Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011

Passion for Italy inspires sauce maker

Neal McTighe, 33, doesn’t look Italian. He’s skinny, blond, fair-skinned and speaks with the cadence of an academic.

But don’t let appearances deceive you. There’s Italian in that blood, and it’s invoked in McTighe an obsession for Italy and a passion for tomato sauce. So much so that he’s now producing his own: “Nello’s Sauce.” “Nello” is “Neal” in Italian.

McTighe came to his love for Italy by an indirect route. His great-grandmother Angelina Freda was from the mother country but came to the United States in 1919. McTighe knew her until her death when he was still a boy. One of the things he remembers best is her tomato sauce.

Italian wasn’t passed down in his family, so other than his memories, McTighe was relatively unconnected to his roots. That changed in college when he decided to take Italian in his sophomore year. He was a terrible student. But that didn’t stop him from studying abroad in Bologna, Italy.

“You really had to speak Italian there,” he said. “It wasn’t like there was a tourist stand. It was very much an Italian city.”

He quickly fell in love with the culture, language and his heritage, and after college, he went on to get a master’s and doctorate in Italian.

He taught the language for a number of years, but ultimately ended up working as a book editor at Duke University Press during the recession. After a few years working at the press, McTighe knew something needed to change.

“I had one of those moments where I realized I need to start writing about Italy, I need to start sharing about Italy, and maybe down the road, I’ll start a business,” he said.

So that’s what he did. On his website, www.nellositaly.com, he began writing about Italy as he began developing his own recipe for a delicious tomato-based pizza/pasta/dipping sauce.

McTighe has worked at Duke University Press for about four years now, but he’s ready to go. He’s put in his notice. It’s time to become a professional tomato sauce maker.

Cavatelli in Carife

It may seem quite a jump to go from a young man relatively ignorant of his heritage to a tomato sauce entrepreneur, but there’s a story that will clarify for you McTighe’s journey.

He had gone to visit his great-grandmother’s hometown of Carife in Italy back in 2006. It was a small place, he was starving, and he couldn’t find a restaurant anywhere. He went to the local municipal building to look up information on his grandmother and found quite a bit. When he had satiated his curiosity, he began to wander around looking to satisfy his appetite.

He ended up running into the mayor, who excitedly directed him to an empty local restaurant where one man who worked there sat quietly eating peanuts. McTighe told the man he was hungry. And then everything changed. The man made a type of pasta called “cavatelli,” and covered it in tomato sauce.

“I put it in my mouth and I felt like I was having my great-grandmother’s dish,” McTighe said. “I closed my eyes and it was like I was back in her kitchen as a boy.”

At that moment, McTighe knew he was going to make tomato sauce.

Building a business

It took a while for that seed of an idea to germinate. McTighe, admittedly not much of a cook, honed his sauce-making skills while creating homemade pizza, the one dish he considers himself competent to construct.

Gradually, he began to settle in on the ingredients for the sauce he wanted to make. It’s inspired by his love for his great-grandmother’s sauce, but it’s not based on it. “Nello’s Sauce” is Neal’s own creation. In January 2011, he started to officially sell it.

In addition to his website, you can buy McTighe’s sauce at a variety of local places, including Whole Foods stores in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, Weaver Street markets in Carrboro, Southern Village and Hillsborough, and starting this month, it will be available at The Meat House in Chapel Hill, Cary and Raleigh. For a complete list, check out his website.

After he leaves Duke University Press, McTighe will be teaching two Italian classes at Meredith College and giving his tomato-sauce business a real go. He’s going to miss the press, but he wasn’t destined to stay there.

“It’s been great, but it’s certainly not where my passion is,” he said. “My passion is really Italy.”

I took a complimentary bottle of “Nello’s Sauce” home with me after my interview with McTighe. I toasted some bagels and used McTighe’s creation for dipping. If you want to find out how deep McTighe’s passion for Italy goes, I recommend you do the same.