Buffalo Rising Online

You wouldn’t know it by my last name, but I am mostly Italian. I grew up on Italian food--pasta and meatballs every Sunday. So I take my Italian food very seriously. Over the years I’ve driven by Santasiero’s countless times. But it was only a few weeks ago that I tried Santasiero’s for the first time.

I went for takeout and ordered eggplant parmigiana, one of my favorite Italian dishes. I also wanted to try their meatballs and sausage, so I asked for two of each in a container of sauce--a request that a friendly employee was happy to accommodate. The eggplant parmigiana was tasty. The sausage was the best I had eaten in a long time, and contained just the right amount of kick. The meatballs, dare I say, were just like grandma used to make. As for the sauce, I would rate it as being very good.

In order to try a few more dishes, my wife and I dropped in on a Saturday evening. I tried the Pasta Santanesca, a heaping dish of penne, tomatoes, black olives, onions, and ga…