Donne Di Domani at the Nutcracker Market

The Nutcracker Market is the Houston Ballet's annual fete a fundraiser.  Four days, 700 volunteers, 300+vendors, and 85,000 104,000 motivated shoppers.  It raises $2.5 million each year for the ballet and $13 $17.7+ mil for those hyper-busy vendors.  It's been a Houston tradition since 1980.

The star of the market is undeniably the Donne di Domani marinara.  How many bottled spaghetti sauces are dubbed a wildly frisky gem by a well-known food critic?  This is near-mystical spaghetti sauce, folks.  Mystical and a mystery--at least to me, that is.  The sauce sells out pronto!  Ladies RUN to the booth as soon as the doors open, and a long line forms quickly.  It sells out on the first day, sometimes by noon.  In fourteen years, I've never once even seen the sauce.  That is, until today.  

Legend, yes, but mystery no more:

My very own, gold-topped bottle.  Do I hoard it?  Nottachance I waste this on my finicky offspring.  Do I plan a spaghetti supper for a chosen few? Like Elaine Benes, I ponder just who might be S-worthy.  That's sauce-worthy.  Hmmmmmmmm. . .

The top-secret recipe is cooked for and sold exclusively at the Nutcracker Market by forty-four of Houston's Italian-American women.  Three varieties:  Spicy, Original, and Mild.  The Donne sell each jar for $10 and give 100% of the proceeds to local charities and scholarships.  Having donated over two million dollars, that's a lot of cooking with heart.  Seriously.  That's a lot of jars, time, and attention.  Grazie mille, Donne!  In fact, grazie due milione.