Anna's Products

A Rose by any other name is still a rose . . . But a sauce by any other name isn`t Anna`s ! If my mother was alive she would be thanking you, on behalf of all of us.  Unfortunately, she passed a long time ago, and so the picture and the name are dedicated to her memory.  My mother, Anne Schettino D`Urso was to a kitchen what a tomato is to sauce.   Over the span of her short life, I could only guess as to the amount of sauce she made for her family and yet, I always remember that each pot was as if it were her first.  Not only with sauce, with everything, you see, in her own right she possessed the culinary splendor of those you may watch today on t.v.; a chef, baker and everything in between.  From her head she could create cakes, pies, and other Italian favorites.  When she passed we all wanted her recipes and we came to discover there were only ingredients listed, not amounts.  That was her secret, but she always shared, if you wanted to learn and learn, I did!  I kind of snicker when I read some of the recipes books written by so-called authorities who have visited Italy many times and cooked with Chef Bachagalupe.  Hell, I never had to leave my home to be in Old World Italy, and I learned to cook and bake beside the best . . . my mom!   We took those sauce recipes, that were passed down from her mother (my grandmother who also died young), and created Anna`s Simply Italian.  The name reflects the type of person she was, simple, yet elegant, fiercely proud of her heritage, tenacious and only knew one way . . . the right way!  The recipes she learned from her mother and passed down through the generations and now produced and sold to you.   And as if she is watching, we take no short cuts, no alien ingredients and we make every batch as if it were our first, adding the pride and traditions of Old World Italy.  It all natural just look at the label. What is just important is what we don`t use . . . NO added salt, sugar, water, tomato paste, corn syrup or preservatives. Do we need to say more?  Actually yes!  We can`t say ours is better than yours, but when you can`t make yours, try making it Anna`s. No added: Salt, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Water, Paste or Preservatives!

Pasta…Macaroni

What Makes the Marinara Sauce

            What is it with pasta?  Growing up in Connecticut,  I never remember anybody referring to macaroni as pasta.  Oh well,times they are a changing, so now we need to call it “pasta”; well maybe you do, but for me it’s still macaroni. Besides, does it taste any different? Or is supposed to make you more sophisticated?  You know like raising your pinky finger when drinking a cup of tea. Hmmmmm, let’s see, maybe you can put two penne macaroni in each ear, and raise your pinky as you stab the macaroni.

             I guess you could say that if a “rose by any other name is still a rose”, therefore you can say “macaroni by any other name is still macaroni!  Okay enough with the semantics.    Macaroni traditionally goes with marinara sauce, especially if you are from the southern regions of Italy. Macaroni has many shapes and sizes and each purports to hold the marinara sauce differently; okay you can figure that one out.  We should note that our Artisan Pasta selection will hold Anna's Sauce better.  However, I am from that school of not too much sauce, I add it myself, so I hardly notice any difference. When my mother was living, she would put my macaroni aside so I could add my own sauce.  Now if you are making a cream sauce, I don’t think there is much difference, it all sticks, bei t Alfredo sauce,Cream sauces and their variations.

As for the tomato sauce, they all start with essentially the same ingredients, whole peeled tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, onions, oregano and basil. I should note that in some areas, sauce is not sauce, rather it is referred to as gravy.  An odd term, having always thought of marinara sauce as just that . . . marinara sauce; gravy on the other hand comes from meats, oh well, what can I say!  One thing that is certain,marinara sauce is the traditional sauce in our household and is the cornerstone of Anna’s Simply Italian Gourmet Marinara sauce. 

            One thing is for sure sauces are not all the same. If you give the same ingredients to make a marinara sauce, invariably it will come out differently.  The variations are due to the sequence of adding ingredients, together with the time and temperature involved in the cooking process.  Regardless, marinara sauce requires those key ingredients of onions and/or garlic (depending on your upbringing), extra virgin olive oil, oregano and basil and of course imported Italian whole peeled tomatoes.  Whole peeled tomatoes are what makes it a marinara sauce, which incorporates the other ingredients into the tomato, this is called infusion and it is important to brown your garlic and/or onions, before you add other ingredients. By doing this the flavors are transposed into the oil, and transferred to the tomatoes. Oh, I almost forgot, marinara sauce always taste better with a little red wine.  I learned in latter years through an Italian chef I knew, that he used white wine, his logic was it didn’t darken the sauce; as for me I always like the full bodied flavor of a burgundy sauce in my marinara sauce.

            In making Anna’s Simply Italian Gourmet Marinara sauce, we also use the time-honored traditions of Anna Schettino D’Urso, whom I have named the company after.  She was to a kitchen what a tomato is to marinara sauce.  And her vocabulary did not include the word “short-cuts or inferior ingredients”.

            The recipe developed for you is taken from her original talents.  You might ask yourself, why give out a recipe when we are selling sauce.  Good question!  Here at Anna’s we want to enlighten our customers, therefore we know that even if they use the recipe for marinara sauce,they will want to compare to see how well they did.  How’s that for reasoning?  Besides why not share, it’s no fun if you want the sandbox and all the toys all to yourself. 

Let’s get started.  First you heat the extra virgin olive oil to a medium high temperature then you add fresh chopped garlic about one cup.  (When making the marinara sauce, you need to infuse the flavors into the olive oil which are then transferred into the whole peeled tomatoes, making the marinara sauce truly a gourmet delight).  Okay, back to the garlic.  Once the garlic starts to brown watch it closely because it goes from browning to burning very quickly and nobody likes a burnt marinara sauce.  When you see it browning cool it down by stirring in the whole peeled tomatoes  (28 ounce can, that you have given a few shorts hits in your blender or food processor just to break up the tomatoes which gives the marinara sauce it true body and flavor profile); then add about one-half cup of burgundy wine, and let it begin to simmer.  After about ten minutes add one half cup of chopped fresh basil and continue to simmer for about twenty more minutes.  A misconception about making marinara sauce is that you let it simmer for hours.  Not so, exposing the marinara sauce to prolonged heat will change the chemical composition of the tomato, in other words it becomes bitter and like burnt marinara sauce, bitter marinara sauce is not pleasing to the palate as well.   It is the same principal that applies to letting coffee stay on a burner for more than twenty-minutes; it doesn’t retain the fresh quality flavor.  So there you have it, making marinara sauce is not that hard, but remember . . .  when you can’t make it yours, make it Anna’s Simply Italian Gourmet Marinara sauce. And of course with your favorite macaroni!

Recipe:  Gourmet Marinara Sauce

1-28 Ounce can whole peeled imported Italian tomatoes.

6 ounces Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 cup whole peeled garlic, chopped coarsely

½ cup fresh basil, chopped coarsely

½ cup burgundy wine

There you have your own gourmet marinara recipe compliments of Anna’s Simply Italian.