Kitchen equipment

Some of the best meals I’ve eaten in Italy have been cooked in small, ordinary kitchens on straightforward stoves using simple, basic equipment. I have also eaten some wonderful meals cooked in large kitchens equipped with every conceivable tool and appliance, and armies of pans. It’s not that one is better than the other—good food can be prepared in either way, in either kitchen. However, it is the ordinary and simple that appeals to me, since it’s more inclusive and uncomplicated, rather like the food itself.

I arrived in Italy with nothing, which meant I had the opportunity to start again in terms of kitchen equipment. I took my lead from what I saw in the kitchens of cooks I liked and whose food I wanted to eat. I was determined to keep things simple (which is not necessarily in my nature) and to remember the logistics of my own small kitchen. Over the last ten years I have accumulated a set of kitchen equipment that serves me well and is all I need to prepare the food I like to make and eat. Much of it was bought locally (several bits secondhand), other things were brought back from England, and several of the nicest pieces were gifts. I have one electric appliance. Because we decided it was best that I cooked and photographed all the food for the book in my kitchen over the course of a year in real time, you will see all my equipment pictured in the following pages.

A big pan

The workhorse of the kitchen is the 6-quart pan that I use to cook 2–6 portions of pasta. It is medium-weight aluminum, which means it’s manageable even when full of boiling water. I also boil potatoes and large quantities of vegetables, and wilt spinach in this pan.

Small pans

A 1-quart heavy-bottomed stainless-steel pan for cooking one portion of pasta, a few vegetables, frying in small quantities, and watering the plants nearest the door. I also have a small pan for milk, cream, and custard, which is just the right shape for balancing a bowl on for a makeshift bain-marie.

A colander

The partner to the big pan is a three-legged colander I found in a secondhand shop. It hangs above the sink, ready to be plonked in it to drain or rinse vegetables.

A deep frying/sauté pan

I have a large, deep sauté pan with a long handle, the kind you see in trattoria kitchens, which I mostly use to make sauce or prepare vegetables for pasta. You will see it again and again in the book. It has a heavy enough base to cook evenly, but is light enough to lift and flip when you add the pasta to the sauce. It also has a lid.

A heavy casserole dish

My oval orange Le Creuset was a birthday present from Vincenzo. I call it my peperonata pan because of the sheer quantity of stewed peppers I insist on making in it. I actually use it for countless things, though: braising meat, making thick soups, poaching fruit, and occasionally baking bread. From time to time I convince myself I need a bigger version of this. I really don’t.

A food mill (mouli)

This is a favorite kitchen tool, which warrants a whole paragraph in part 2 (here).

A special sauté pan

Worth almost as much as everything else in the kitchen put together, my copper sauté pan was a gift from my sister and her husband and my brother and his wife for my fortieth birthday. Although by no means ordinary or essential—the sauté pan and casserole have it covered—it is a joy to cook in because of the way it conducts heat and cooks evenly and slowly. I fry, braise, stew, poach, coddle, and simmer in this beautiful pan. It too has a lid.

A grill pan

The heavy sort made from cast iron with ridges, which sits on the stovetop and leaves pleasing black lines and a smoky tang on steak, fish, and vegetables, and sends smoke rushing through your hair. I leave it to cool on the balcony and then forget about it, so it gets rained on and by the next day rust is taking hold, which I then have to scrub away. I am extremely fond of my grill pan.

Roasting pans

With the exception of cookies and cakes, almost everything else that goes in the oven is in one of two enamel roasting pans I bought from Emanuela’s stall on Testaccio market.

An immersion blender

This is my only electric appliance. I use it for soups, sauces, making cakes (or, rather, cake, since I only really make one), and occasionally whipping cream.

A manual pasta roller

This was a gift that sat in the cupboard for a year before I first used it. These days it gets clamped to the table at some point most weeks.

A mortar and pestle

Which I no longer have, because I broke it the week I began work on the book. I have been using the end of a rolling pin in a thick glass jar to grind spices and the immersion blender to make pesto, which means it isn’t the same. I would like another one.

Knives

I have three very good knives, which are slowly being worn away by the knife sharpener who drives into Testaccio once a week in his white Fiat Panda with a sharpening wheel in the trunk. There is a small, sharp vegetable knife, a large 8-inch cook’s knife, and a cleaver that I wish I could use more skillfully. I also have an inexpensive bread knife that I use all the time.