We Uncovered This Legendary Point Pleasant, NJ Italian Restaurant’s Secret Recipe

It seems that every day this family-owned restaurant is packed with happy customers. It has made it through a pandemic. As a matter of fact, this place has made it through anything that was thrown at since 1966, the year it opened.

It also happens to be my favorite Italian restaurant on the planet. And based on how popular this place is all year long, I'm not alone. If you live, work or play, or have lived, worked, or played in Point Pleasant Boro, Graziano's is no stranger to you.

There is something amazing about all the food there. I, of course, think it's the sauce. And by the way, if you call it gravy, I still love you, but that discussion is for another day.

When I eat any pasta from Graziano's, I just feel like I'm home, or at least in someone's home. It's consistent, delicious and there is no doubt there must be some kind of trick or secret ingredient we can uncover so we could replicate that taste at home.

So we reached out to Marcello, the man in the kitchen, and the man behind the macaroni magic, to ask him if we could pull the curtain back and learn the highly guarded secrets of the amazing pasta sauce recipe.

I tried to tell him that Kentucky Fried Chicken is just a stone's throw down Route 88 from Graziano's and they're already keeping enough secrets for all of us, that now might be the time to share his secret with the world.

And here's what he had to say...

We all know it's about that tomato sauce, and Marcello said that amazing recipe belongs to his Mom and Pop, and, yes, there is in fact a secret, and, yes, he did share it with us. Pay attention. This is Italian food gold.

He says the trick to the family recipe is to chop up a bunch of onions and saute them for hours. Let them beautifully caramelize and they will add that amazing sweetness to the tomato sauce that really makes the difference. And if you've ever eaten at Graziano's, you know it makes a huge difference!

Thank you, Marcello, for sharing your secret, and keep up the great work!