Italian Ingredients
What an ingredient is, where it comes from, how it is made, how to judge a good one against an ordinary one, and where to buy it.
Every section
The site is organised by what goes in a basket. Each section below collects the ingredients of one kind, with how to judge them and where to buy them, and the Italian ingredient and the gap worth paying for explains what every one of them has in common.
Preserved and Pantry
The tins, jars and bottles that carry a season: anchovies, capers, olives, tomatoes and salted fish, and how to judge a jar before you buy it.
Olive Oils
Cultivar, harvest date, acidity and polyphenols, what separates a single estate oil from a blend, and how to judge a bottle and use it.
Salumi and Cold Cuts
Cured pork and its regional names, from culatello to nduja, how to read a cut face, and how to judge and buy the real thing.
Pasta and Grains
Bronze dies, durum wheat, rice for risotto and the grains that came before pasta, and how to judge a box and use what is in it.
Cheeses
Fresh, stretched, washed and aged, what a paste tells you about how a cheese was made, and how to judge one before you buy.
Sauces and Pestos
Pesto genovese and its cousins, the sauces built on a single ingredient, and how to judge a jar and use it.