• When I say “olive oil,” you can use either regular olive oil or light olive oil at your discretion. But I strongly recommend using light olive oil for any cooking that involves high heat, like sautéing, frying, or roasting. Extra-virgin olive oil, which has a peppery, delicious taste, should only be used for drizzling, finishing, dressing salads, and other places where you want a strong olive flavor or are not cooking it for long, like in a quick pasta sauce. In Italy you’ll never see somebody waste extra-virgin olive oil on cooking meat sauce. In the recipes where I think you should use extra-virgin olive oil, it’s listed in the ingredients.
• When I say “salt and pepper,” it’s always kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper unless otherwise specified.
• When I say “butter,” it’s always unsalted butter unless otherwise specified.
• When I say “Parmesan,” I mean imported Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy, which is what I use. Or, if you want a less expensive alternative, get a good local American Parmesan cheese.
• When I ask for eggs (or egg yolks or whites), always try to use organic or free-range if possible, and always use large eggs.
• When I ask for parsley, it’s always Italian flat parsley.
Let’s talk about utensils for a second. Everything on this list is something you can use in making at least one of the recipes in this book. But even if you don’t have all of these things, you’ll still be able to make most of the recipes. After all, we didn’t have any fancy gadgets when I was a kid, and somehow we made all of them. Think of these as suggestions rather than requirements.
Food processor
Ice cream maker
Stand mixer or handheld electric mixer
Stick blender
Baking sheet / sheet pan
10-inch cake pan
Dutch ovens or heavy casseroles with lids (medium and large)
Rectangular Pyrex or other baking dishes (6 × 9-inch and one other, larger size)
Saucepans (small, medium, large)
Sauté pans (small, medium, large)
Deep sauté pan
Ceramic nonstick sauté pan
10-inch and 9-inch round springform pans
Stockpots (large, extra large)
2 chef’s knives, one big for chopping, one smaller for dicing
Small, sturdy boning/filleting knife
Small flexible knife for cleaning fish and cutting very thin slices
A few paring knives
7–8-inch Santoku knife
Serrated knife
Butcher’s twine
Candy thermometer
Cheese grater
Cheesecloth
Colander
2-inch round cookie cutter
Cookie mat
Cutting boards
Ice cream scoop
Ladle
Mandoline
Meat mallet
Meat thermometer
Melon baller
Mesh strainer
Metal and glass mixing bowls (various sizes)
Microplane
Mortar and pestle
Pizza cutter
Plastic spatula
Potato masher
Potato ricer
Rolling pin
6-inch wooden skewers
Slotted spoon
Tongs
Whisk
Wire rack for cooling
Wooden spoons
The pantry is your in-house supermarket. When you’re missing something on your kitchen counter for your recipe, you go to the pantry. In my house it was never very full, but we always had the things we needed to make a few good dishes. No boil-in bags, no packaged stuff, no canned spaghetti—stuff to make food preparation easier, not to make prepared food. That’s the whole principle behind my family recipes, but you have to have a well-stocked pantry. In my house the pantry was like the secret weapon. Every time you opened it, there was something there you could use. You have to take care of your pantry, though; an unstocked pantry is a disaster. And don’t confuse storage space with a pantry. A pantry is for food, storage space is for your socks, your shoes, your cat food, your toilet paper. I don’t want to go looking for cannellini beans and end up with a roll of toilet paper in my hand. A pantry is a lifestyle, so embrace it. Here’s what I like to keep in mine.
Anchovies
Arborio rice (for risotto)
Artichoke hearts
Baking powder
Baking soda
Balsamic vinegar
Dry beans (borlotti, cannellini, pigeon)
Breadcrumbs (for frying, coating, and using in meatballs and meat loaf)
Capers (for a quick sauce with lemon)
Dried chilies
Chocolate (it’s always good to have chocolate)
Cinnamon sticks
Canned clams
All-purpose flour
Bread flour
Chestnut flour
Chickpea flour
Semolina flour
Whole wheat flour
Gelatin powder
Graham crackers
Various dried herbs and spices (rosemary, oregano, thyme, bay leaves, basil, sage, red pepper flakes, whole black peppercorns, whole and ground nutmeg, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, mustard powder, paprika and smoked paprika, saffron, ground cinnamon, ground white pepper, whole cloves, garlic salt, onion powder, celery salt, juniper berries)
Honey
Kosher salt (for texture)
Dried mushrooms (such as porcini or shiitake—for grinding into powder to add flavor to stocks or soups)
Mustard (grainy, yellow, and Dijon)
Nuts (hazelnuts, pine nuts, walnuts, any other nuts you love—great for pesto and other recipes)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Light olive oil
Regular/Classic olive oil
Green olives and black olives (your refrigerator can be part of your pantry, too!)
Orzo
Pasta shapes (some long, some short)
Polenta
Red wine vinegar
Kosher salt
Table salt (mostly for salting pasta water)
Sugar
Brown sugar
Powdered sugar
Canned or boxed tomatoes
Tomato paste
Tomato purée
Vanilla (extract and pods)
Vegetable oil (peanut or soybean)
Wild rice
Wine (preferably red, and it should be the kind you can drink)
Dry yeast packets