For the 86-year-old grandmother, it's a chance to go big with a family recipe.
Marie Ventura started making strombolis — a baked Italian pizza-dough stuffed with meats and cheeses — during her youth in Pennsylvania. She served them with the marinara tomato sauce handed down from ancestors in Abruzzi in eastern Italy. The family sold the hand-rolled specialties in their restaurants up north before moving to South Florida.
Four years ago, her son Kenny Ventura opened a small stromboli shop at 4420 NE 20th Ave. in Fort Lauderdale — with an eye to go wholesale one day.
The business offered the treats several times on shopping network QVC. It sold as many as 12,000 in eight minutes in one TV appearance, earning national exposure for Nana's Original Stromboli and its catchy tag line: "No One Rolls One Better."
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