Their Grandmother, Nonna Maria, taught them how to make celebrated Italian food using authentic Carfagna Family Recipes from the Abruzzo-Molise Region of Italy: “Use only the very best and finest ingredients and never, never rush.”
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Saturnino Carfagna immigrated to the United States in 1919 where Ellis Island officials gave him the name “Sam.” After working many years, Sam made enough money to allow his wife, Nonna Maria, his three children, and his mother-in-law to move the United States. In 1925, the whole family settled on a farm in New Albany, Ohio.
In 1937, Sam Carfagna started his own store on Cleveland Avenue in Columbus, OH. Sam lived by the mantra, “Give our customers what they want, not what we want.” Today, Carfagna’s is going strong, the tradition carried on by grandsons Dino and Sam. Green BEAN Delivery is proud to carry the full line of Carfagna’s pasta sauces, based on Carfagna Family Recipes from the Abruzzo-Molise region of Italy, taught to Dino and Sam by Nonna Maria herself!
“People always ask us, ‘Why do you make it like this, or add this and not that?’ Our answer is always the same, ‘Because we always have.’ Some things are always evolving and changing. But, when it comes to food, and in particular our sauce, if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.
When I went back to our hometown in Italy a few years ago to visit the Carfagna’s that still live there, I was given a bowl of pasta with red sauce for lunch. I took one bite, looked at my father and said, ‘Dad, this taste like our sauce.’
He said, ‘That’s because it is our sauce. It’s the same recipe!’
That’s a testament to our claims. True Italian family traditions, like recipes, get passed on from generation to generation. We just felt it was necessary to pass it along to everyone else too.”
-Carmen Carfagna