Website visitors having fun with the recipes
This is a section of the site where I like to post 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 any of the recipes on this site and I will promptly add them to this archive! I would welcome them. It’s great fun to see people enjoying the whole Italian cooking experience! *You can also post the photos to my facebook page. Let the feasting begin!
These photos were sent in by David,
…coming to you from Cleveland Ohio, USA!
~ Thanks for the photos David! 🙂
Anthony it’s that time of year again and I’m making Godfather Spaghetti this Sunday. I printed out all 9 pages of your recipe! I have a new stove and Godfather apron. I use your recipe for sauce but I call it “Godfather” because I watch the Godfather while I’m making sauce. I have 2 bottles of Francis Ford Coppola wine….some for the sauce and some for me. I cant wait. This is my annual cookoff for sauce. I know, most Italians wonder why I only make it once a year….but it takes all day and then I have to give it away because I cant eat it all. But its fun. I always stop the movie and turn off the stove when Clemenza teaches Michael how to make sauce. I’ll send you pictures of me and my new apron. Dave. See below for some more photos Dave sent over. YUMMY stuff! Good job Dave! Looks fantastic!
I like this scene from Goodfellas as well… Goodfellas Dinner In Prison Scene ..Wine… OK, now we can eat! 🙂
These photos were sent in by David,
…coming to you from Cedar Falls/Waterloo, Iowa,
USA!
~ Thanks for the photos David! 🙂
Dave emailed me as he was working his way through the sauce….
Anthony,
I am getting ready to try your pasta sauce for the first time. I have a friend that indicates it is the best he has ever had. I have read the recipe/instructions several times to familiarize myself to make it a bit easier the first time. Me and whatever of that wine does not go in the sauce are listening and cooking Italian today! Dinner tonight is gonna be money!…. Done and simmering….. I have tasted the meatballs and they are absolutely awesome! I am going to turn everything off at about 1:30 and let sit until around 6pm and then bring the heat back up. Paired with your garlic bread recipe and a good Italian salad and it will be perfect. I’ve seen 17 friends in a half a day! Attached are a couple more pictures. Dinner was awesome! Thanks for all of your help!
Dave
Here are extra photos Dave sent in of his Italian cooking adventure 🙂
These photos were sent in by Daniel,
…coming to you from Maryland, USA
~ Thanks for the photos Daniel 🙂
I wanted to send you a message to to say how wonderful it was to find your website. I have never made my own sauce but was by my Italian mothers side (maiden name Vecchio) many times when she would make hers. It was always an event with much love and laughter, and many of the best times I spent with her were in the kitchen. She loved cooking and seeing people enjoy her food. She also worked as a cook and frequently said she felt guilty for being paid to do something she loved so much. Unfortunately she passed away unexpectedly last December, and I miss her very much. Through the healing process I remembered hearing her say that cooking was her therapy. While I also enjoy cooking very much, I was pretty lost on where to start with making a great spaghetti sauce like hers but I felt it would do me good to tackle it.
That is when I “Googled” my way to your site where I read all of your recipes and watched your videos. I love your way of presenting these recipes and appreciate that you have shared many of your personal experiences. This all adds to the authenticity of the food and traditions you were brought up with and have shared with your family. I first made the chicken cutlets and they turned out great! I have made the sauce twice, and it is spectacular. Attached are a few pics
of my 2nd sauce/meatball adventure this passed Saturday. Each time I have included the pork chops, meatballs, and sausage. I haven’t tried the braciole but I intend to the next time I make the sauce (soon!). I also would like to make a double batch the next time so I can have plenty leftovers for lasagna! It’s making me hungry just thinking about it!
The main reason I felt compelled to send you a message is to tell you that I feel happiness and love whenever I set out to make the sauce. It brings me back to the days with my mother in the kitchen. It truly warms my heart, and I thank you for helping make that happen.
Salute! D.J.
These photos were sent in by Tejal,
…coming to you from Clemente, CA , USA!
