Spatini!

One of the things that my husband and I had in common growing up, was how both of our families made their spaghetti sauce. Both of our Moms made spaghetti sauce by mixing tomato sauce or paste (along with any meat or onions or tomatoes, etc.) with a spice mix called Spatini.

Spatini is a dry packet of herbs and spices. I'm not really sure what is in it. The ingredients are kind of vague. They mention a few items specifically (carrot powder and beet powder being two of the more unusual ones listed), but they also list "spices" and "natural flavor". In my mind, it sort of tastes like onion powder, garlic powder with just a dash of sugar and maybe some celery salt among other things. In any case, we used it in sauces. We sprinkled it on pizza. We added it to sauce from a jar. It just simply made everything better.

When I moved to Tennessee for the first time in 1996, we discovered that it was something we couldn't get at any of the grocery stores. I used to have my parents ship it to me and/or we would bring it home with us whenever we would go back to visit PA.

On our last visit home over Labor Day, we discovered we couldn't find it in any stores. It struck immediate fear in my heart.

Sure enough, upon an internet search, I discovered that the parent company (Lawry's) no longer made it. It was discontinued in stores at the beginning of 2007. However, due to our stash, we didn't discover it until it was too late. I began to wonder exactly how I was going to ration our final packet in our cupboard. How would I ever be able to enjoy homemade sauce in the same way again?! It was a sad discovery. I think my husband's reaction when he heard the news about the discontinuation of Spatini was something like..."What?!?!?!"

I emailed my family in Pennsylvania to sweep the stores looking for it one more time. People were selling packets on Ebay ($130.00 for a case). I discovered an online petition to bring it back (and signed it). I contemplated purchasing a recipe online that claimed it was a copycat recipe. I searched Big Lots and every other store in town. No luck.

I complained to one of my friends at work about my dilemma. (He is Italian, originally from the Northeast and he loves food, so I knew he would have sympathy for my situation.) He nodded and listened to my heartfelt venting about discontinued seasoning although I am sure that even he thought I was a little emotionally attached to this packet of spices.

About a month passed.

Today, I went to get my nails done over my lunch hour and my work friend called my cell phone. He was at a bulk-type food store in Nashville that he had run to over lunch. He thought he saw "some of this Spatini that I spoke so highly of". He described it. He spelled it. Eureka! They had five packets left at just under $5.00 each. "BUY THEM ALL!", I exclaimed while nice Vietnamese woman who was doing my nails looked at me strangely. I can't imagine what she thought I was buying.

He brought the beautiful red and green packets back to work with him. They were bigger than the ones I used to buy at the grocery store. In fact, they were much bigger. 15 ounces each to be exact. I had 75 ounces of Spatini. Each of these packets contained enough Spatini to make 70 servings of sauce. I have 5 packets. Do you realize what this means?

I HAVE ENOUGH SPATINI IN MY POSSESSION TO MAKE 350 SERVINGS OF SAUCE.

Today is one of the best days ever.