Penne pinching at Rao’s

CEO hijacks firm: suit

His restaurant has long been the toughest reservation to snag in the country, and now Rao’s proprietor, Frank Pellegrino Sr., has been refused a seat himself — on his own company’s board.

So he’s suing Sharon Straci, CEO of Rao’s Specialty Foods, which sells the East Harlem institution’s sauces, pasta and olive oil.

Pellegrino (inset), who created the recipes with his late aunt Ann Rao, says in his Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that Straci has been running the business as her own “personal fiefdom.”

Straci’s husband, Ronald, co-owns Rao’s and is related to the restaurant’s founders, he told The Post.

Sharon Straci (also inset) pays herself $1.7 million a year and refuses to hold shareholder meetings or elections even though Pellegrino owns 37.5 percent of the company’s stock, the suit alleges.

“Straci has made major corporate decisions without informing the board or the majority shareholders,” the suit says.

And Straci allegedly turned down an acquisition offer by a major corporation because it would mean her ouster, according to court papers.

Worse, the suit says, she threatened last year to “start a private label company to compete with Rao’s Speciality Foods.”

“Other than Frank Pellegrino’s original tomato sauce recipe, she intends to download all the other recipes and formulas from the company, and then delete the company’s files, effectively taking RSF’s most valuable assets and trade secrets,” court papers say.

The Stracis denied the claims and told The Post that they are working on settling the dispute.

“Sadly, I think it’s cruel behavior to someone who’s given their life to the company,” Sharon Straci said of the suit.

“I never take recognition for anything. That’s why they call me ‘the woman behind the sauce.’ ”

The 11-table eatery at East 114th Street is a favorite haunt of power brokers and celebrities alike.

“Every table has been booked every night for the past 38 years,” Pellegrino said in a 2015 interview with Town & Country magazine.