L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 24 L'Italo-Americano a r t i c l e p r o p o s e s i n s t e a d fusilli al ferretto, which are m a d e b y r o l l i n g d o u g h around a thin iron rod. In o t h e r w o r d s , w h a t p a s t a shape you should use with this sauce is still an open debate. Sinisgalli also set out to bring Don Mario beyond his restaurant; in April 2021, he presented the project at Mat- e r a ' s C a m p a g n a A m i c a farmers' market, working with food-sector manager Maria Rosito and La Nuova Aurora, a cooperative linked to Coldiretti Basilicata. The family kit was designed to serve five, with a ready-made sauce, ingredients sourced from local producers and p a c k a g i n g d e s c r i b e d b y Coldiretti as "plastic-free." There were plans to supply i s a f a m i l y m a t t e r , a s i t belongs to Niko's father. In 2017, Niko said Don Mario was a tribute to his dad, with the don originating from the traditional southern Italian habit of placing it before a man's first name as a mark of respect. The recipe is all about grandma; the name, on the other hand, honors papà. When it comes to the best pasta to use with a good Don Mario, nobody seems to have settled on one: a 2016 review of Tazio talks about spaghetti Don Mario, but in 2017 and 2019 it was strasci- nati, a fresh pasta of Basili- c a t a , s e m o l i n a a n d w a t e r pressed and dragged across a wooden board with the fin- gers until each piece curls into a small shell; a later restaurants abroad, too. By September 2022, publicity for an event at Palazzo Naia- di was announcing the start of sales, although how wide- ly the kit was distributed is less clear; what's sure is that S o p h i a L o r e n f e a t u r e d among the dish's celebrated admirers, alongside Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama. Sinisgalli's ties to Basilica- t a ' s p r o d u c e r s c o n t i n u e d through the years and, in 2025, he created a dessert featuring local Candonga strawberries for Tenute Zuc- carella at Fragola Expo in Scanzano Jonico, the town where he grew up. B a c k i n R o m e , P a l a z z o Naiadi's dining scene has, however, long changed. The h o t e l , a l r e a d y o p e r a t i n g under the Anantara name when the kit was announced, now has Heros De Agostinis as executive chef, and its f i n e - d i n i n g r e s t a u r a n t , INEO, holds a Michelin star i n t h e 2 0 2 6 g u i d e . T h e accounts of Loren enjoying S i n i s g a l l i ' s D o n M a r i o belong to an earlier chapter of its history; they are no guarantee of finding the dish there today. His published recipe, though, gives home cooks a way to try it them- selves. This method is adapted from the recipe published alongside Sinisgalli's 2021 interview with La Cucina Italiana. Blanch 14 ounces of cher- ry tomatoes in salted boiling water, transfer them to iced water, then peel and halve or q u a r t e r t h e m . C o o k t w o unpeeled cloves of red garlic in a scant half cup of extra- virgin olive oil with a splash of water for five minutes. A d d t h e t o m a t o e s , s o m e basil stalks and coarse salt, and cook over a lively heat for about fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, cook your fresh pasta, then drain and add it to the sauce. Off the heat, finish with about 2.8 ounces o f g r a t e d p e c o r i n o d i Moliterno, roughly twenty large basil leaves, chili paste to taste and a little extra-vir- gin olive oil. Serve immedi- ately, with an extra helping of sauce if you want to follow Sophia's example. that even a meal made with plain ingredients came to the table with some sort of o o m p h . O n e w o r d h e remembered her using when describing the Don Mario sauce was San Giuvanniéll, her dialect name for cherry t o m a t o e s . C u r i o u s l y , h e mentioned this in a 2021 interview but, by the time a recipe website retold the story this summer, the same word had been attributed to Sophia Loren. Yet, because variety is key in this recipe, a s w e s a i d , d o n ' t b e s u r - prised if, in some Don Mario versions, you also find leek, o r e g a n o a n d s u n - d r i e d tomatoes among the ingredi- ents. Y o u m a y n o w w o n d e r where the name Don Mario comes from… Well, that, too, O n the top floor of the Palazzo N a i a d i , t h e h o t e l w h o s e curved colon- nades close off Piazza della Repubblica in Rome, there u s e d t o b e a r e s t a u r a n t called Tazio; here, accord- ing to La Cucina Italiana, w h i c h t o l d t h e s t o r y i n N o v e m b e r 2 0 2 1 , S o p h i a Loren would sit down there and order the strascinati Don Mario with a helping of sauce that went well past g e n e r o u s . T h e m a g a z i n e called it her favorite sauce in the headline – which is, of course, the magazine's word rather than hers – and the internet has been repeating the headline ever since, most recently this August. What gets lost along the way is that the dish had a history before our iconic Sophia ever o r d e r e d i t , a n d a p r e t t y interesting one, too. No point in pretending: the sauce itself is a tomato sauce, which can vary here and there, depending on who makes it. For instance, the v e r s i o n p r o p o s e d b y L a Cucina Italiana starts from P a c h i n o c h e r r y t o m a - toes, the small, sweet, thin- skinned ones grown around the southeastern tip of Sicily, which are scalded and peeled and then simmered for no more than a quarter of an hour in olive oil with red gar- lic and the stalks of the basil. Good choice, if you ask me, but the truth is you could really make your salsa as you like it best, because what makes it a true Don Mario sauce happens off the heat: the pasta goes into the pan, a n d t h e n c o m e g r a t e d pecorino from Moliter- no, whole basil leaves, a little chili cream and a last thread of raw oil. Think c h e e s e m e l t i n g i n t o t h e sauce and chili cream adding the right punch of warmth without being overwhelm- ing. The chef behind the dish i s N i k o S i n i s g a l l i , w h o comes from Scanzano Joni- co, on Basilicata's Ionian coast, a farming town that became a municipality in its own right only in 1974. Sin- isgalli grew up in the family restaurant, Due Palme, and l e a r n e d t o c o o k f r o m h i s g r a n d m o t h e r , w h o , h e recalled, liked to give every dish a name and a story, so "Don Mario": A grandmother's sauce, Sophia Loren's favorite CHIARA D'ALESSIO Pachino cherry tomatoes, basil, pecorino and pasta come together in the simple sauce associated with Niko Sinisgalli's "Don Mario," the dish Sophia Loren was said to favor at Rome's Palazzo Naiadi (Original image created for L'Italo- Americano with the assistance of AI) LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES

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