~ Thanks for the photos Tejal! 🙂
Hey Anthony,
My husband is a platoon commander for an infantry unit in the United States Marine Corp. Lately, his marines have been going through some rough months of training. One weekend when they came back from the field, I surprised them with fudgy brownies and some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. They later told my husband how much they appreciated the home cooked baked goodies since they hardly get any being so far away from home. I thought about it and if brownies and cookies made them that happy, then surely a home cooked meal would make them feel especially loved. I thought about what dishes would be universal and spaghetti with a meat sauce and garlic bread came to mind. I am Indian by birth, and therefore do not posses the amazing Italian cooking genes (my room mate in college had a full blooded Italian mother – so I know the difference it makes!). I was wondering if you had any recipes that you could suggest for 43 hungry marines.
I read your “Anthony’s Pasta sauce” recipe and it looks great, but I didn’t know how many people it fed. I will be making the food by myself, so I don’t think I have enough time to make meatballs (plus, I don’t know how expensive that would be! military pay isn’t quite what is used to be). My husband came home last night suggesting Friday, October 1st, as it will be the last day before their at sea periods before their deployment. I know this is a tall order, but if you have the time to suggest something either today or tomorrow… it would be so great! Thanks in advance, Tejal
….. I sent her details on this, I will add them to sauce talk for some good details on how to make the sauce for 40!Well, she tackled that project and it came out great! This is no small feat! I have made sauce and meatballs for 40 before and it’s no easy task! Good Job Tejal!!! So here is her response after the event :-)I was so happy to hear this came out well!
Anthony!!! Okay first, holy mother of God..! That was the best sauce ever… I snuck a taste as you suggested!! Thankfully, I work from home and for the government, so since the fiscal year was over… things were pretty slow! I started my Italian Culinary Adventure on Thursday morning (8AM).
I started with rolling the meatballs (since I was using 6lbs of beef to feed all those marines). 86 meatballs later, I fried up the pork chops and meatballs, then started on the sauce… I followed every detail down to the T. I did however, have to do with out the braciole and Italian sausage (for cost and time). I finished the sauce around 5 PM.
I had to rearrange my fridge a bit to accommodate three large sauce pots (hint: remove shelves!). Friday morning, I started reheating the sauce around 10 AM, then moved onto making the 6 pounds of pasta. Started traying the pasta around 2PM. Since, I wasn’t sure when Evan and his platoon would be back from the field operation, I set my oven to 200 degrees and warmed the trays. I topped each one with parmesan and fresh parsley (marines may not care about presentation, but its love!). Evan’s company didn’t end up getting back until 6 PM, an hour later than expected. Evan’s platoon was kind enough to share some of their food with other marines in their company. It just shows how great his marines really are! 
Evan tried to explain the sheer look of happiness that the marines had on their face when there were called into the kitchen. Evan said how much they love having a home cooked meal. I completely agree with your philosophy of sharing food = sharing love. I took as many pictures as I could while cooking. I am not allowed in the barracks, but Evan tried to get as many pictures as he could. There aren’t any pictures of us, so I threw one in there, so you could put a face with a name. (See above)
I cannot express the many thanks from the marines and from myself for sharing your amazing family cooking secrets. If you have any more for a crowd, do pass them on… when I have recovered from this adventure, I would love to tackle another one! Thanks again from my family and 1st Marines, 1st Battalion, Alpha Company, 1st Platoon! ~ Tejal
Some more discussion with Tejal.
