Extra Virgin (3 page)

VINEGARS:
We primarily use vinegar in salads. Italians grow up knowing the pungency of
red wine
vinegar
, but through Deborah and her love of leafy entrees we’ve come to appreciate the softer, more delicate, citrus-friendly sensibilities of
white wine
and
champagne
vinegars
, and the dark, rich, sweet taste of
balsamic
. An older, especially viscous balsamic is also a great smear on a piece of aged pecorino.

WHOLE PEELED PLUM TOMATOES (PELATI):
These are the basis for many of our sauces: sun-ripened, sweet, and full of flavor. We like them whole because it allows us to choose whether we want to purée them, or crush them by hand, depending on the dish. Unless you’re in the mood to give yourself extra work during in-season months boiling, cooling, and peeling tomatoes yourself, do what even the big-time chefs do: Enjoy the canned kind, packaged right after ripening, and hardly an inferior
substitute. We like imported plum tomatoes from the San Marzano region of Italy (indicated by the DOP seal of approval on the label), but there’s plenty of proof that big brands like Hunt’s know what they’re doing, too. You may prefer to buy 28-ounce cans since they’re more economical—just be sure to use any saved, refrigerated tomatoes within a few days after opening the can.

SALAD GREENS:
For good old-fashioned crunch, nothing beats
romaine
. Most kids love it. But we are especially fond of
mixed baby greens
, whether
radicchio
,
kale
,
arugula
, or
spinach
. Freshness is of importance to us, so often the type of salad we make is dictated by what our farmers’ market has to offer.

ONIONS:
When buying onions, look to make sure they’re not bruised. Our great fondness is for the
red
onion
, which gets used raw when we make
Fish Tacos
or
salads, and is most often the basis for pasta sauces because its pungent flavor comes through more deeply. We consider
white
and
yellow
onions
interchangeable when making soups and stews. In the end though, if a trip through the produce aisle yields no firm reds, substitute with white or yellow. Firmness is important.

SHALLOTS:
We love shallots for risotto and salads—they give the flavor of onion without being as intrusive. As with onions, check for firmness. Even if it looks good on the outside, a quick grab might reveal something squishy and old.

CARROTS AND CELERY:
These two vegetables are essential for
soffritto
. They are a flavor foundation! But they are also delightfully crunchy snacks when raw, especially with a little bowl of olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper to dip them in.

GARLIC:
You want the most from your garlic, so buying it fresh is key. The head should be tightly enclosed, with no signs that it’s germinating or splitting open. You never want to run out of this, so keep plenty of heads available!

LEMONS:
We always have these on hand for juicing and zesting. They bring citrusy life to salad dressings, cocktails, vegetables, and fish.

FLOUR:
The less-refined
Italian doppio zero flour
is what we use for all our baking: bread, pizza dough, and fresh pasta. It’s imported, and therefore more expensive, but you can always use
all-purpose flour
for any of our baking recipes. We always use all-purpose flour for recipes involving dredging or thickening. And if you have an opportunity to buy flour from a local mill, that’s great, too.

SUGAR:
For every baking need, there’s
granulated
sugar
. When you need to dust cakes or make meringue,
confectioners’ sugar
is essential. We keep
raw
sugar
around for sweetening hot drinks like coffee and tea, and for certain cocktails.

HONEY:
Don’t settle for cheap honey in a plastic bottle shaped like a bear. That dab of high-end sweetness with your sliced cheese is worth the extra cents.

BUTTER:
Italians don’t like to use salted butter—we’re too conscious of our seasoning already. We use
unsalted butter
for most of our cooking and baking.

MILK:
Gabriele will drink a glass of cold
whole milk
every day, because he’s of the belief that extracting fat from milk goes against how civilization originally nurtured itself. So as you might imagine, the whole kind makes its way into our cooking as well.

EGGS:
There’s no escaping the difference between yolks from fresh, organic, cage-free eggs and those from chickens grown in cramped quarters, and kept forever in grocery stores. The former have defined layers between the bright yellow yolk and the white, and the latter are pale, soft, and runny.

RICE:
When making risotto, we use
Italian short-grain Carnaroli rice
, which has a higher starch content and a firmer texture than
the more commonly used Arborio rice. For all other basic rice cooking—as a side with beans, for example—it’s simple
long-grain white rice
all the way.

DRIED PASTA:
Our pasta chapter dives into this staple in more detail, but we keep plenty (four to six boxes) of dried spaghetti and penne around at any given time.

PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO:
It’s a cheese—the big cheese, if you will!—but it’s so much more. It’s as much a seasoning for Italians as salt or pepper. But it has to be Parmigiano-Reggiano, stamped as such on the rind or the packaging, because anything else will have a different saltiness and texture. Don’t buy pregrated, either: As it dries, it loses that softness and a lot of the desired flavor. And when you’re buying the hunk attached to the rind, check to make sure you’re getting more cheese than rind, since you’re buying it by weight—you don’t want half your cost to be in rind. That said, rinds are wonderful additions to
soups
and
risotti
during cooking, so hold on to them—Tuscans don’t waste anything!

SALTED CAPERS AND ANCHOVIES:
In the world of ways to salt dishes, these are two wonderfully flavorful alternatives. Especially when you want a seasoning kick that’s a little more textural, capers and anchovies are great options.

