Frank Sinatra Sold His Mom's Famous Marinara In The '80s: Jars Are Still Available On eBay

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Frank Sinatra liked to say his favorite cook was his mother, Natalina "Dolly" Garaventa Sinatra, and it was her pasta sauce that he had a particular fondness for. His mom's marinara was one of Sinatra's favorite foods, along with a long list of other classic Italian dishes. The crooner and actor publicly shared her recipe, which included canned tomatoes, over the years including on an episode of "The Dinah Shore Show" and in the 1980 celebrity cookbook "Harmony in the Kitchen."

In the late '80s, he joined forces with a San Francisco food company, Armanino Foods of Distinction Inc., to market the pasta sauce. And while he gave his mother credit, when he launched the line, he was claiming the sauce his own. By then, Sinatra, who was 74 at the time, had been publicly sharing and cooking the recipe for decades. Sinatra's brand was sold under the name Artanis (Sinatra backwards) and included a variety of four different pasta sauces. At the time, he joined a long list of celebrity Italian-American food products that included Paul Newman, Al Lewis, the actor who portrayed "Grampa" on TV's "The Munsters"  and (strangely) even Chrysler's chairman Lee Iacocca.

On a November night in 1989 at the Circle Star Center in San Carlos, California, Frank Sinatra launched his new line of pasta sauce during a 75-minute concert in which he showcased his new product. During the concert his tomato basil pasta sauce was served over scallops at the attached restaurant. By the spring of 1990, his line of sauces was in grocery stores selling for $2.59. Initially, Sinatra's products were only available in California before being sold in several regions of the U.S.

Unlike Paul Newman's brand — Newman's Own, which is still going strong and still making one of the best jarred salsas around – Sinatra's Artanis brand failed pretty spectacularly. By the spring of 1992, its parent company shelved the sauce due to poor sales. Perhaps Sinatra should have stuck to singing and left the cooking to his favorite Italian spot, Patsy's Restaurant in Manhattan (that still sells his favorite dishes on his birthday). But fear not, you can actually buy Sinatra's sauce on eBay where it sells for as much as $69, although considering the jars are decades old, tasting it could be a chancy endeavor.