theme, and loads of pictures to guide us through this wonderful process. I have been trying to perfect my own sauce or RED GRAVY (as we used to say in the South) for over 30 years, but your families secrets and methods have taken this blonde Dane into a whole new level. (The Italian Level) of saucery!! We live North of Chicago and I decided to make a small party out of this recipe one evening. I spent the whole day chopping, mixing and stirring and when my sister and brother-in-law came home from work and my girlfriend came over we spent the whole evening eating and lauging and dancing to the music. I doubled the recipe to have plenty to freeze, and I must admit I had to do a few variations on your theme but the end result was simply awesome. I mixed ground sausage and ground chuck and browned it and didn't make the meatballs (sorry, next time I will follow your recipe to a tee). All I had was wheat french bread but it turned out to be the best garlic bread I have EVER tasted!! A week later I thawed some of the sauce and made your lazagne (absolutley KILLER!!!) I can't thank you enough for building this site. All the best to you and yours! Peace Love and RED GRAVY

CHOW,

William P. Scott, Ann and Angie

These photos were sent in by Dr. Don,

...coming to you from St. Louis, Missouri, USA

~ Thanks for the photos Doc! :-)

Ok, we see above that Dr. Don has all the goodies and he's ready to Rock!!! If you look closely you will see a nice bottle of water, no tap water for Dr. Don :-) I have never tried that! Must give it a try next go around.

Here we see Dr. Don has his wine and he is ready to tackle this very tough job!
You go doc!!!

Click HERE for more photos of Dr. Don's cooking experience!

On the left we see here the all important bay leaf over the shoulder toss...Above we see the sauce just about ready to go :-) Man, this looks good!... In the word's of Dr. Don, of which he attached to this photo:
"Are you freaking kidding me?"... I'm thinking he was happy with the outcome. :-)

Anthony,
All right. Your sauce is freaking SICK. I mean SICK with a capital S. I have been searching and searching. This one does the trick. SOOOOO Good in fact that I made twice in two weeks. Once for Spaghetti and Meatballs and this time for Lasagna. I have included a few pics from my experience. I am writing from St. Louis. We have a little Italian area known as "The Hill". Several family recipes (ragu) come out of this small section of St. Louis. I have been trying different ones--connections you know. Nothing compares to this. WOW. YOU are the MAN. I enjoyed the whole experience. My daughters and I danced as the music played. We got our hands dirty, enjoyed the smells, and most of all enjoyed the day together. True family time. Great wine, Great sauce, and Great recipe. You will be hearing from me again. What about ravs? Any ravioli recipes??? Take care and thanks.

Dr. Don

These photos were sent in by;

Jeremy, Andrew, James and Matt,

...coming to you from wilmington, North Carolina, USA

~ Thanks for the photos guys! :-)

I like this braciole & wine photo so much, I have a blowup of this photo here.

Here we see Andrew getting ready for the behind the back bay leaf toss, wish him luck ;-) Over to our left here we see a beautiful photo taken by Jeremy of the Braciole all wrapped up and ready to go. A thing of beauty and the Chianti in the background is a perfect touch!

Good job Matt! I see you brought the wine, very important! :-)

...and here is Jeremy being oh so careful to roll up that braciole just right :-)

hmm... ok now, let's take a look at Anthony's Pasta Sauce, Meatballs and Braciole Recipe website one more time. Oh, that's what you do with the garlic, ok. Makes sense now, back to cooking!

Finally, after all the hard work, finally we get to eat! Man I'm starving! Eah! The food's all done, come eat, cabish?

Click HERE for more photos of
Jeremy, Andrew, James and Matt's cooking experience!

Tony,
Yeah, we made the sauce yesterday. Everything went GREAT! It was a lot of fun and I had my girlfriend's parents over and they enjoyed it too. Her mom doesn't even like Italian food and won't usually eat it, but she loved it, so much so she called her mom (my girlfriend's grandma) and was telling her all about it. We've got lots of pictures to send your way!

Jeremy

These photos were sent in by Jo Ng,

...coming to you from Hong Kong!

~ Thanks for the photos Jo! :-)

Hmmm.. Man! Just look at that Braciole! Awesome! It's amazing how good this stuff is! It is usually the one item family members fight over! Hey! He got a bigger Braciole than me, waaaa!.

Here it is, the finished deal! All that work and this is the end result! Believe me, it's worth the effort! Now dig in!