Tejal,
Wow.. Awesome pics! Thanks so much for sending them. I will definitely add these to the site! 86 meatballs. WoW! Awesome! A lot of love there! 🙂 I love the presentation you have for the spaghetti with the meatballs on time. Great idea! I’m going to give that a try actually. I like the easy serving of it all. How did you keep them all warm? Oh, I see. So you made up multiple trays with the spaghetti, sauce, meatballs, parm and parsley, covered them with tinfoil and placed in the oven at 200 degrees and kept it that way until they showed up? That is really a brilliant idea! 🙂 Really awesome to see that you were not afraid to tackle grandma’s sauce the right way for this large group! Did you do the three pots on one stove? Or did you have more than one stove to use? I find with two pots on the stove I am out of space. Only small burners left after that. I really love these pics! Well, have an amazing day! Glad the sauce and meatballs came out great! The sauce is the only recipe I have made for a large group so far. Will let you know if I tackle more. Oh, well, the Sausage Bread goes a long way and is always a huge hit! ! Anthony
Anthony,
I would have loved to have done the family style seating like you did (that’s the way Indian families eat too), but I think it would have been more difficult since the marines were there at different times to eat. My stove has the exact same size gas burners, so I was able to heat/cook all three pots. I use two “smaller” pots (they were the biggest I have) and borrowed a 12 quart pot from a neighbor. I combined one of the pots with the 12 quart when it came time to refrigerate the sauce. That 12 quart pot was gorgeous, I may need to invest in one or add it to my “hey, Evan, I want something shiny list…” (I don’t really have one of those… but if I did it would consist of household things!). I finished “plating” around 2 PM… and had to alternate the trays every 30 minutes in the oven since they wouldn’t fit all at once. The last hour before I left for Camp, I heated several trays at a time and moved them directly to the car. Once I got on base, I had to wait an hour because a mortar had hit one of the cell phone towers on base and Evan and I couldn’t find each other. Evan finally found me and had several of his marines with him to help carry all the trays in. They have an oven in their barracks, so they continually heated the trays like I did on 200 (left a couple marines on guard) and then went to the armory to turn in their weapons. The food was still warm! It was an adventure. BUT SO well worth it! I have received many, many thank you’s from the marines through Evan and some of the other officers in the company. They said some of the marines almost cried at the sight of a home cooked meal… which just warms every nurturing bone in my body and makes me want to do this again! If they can fight without any regard for their lives to protect our country’s freedoms, then I can DEFINITELY be in the kitchen for hours! 🙂 Thanks again!
Tejal
Special Note: I have created some special pages with tips and specifics on making the sauce for a lot of people. Check out Anthony’s “Pasta Cooking”, “Leftovers” and other secret Italian cooking Tips for Pasta Sauce.
These photos were sent in by Jo Ng,
…coming to you from Hong Kong!
~ Thanks for the photos Jo! 🙂
Anthony,
A couple of days ago, I made your spaghetti sauce, with pork chops, meatballs and Braciole, too. Wow, it was definitely the best sauce in the world! It was so good! My husband just loved it like crazy. When I was making the sauce, he smelled it once and he just couldn’t forget that lovely smell all day during his work. He even skipped his dinner and waited till I was off from work (almost 11:30pm) to make him the spaghetti. He said it was the best sauce he had ever tasted, even better than those eaten in 5-star hotels. I was so happy! Thank you dearly for your wonderful recipe and the way you’re putting it. It is the most detailed recipe I have ever seen. It was just like you’re here teaching me beside me. I have never made any spaghetti sauce before and this is my first time, and it was such a success! We’ll be eating your spaghetti sauce with pork chops, meatballs and Braciole for the rest of our life! Thank you so much indeed! Best regards, 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!. Above you can see the finished deal! All that work and this is the end result! Believe me, it’s worth the effort! Now dig in! Also above is a photo that shows the OH so important extra bowl of sauce! You really have to lay it on thick, this is good tasting stuff! Jo, her friend Jess and Jess’ two kids over for a fun filled day of cooking and eating. Good food and good times, can it get any better than this? 🙂 Jo sent in some more photos showing the process of making the meatballs and the braciole. Just wonderful!
…another note from Jo:
Hi Anthony,
My friend, Jess and her two lovely kids had a little cooking party at my place making your sauce earlier this month. It was so much fun and such a happy cooking experience for the kids. They really love your sauce and we ate a lot that night. We would love to send you our photos for your site. Let’s share our great time! ~ Jo : -)
These photos were sent in by Robert & Margaret,
…coming to you from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK
~ Thanks for the photos Robert & Margaret:-)
Hello Anthony,
Loved the meatball, sausage & pork recipe – could not get all the named ingredients over here… but did our best. Yum Yum… what have we been missing all these years…
Now firmly on the weekly home menu and for parties.. Thanks
Robert & Margaret
Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK
That is a beautiful Pot of sauce!!! Robert and Magaret did a great job tackling the sauce!
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 Daniel,
…coming to you from Lincoln, CA, USA!
~ Thanks for the photos Daniel! 🙂
Hey Anthony,
Greetings from California! My wife and I discovered your site about five years ago and we just wanted to tell you how much we love it. We have been making your sauce for five years now and we can’t tell you how much everyone loves it. We have started making double the amount every year and canning it to give to our friends and relatives. Every year we are always asked, “when are you guys making the sauce?” I always tell them about your site, and a few of them have even started making their own batches. Every recipe we have tried has been awesome, especially the garlic bread. It has been a tradition for the last five years for my wife and I to make the sauce on New Years day. Since it was our first New Years with our new daughter Madelyn, we took some pictures to share with you and your readers. I can’t tell you how much fun we have doing this every year and we wanted to thank you for the great recipes.
