ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) – A Rockford family whose name has been synonymous with authentic Italian food for decades is branching out.
Calvanese Foods now has its famous pasta sauce—or sugo—in supermarkets in two states with more on the way.
“It’s my mother’s recipe,” said Frank Calvanese, who was just a teen in the late 1970s when he opened his first restaurant. At the foundation of each of his Italian eateries, including the old Little Italy in downtown Rockford and Deli Italia on the city’s northwest side, has been his mother’s sauce.
“My mom used to work with us, and we came up with the sugo with her recipe, from years and years ago,” Calvanese said.
Calvanese’s Sugo has been so popular, he decided in 2017 to start selling it at Deli Italia. Today, it’s also in two dozen grocery stores.
“We have it in the stores around Rockford,” he said. “And, actually, we’re in Wisconsin now, too.”
The Calvanese family is not stopping with the Midwest. Plans are currently in the works to get their sugo in stores in the southern states and the West Coast.