Try an Italian Flavor in this recipe contest

If you like cooking with olive oil, red vinegar, and spaghetti sauce, you probably have a special recipe that might win you a two- week, all-expense-paid dinner tour of Italy for two.

This is the grand prize in the Bertolli Italian Recipe Contest for winning recipes using one or more Bertolli brand products in their preparation.

Prospective contestants are being urged to "indulge the Italiano in Your Soul" with new recipes of their own creation. All recipes must use standard measurements and readily available ingredients, and no recipe may have been published before or won any prior prize or award.

Recipes will be judged on the basis of originality, ease of preparation, taste, clarity and completeness of instructions, and good use of Bertolli products.

Runner-up to the grand-prize winner will receive a one-week Italian dinner tour of the United States for two. Each of 10 second-prize winners will spend an evening at a favorite local Italian restaurant and receive a $250 shopping spree A $150 spree plus a full course of cooking school instruction will go to 10 winners of third prizes.

And then there are 3,000 additional awards of recipe binders and designer cooking aprons.

Entries will be screened by Responsive Marketing Communications, Inc., an independent judging organization. The top 22 recipes will then be kitchen-tested by an independent panel of judges under RMC supervision.

Recipes must be typed or clearly printed and submitted, with a Bertolli proof of purchase, to Bertolli Recipe Contest, PO Box 94762, Schaumberg, Illinois 60194. All entries must be postmarked by Jan. 4, 1980, and received no later than Jan. 12. Judging will be completed, winners notified by mail, and all prizes awarded by Feb. 31.