Sincerely, Daniel
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.
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 sandwich with some fresh Italian bread, thinly sliced and lightly toasted.
These photos were sent in by Forrest,
…coming to you from San Francisco, 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!
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 Don,
…coming to you from San Jose, California, USA
~ Thanks for the photos Don! 🙂
Below are some photos sent in by Don who took the time to actually print out my entire site and made his own cook book and called it The Italian Bible. Pretty cool! Nice work Don!!!
Don made a nice leather bound 3-ring binder with step by step photos all printed up, recipes all tabbed and organized. Very nice and very inspiring! It is on my list to one day make a cookbook, this inspires me to get moving! Auh, all the hard work really pays off in the end. Just look at that lovely pot of sauce! YUM! 🙂 …and the Anisette cookies and Peseta Bars. Lovely! You can also see in the photos that Anthony’s Binder is already battle-tested with food stains during recipe prep. 🙂
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. (see above) 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
A couple more notes from Don:
Hi Anthony, I made up a batch of Anisette cookies & Peseta Bars for the 4th of July holiday and your recipes turned out great! Attached are photos of the goodies in our kitchen and at the family gathering on the 4th. (see above) The cookies were a big hit at the party, especially with our 3-year-old niece, Jaden. In all the excitement I forgot to include a photo of myself so I have a reminder to do so for your next recipe. Thanks again for all the joy your wonderful website has brought to our family. ~ Don
Anthony, The reviews on your peseta’s have been astounding as I’m still getting complimentary phone calls days after we left samples off to our friends! I tried to explain they were dipping cookies but most were too lazy to wait for the coffee to brew and immediately dug in 🙂 ~ Don
These photos were sent in by Katy,
…coming to you from San Diego, California, USA
~ Thanks for the photos Katy! 🙂
Anthony,
Here are some pictures of our Soprano’s party as promised. People were fighting over the leftovers! I made your lasagna the next week and had to make two recipes 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 lasagna, and boy was it good! Thanks, Katy
Ok, we see here above all the necessities. Most important, the candles! Love those candles! Katy is the one with the green shirt. Good job Katy, it all looks delicious! 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! That’s a Lotta Work! Trust me. But well worth the effort. Well done Katy!
This photo was sent in by Bill,
…coming to you from San Francisco, California, USA
~ Thanks for the photo Bill 🙂
Anthony,
I e-mailed my sister in New York for help in my attempt to produce some meatballs like my Mom used to make. Apparently she either didn’t get my e-mail or is still rolling on the floor in a fit of laughter at my audacity so I went to the net and the FIRST site I came to was yours. It is GREAT !!!!!!!!! I owe you. Thanks a lot for your sharing, patience and HUMOR. Again, you are GREAT ! Thanks, Bill
P.S. just in case your viewing this on your phone and you can’t read the photo caption, it reads: “Meatball wants to make meatballs. Can you help him out Aunt Ann? This ought to be a barrel of laughs!”
These photos were sent in by;
Jeremy, Andrew, James and Matt,
…coming to you from Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
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
Above we see Andrew getting ready for the behind the back bay leaf toss, wish him luck 😉 we also have 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 finally, after all the hard work, finally we get to eat! Man I’m starving! The food’s all done, come eat, capish? They sent in a lot of nice photos of the entire cooking process. Italian cooking is not just cooking, it’s an event! See below. Thanks for the great photos guys!!! My favorite photos is when they are finally eating and you see a nice shot of the full live size Rocky in the background. Very nice! So glad Sylvester Stallone made it for the meal!
These photos were sent in by Dr. Don,
…coming to you from St. Louis, Missouri, USA
~ Thanks for the photos Doc! 🙂
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
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. Dr. Don has his wine and he is ready to tackle this very tough job! You go doc!!! Really, drinking some wine while you are making this sauce really helps… lot!Above you can also see the all important bay leaf over the shoulder toss… In the word’s of Dr. Don, of which he attached to this photo of the finished pot of sauce with all the meats…: “Are you freaking kidding me?” Don sent in more photos of all the cooking fun. I have placed them below.
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!
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
Anthony's Italian-American Recipes 