The ingredient of successful food preparation that's never mentioned in a recipe is experience.
Sixty-five years of experience, spanning three generations, is behind Ricci Sausage Co., which won the 2010 Jeffrey Butland Family Owned Business of the Year Award for Western Pennsylvania from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Ernest Ricci III is president of the company. He began learning how to make Italian sausage at his grandmother's side.
Now located in Robinson, Ricci Sausage makes 5,000 pounds of roped Calabria-style hot sausage and Abruzzo-style sweet sausage every week. It's not sold through grocery stores or supermarkets — only on-site in Ricci's Cafe or by placing orders online and by telephone. Those orders are sold in 5-pound increments and sent via FedEx.
Ricci calls the product "boutique sausage."
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