OLIVES:
We love the rich, large, pulpy fruit from southern Italy known as
Cerignola olives
, marinated very simply in olive oil, or sometimes in a more complex blending of orange, herbs, and spices. Our favorite olives to marinate are the small, black
Gaeta olives
, which make for great appetizers or a salty touch to a salad. The mild, green, Sicilian
Castelvetrano olive
is a wonderful snack with a glass of
wine.

BEANS:
Cannellini beans
are an incredibly versatile Tuscan staple that have a butteriness and creaminess that complement many dishes. Whether on
bruschetta
, in soup, or accompanying
sausages
, a can of these is a pantry item you’ll be glad to have around. We are also fans of
borlotti beans
, which are large, red, and striped—we’ll use them in tuna salads or soups, or slow-cook them in the fireplace as a side dish.

DRIED LENTILS:
In Italy, lentils are a traditional holiday food, especially on New Year’s Eve. We consider lentils as important as dried beans or split peas. We don’t want to wait until year’s end to enjoy them! They’re great for soups, as a side dish, or in a salad.

POLENTA:
Imported polenta from Italy is the way to go. As for whether to buy
regular polenta
or
instant polenta
, think about the level of commitment. The regular kind takes hours to prepare, with plenty of stirring involved, and occasional bubbles that thicken and pop. But if you’re already working on a slow-cooked stew from scratch, it’s a great textural accompaniment. We mostly use instant because of the time issues of feeding a family every day. It’s quicker, thickens nicely, and we can mold and slice it or fry it as we see fit. And it’s delicious!

PANCETTA AND GUANCIALE:
These treasured cured-pig seasonings—pancetta from the pork belly and guanciale from the jowl—are our favorite way to imbue a dish with the essence of meat without actually bringing a hunk of pork to the table. Chopped into pieces no larger than a caper, and used as the basis for a sauce, their sudden appearance when you bite into a forkful of pasta is like a small gift of flavor that can elevate any eating experience. Plus, they freeze well.

WINE:
We’re not vino snobs. In most Tuscan restaurants, the
vino della casa
—or house wine—is what you drink throughout your meal, because it’s from the local vineyard. It’s invariably young and perfectly delicious. When it comes to cooking though, the general rule is to cook with
red wine
or
white wine
you would happily drink.
Of course, you won’t be pouring a $40 Barolo into your stew dish. But in all instances, you’ll be in good shape with a $15 to $20 bottle of imported Sangiovese or Chianti, ready to enhance your dish or to fill your glass while you cook.

Freezer items

The freezer can be your best friend, that special place that saves an exhausted home cook from having to come up with something new the next day. So not only do we keep quantities of essential items, we also have on hand frozen peas (for pastas), frozen spinach (for frittatas), frozen broccoli florets,
Vegetable Stock
to thaw and use in soups and risottos, and an assortment of plastic containers filled with extra
Sugo di Pomodoro
, soups, and ragus.

Cooking Tools/Appliances/Vessels

We’re big believers in spending money on great ingredients over expensive kitchen gadgets. If it feels good to you, use it, take care of it, and stick with it. It wouldn’t surprise us if most big-time chefs, surrounded by the highest-end
equipment at their jobs, still cooked at home with the pots, pans, utensils, and equipment they’ve been comfortable with for years. So this list is more of a guide than a directive. If we feel something is essential, it will be marked as such.

KNIVES:
If you have a 9-inch and a 7-inch chef’s knife, that’s as good a start as any. Find one in that inch-range with a grip you like, and you’ll be fine when it comes to most of your basic chopping, slicing, and carving. Other knives we’ve found useful for specific tasks in our kitchen are a 3-inch paring knife, a boning knife, a meat cleaver, and a serrated bread knife. For sharpening, we have a Wüsthof hand-held sharpener—the kind you run your knife through.

WOODEN UTENSILS:
Wooden spoons—long and short—are often an extension of your hand: stirring, breaking up soft foods in a pan. Rolling pins come in large and small. We also like our wooden lemon juicer, the kind you hold in your hand as you ream the fruit. It cleans very easily. Our large, medium, and small rubber spatulas—good for baking, scooping out batters, and making cakes—have wooden handles.

METAL UTENSILS:
We have long and short tongs, and metal spatulas that come in the angled, flat, and slotted variety. When it comes to whisks, it’s good to have the standard kind and the balloon kind. The all-important ladle can be found in 8-ounce, 4-ounce, and 2-ounce versions, and you’ll find plenty of large serving spoons in our kitchen. Potato mashers are useful, and we have vegetable peelers both traditional (swivel-bladed, stainless-steel) and Y-shaped (which slices thinly enough to double as a mandoline). For grating, we have a zester, a regular cheese grater, and a box grater we use on vegetables. Our kitchen shears come in handy for big cutting jobs.

STRAINERS/COLANDERS/FINE MESH SIEVE:
When it comes to colanders, we prefer the kind with a pedestal base so the bottom of the straining bowl never has to touch the sink. If your sink is often full, or clogs easily, this kind is really helpful. For scooping food out of pots, we have a few spider strainers.

MEASURING TOOLS:
We have one set of measuring spoons, and a set of plastic measuring cups for flour and sugar. Larger glass measuring cups are important, and we have them in 4-cup, 2-cup, and 1-cup sizes.

CUTTING BOARDS:
You need good cutting boards. We have both plastic and wooden boards.