HOW TO MANAGE THE PANTRY
Knowing how best to manage the pantry (and this applies to every season) is one of the main priorities of my everyday life. This allows me to organize my meals in the best way and show love and respect for ingredients, while trying to minimise waste.
My satisfaction at looking at my full fridge is one of my favourite feelings in the world but I will not deny that in the past I have discarded large quantities of leftovers, throwing away pizza crusts or cabbage leaves for example. However, during the pandemic period, I realised my mistake and this made me see consumption in a different light, establishing in me a desire for personal change towards food. This led me to reinterpret my cooking by returning to a simple and effective style. I learnt to preserve those pizza crusts to make bread crumbs for fresh pasta or vegetable peels to create a vegetable broth.
This awareness of 'using less' and recycling has not only made me hate even the idea of waste, it has also led me to a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle, and believe me, I have really seen some big changes.
If we want to be happy with ourselves, saving time and money to satisfy our physical well-being, we have to learn to manage what we eat more carefully and frugally. As I have already said, you don't need complications in terms of ingredients or recipes, all you need is a little consistency and awareness.
For years now, I have learnt to keep everything I need in the pantry to create a meal even when I have little time to assemble it. I always try to take some time off on weekends to get ahead with preparations that can last me the whole week: I cook large quantities of cereals, like quinoa, basmati rice or farro that I can add to my dishes (these can also be frozen). I prepare my oatmeal with milk to store in the fridge and take out in the morning for breakfast. I bake my muffins as an easily transportable snack for my daily commute, or I simply chop my vegetables and store them so that they are ready to be cooked in the evening. I put all the food in my glass containers and place it in the fridge. Time taken for preparations: a little more than an hour. Et voilà! my weekly meal prep is ready!
I have tried to adopt this type of organisation in order to reduce the purchase and consumption of 'pantry products' and the now all too popular 'ready-made products' from the supermarket. In fact this change has helped me to understand how to carefully choose the ingredients in my pantry.
I realised how important it is to understand that the large offerings we find in supermarkets today often conceal products that have a quality quite different from what is described on the packaging (these are in fact marketing strategies for sales purposes). One thing that radically changed my point of view was learning to know the producers and especially to read the labels, thus learning to distinguish a quality product from one that is simply advertised as such. Sticking to the simple things, in the end, is the best way not to go wrong and make a difference.
What’s always in my pantry
Foods that I have in my pantry and that cannot be missing in my daily kitchen.
Pasta, cereals and flours
Wholewheat pasta
Legume pasta
Carnaroli rice
Basmati rice (also brown)
Zizzania
Quinoa
Farro
Bulghur
Cous Cous
Buckwheat
Fresh wholemeal or multi-grain bread
White 00 flour
Oat flour
Chickpea flour
Stone-ground wholemeal flour
Durum wheat flour
Legumes
Chickpeas
Cannellini beans
Borlotti beans
Lentils
Lupins
Green peas
Breakfast
Ground coffee
Leaf tea (I love the Via del Té, Whittard, Fortnum & Mason)
Seasonal fresh fruit
Sugar-free jam (Rigoni di Asiago)
Oat flakes
Cow's milk (I use lactose-free Zymil, but always keep a packet of semi-skimmed milk)
Almond vegetable milk
Kefir
Various seeds (pumpkin, chia, sunflower, linseed, sesame and poppy seeds)
Organic sultanas
Dried fruits: cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts, goji berries, pine nuts, pistachios
Natural granola without sugar (I really like Kellog's All Bran Probiotic Granola)
Low-fat Greek yoghurt (especially FAGE brand)
Organic peanut butter (I use Whole Earth)
Honey and syrups (agave and maple)
Brown sugar
Baking powder
Organic eggs
Spices and seasonings
Extra virgin olive oil
Coconut oil
Sesame seed oil
Balsamic vinegar of Modena
Apple mother vinegar
Himalayan pink salt
Vegetable broth (I use Sohn broth, it has a reduced sodium content and can be found in pharmacies)
Paprika (I love smoked paprika)
Pepper
Cinnamon
Curry
Turmeric
Cumin
Nutmeg
Garlic powder
Harissa
Ginger powder
Coriander powder
Dried herbs: oregano, thyme, marjoram
Tomato puree (I use Mutti)
Tomato concentrate
Mustard
Drinks
Natural mineral water
Red wine
White wine
Rosé wine
Prosecco
Kombucha
Beers
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