The Scalise Family Specialties—raviolis, sausages and the sauces to go with them—are offered at the Saratoga and Los Gatos farmers markets every weekend. Maria Scalise is a fixture in the booth, where she serves raviolis made from recipes handed down from her parents, who came from the small village of Castel Silano in the Calabria region of Italy.

"My grandparents' families knew each other in the village," says Maria's daughter, Los Gatan Juliana Scalise. She says her two sets of grandparents naturally gravitated to one another when the families immigrated in the early 1900s to the towns of Weed and Edgewood near Mt. Shasta. Her grandfather became a rancher, and her father, Ottavio, one of 14 siblings born in the area, became a butcher.

"Everybody worked in food," she says. They were butchers, chefs and ranchers. They owned restaurants, groceries and delis. Without question, the Italian specialties they savored were their own. "My older brother and sister brought Italian food to school in their lunch boxes," Juliana relates. "They were made fun of by the other kids who only understood peanut butter."

Going out to eat was difficult. "The family complained they couldn't find a good ravioli to serve or to eat," she says. So filling the gap became a calling. "Mom started to supply Massimo's Restaurant in Fremont, where we lived at the time, with raviolis in 1982. Dad had started long before that with Mom's family making sausages for our family delis using her parents' recipes," she recalls.

The lean links with no nitrates (preservatives) were a hit. Friends at family gatherings raved. "It had an organic growth," marvels Juliana, "so I thought, why not try selling them at markets." It also gave her nephew, Nick, 25, and a graduate of San Francisco's California Culinary Academy, a business opportunity.

"Mom and Dad are in their 70s, and food preparation is very demanding physical work," Nick says. "We wanted someone else to know the recipes and carry on the family tradition." And so it is. Nick makes the sausages and raviolis in a Sunnyvale kitchen while Maria and Ottavio closely supervise.

The raviolis come fresh or frozen, stuffed with cheese, veal and pork, chicken and ricotta with spinach. All sell for $6.50 a box. Sauces to go with them are marinara ($3.25), meat ($3.75) and pesto ($5).

Sausages are made weekly: mild or hot Italian, garlic basil, mild or hot chicken Italian and chicken apple ($4.50-$5.75). They have been made with pride by a man who hunts his own mushrooms, picks his own olives and makes his own prosciutto (ham). Ottavio Scalise treasures the old ways of a robust table heaped with colorful dishes that are brought out the moment a friend walks through the door. "It drives him crazy to see little, expensive servings that come from a northern (Italy) influence," Juliana smiles. She tells the story of a shower held at their Los Gatos home for her and her husband, Brian Royston, prior to the birth four months ago of their daughter, Isabella.

"The neighbors called it our Big, Fat Italian Baby Shower," she laughs. "There was an explosion of people and activity, animated and lively conversation, tons of appetizers and everyone was stuffed before the entrée was served. During dessert, Dad was already talking about what to serve for breakfast."

It's a style worth preserving.

Scalise Family Specialties are available at the Saratoga Farmers Market, Saratoga High School, Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Los Gatos Farmers Market, Town Plaza, Sundays 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. To place an order, call 408.395.2602.