The preserved pantry is where the gap between the real product and the imitation is hardest to see, because both arrive in a tin or a jar with an Italian name on it. San Marzano tomatoes are the clearest case: the most counterfeited tin in the Italian aisle, and the designation with its certification number is how to tell.
How to judge a tin or a jar
The packing medium says most. Salted capers keep the floral flavour that brined ones lose to vinegar, whole salted anchovies keep better than fillets in oil, and in a jar of vegetables under oil the packing liquid decides whether it is worth eating. After that comes the ingredient list, read in the order it is printed, and the mark where there is one: the Pantelleria caper, the Cerignola olive and the Vesuvian piennolo tomato all carry one, and what a DOP or IGP actually guarantees is narrower than most buyers assume. The origin wording is a separate claim again, and Product of Italy does not mean what Made in Italy means.
Where to start
Start with the everyday tins, the tomatoes and the capers. Then colatura di alici, the anchovy liquid worth its price, and at the far end of the gap the Alba white truffle, where much of what carries the name is not the thing itself.
Price, and where to buy
Price bands for the pantry and for salumi show what a fair price looks like for each category, and the four routes that work in the United States say where to source each tin and jar. Everything here is one case of the Italian ingredient and the gap worth paying for.
