Franklin Bondonno decided in the 1970s that his clients deserved something from him once a year aside from a bill.  He started making home-made pasta sauce which was meant to be a dinner in a bag during the hectic Christmas season.  Initially, because of the strong smell of garlic, he did the cooking outside.

            As his spaghetti sauce drew more adherence, he needed to scale up the operation.  He ultimately developed a recipe which is based on a French canning method.  The pasta sauce is heated on the stove, transferred to glass canning jars, and then heated in the oven to 350 degrees.  This creates a very tight seal.

            Each jar is checked for seal before being washed and stored for distribution.

            Franklin now takes a week off work to make Pasta Bondonno.  He looks forward to having friends come up and join in the process.  There is always a little bit of doubt as to how much wine goes into the pasta vat and how much wine is consumed by the sauce makers.

            The recipe for Pasta Bondonno (it makes 7-1/2 gallons, or 50+ jars)

 is as follows:

2 lbs. chopped garlic

                                                   1 1/2 cups sugar

3 lbs. white onions (chopped)                                     1/4 cup salt

4 large purple onions (chopped)                                 2 cups Italian seasoning

2 gallons crushed tomatoes                                         1/2 cup oregano

1 gallon tomato puree                                                 1/2 cup basil

1/2 gallon tomato paste                                              1/2 liter olive oil

1 gallon tomato sauce                                                 5 lbs. mushrooms

1 bottle Romanian Vampire brand red wine               A few bay leaves