Low-Sodium Seasonings
After Ryan Alarie donated a life-saving kidney to his cousin six years ago, he quickly realized that he’d have to clean up his eating habits. Looking for healthier alternatives, Alarie experimented with different combinations of low-sodium, low-sugar seasonings. At the urging of family and friends, he set up shop at a local farmers market and nearly sold out the first day. Recently, Alarie rolled out three new blends: Greek, Coconut Curry and S.T.E.A.K. ($9.99 each online or buy 2 get 1 free at farmers markets), all low-sodium, non-GMO, gluten-free and vegan. “We use whole raw ingredients. It’s just a natural product of herbs and spices without any of the other junk like silicon oxide and maltodextrin,” he says. Alarie’s full-flavored blends, including the popular zesty garlic and cilantro-lime-jalapeño, will energize any dish. Each fragrant bottle comes with a suggested recipe, with more on the RA Seasonings website.
RA Signature Seasonings
raseasonings.com
All-Natural Flavored Pasta
Greg Giunta grew up making pasta in his Sicilian grandmother’s kitchen, fueling a lifelong love of “macaroni,” a term East Coast Italian-Americans colloquially use to describe the full spectrum of pasta styles, Giunta says. Today, Giunta produces dried pasta in about a dozen shapes and 10 flavors. “There are no preservatives, no fillers and we don’t use eggs,” he says. Popular varieties ($8) include lemon-pepper fusilli and whole wheat bucatini, both fashioned simply from semolina (coarse flour). All told, Giunta makes about 700 pounds of pasta a week and supplies restaurants and shops across the Valley. Whichever pasta you choose, Giunta advises against over-boiling. “You’ve got to become Italian for 6 or 8 minutes. Sit there with a glass of wine, stir it and use a big fork so that it all spreads apart.” Many pasta makers use smooth Teflon dies to extrude their pasta, but Giunta uses traditional bronze dies, rendering the pasta shapes a little on the rough side. “That’s why my pasta absorbs and holds the sauce,” he says. “We do it the old-fashioned way.”
PastaPasta
azpastapasta.com
Sweet and Savory Pie
In 2010, Eric and Christina Amadio launched a small-scale family farm in Laveen to teach their children about farming. Before long, they were selling their bounty at farmers markets around the Valley. To supplement their offerings, Christina baked pies to sell, making them one at a time ($13, half; $23, whole). Today, she rolls out about 40 pie crusts a day and uses recipes handed down from her mom and grandmother. “We still mix and put the pies together by hand with traditional, simple ingredients,” Christina says. Peach and caramel apple have proven to be the most popular of the more than 40 kinds of pie she makes. Others include strawberry-rhubarb, banana cream, chocolate silk, pumpkin, pecan and key lime, along with chicken pot and shepherd’s pies. They don’t stock all 40 varieties weekly, but customers can request a pie for pickup at a designated farmers market. Christina can also make most pies gluten-free, vegan or sugar-free. “We don’t cut corners and we use really good quality fruit, spices, sugar and love,” Eric says. “That’s what sets us apart.”
Amadio Ranch
amadioranch.com
