By Jessica Easthope
The burner ignites and suddenly heaven’s not too far from Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
“Hearing all about Michael’s sauce and Rao’s sauce, Lidia’s sauce, I said, you know, maybe someday I’ll come out with my own sauce,” said Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello while at the stove in the rectory of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church.
The first shipment of Monsignor Jamie’s tomato sauce has just arrived and with one of the very first jars popped, pasta has found a perfect match.
The sauce Monsignor Jamie calls “a taste of heaven from Brooklyn” has been months in the making. He sourced a facility to jar it, and worked on getting the recipe he says he’s been making for decades just right and ready to be consumed by the masses.
With less than 10 fresh ingredients, it’s a blessed blend of delicious and nutritious.
“I grew up with this sauce. My mother made a simple sauce, a little garlic, some onion, some fresh tomatoes, some basil, a little oregano, a little salt and pepper and then you have your sauce and you simmer it. And the whole thing is to use fresh ingredients, these tomatoes are imported from Italy and that’s the key,” he said.
It sells for 10 dollars a jar, the cost goes to making more of it and marketing the sauce, one hundred percent of the profits go to causes close to Monsignor Jamie’s heart.
“Futures in Education is dear to my heart, I worked with it for 15 years, so part of it will go to Futures in Education, and another part of it will go to the Fratelli Tutti Foundation, which is one of the Holy Father’s new foundations that helps and alleviate poverty, famine, human trafficking throughout the world,” said Monsignor Jamie.
Monsignor Jamie’s sauce can be found in grocery stores around the Diocese of Brooklyn and will be sold at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel feast which goes from until July 21.