For the longest time there was one pasta sauce that reigned supreme in New Yorkers’ imaginations: Rao’s. It had the air of being restaurant-quality: Indeed, it’s literally from a restaurant. The fact that most of us would never get to eat at this restaurant only added to the sauce’s allure. (I’ll note that like the restaurant, Rao’s sauce also doesn’t feel entirely accessible — at $9 it’s nearly twice the price of other grocery store brands.) And now, as Bettina Makalintal reports, other red-sauce restaurants are following the Rao’s formula, jarring their tomato sauces and selling them nationwide. It’s a veritable trend.
Carbone, the Major Food Group restaurant that’s also a difficult reservation, launched its line of sauces in March, and Rubirosa, a popular Little Italy-adjacent spot in NYC, will sell sauces in an online shop and at the restaurant starting October 12 (you can find Carbone’s sauces in grocery stores and on Amazon, as well as on the restaurant website). Time will tell which hip NYC Italian restaurant is next – and if any of them can unseat Rao’s in the home pasta sauce category.
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Photo-illustration by Eater |
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Loretta Lynn, who died this week at age 90, was an indisputable legend of country music, and, Amy McCarthy would like to remind us, a dedicated home cook who wrote a cookbook filled with Southern comfort cooking. You’re Cookin’ It Country is out of print, and the going rate for resale on Amazon and eBay is steep but potentially worth it for the devoted Lynn fan.
I just got back from Oaxaca where I had my fill of masa-based foods. And while I can’t imagine ever achieving quite the level of deliciousness I experienced there, this masa and masa cookbook bundle from Masienda would be a nice way to start a tortilla- and tamale-making habit.
Fly By Jing’s newest candidate for pantry hero is its Chili Crisp Vinaigrette. They say it’s equally good on salads and dumplings.
Martha Stewart was in food news this week after New York Times critic Pete Wells reviewed her Las Vegas restaurant. Spoiler: He did not like it, noting that it does not live up to the sense of taste on which much of her brand has been built. Something tells me he might also not be a fan of Martha’s latest business venture: a collaboration with Liquid Death, now valued at $700 million. It’s a Halloween candle they’re calling “Dismembered Moments.” Why the canned water company would set its sights on the home decor space is a question I cannot answer, but I suppose if they were to go into it with anyone, Martha is the clear choice.
Transcendence Coffee is a new line of coffee and flavored syrups that takes inspiration from India and Algeria for syrup flavors like gulab jamun and baklava.
Just a good soup shirt, now that it is soup season. Also just in time for chillier weather, Eater is having a sweatshirt sale. Eater sweatshirts are now 25 percent off at the link.
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