pecorino crotonese cheese
Everyone has favourite pantry items based on where they grew up, culture, favourite foods and of course their current lifestyle. We like to stock our pantries with many things so narrowing it down to just five was not an easy task for an Italian!
Sometimes pantry ingredients can change with the season, therefore we’ve decided to share the top five ingredients we recommend keeping in your kitchen pantry for Spring so you are ready to cook the best Italian recipes any time of the week.
Our top 5 essential ingredients for the Italian Pantry for Spring are:
Scarpone’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Made by crushing olives and extracting the juice, Scarpone’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil is high quality extra virgin olive oil with no defects and a fresh olive oil flavour. Due to its lower smoke point, it is recommended you do not cook with extra virgin olive oil, but instead use in dressings, dips, breads, drizzled on anything grilled or to be grilled, hot pasta and more.
Scarpone’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pasta
Pasta is a staple in Italy, found in meals all over that include regional differences. Wherever Italians immigrated they have brought their pasta along, so much so today it can be considered a staple of International cuisine. Traditionally, long and flat dried durum-wheat pasta was from the South. The North is known for fresh egg pasta in cylindrical, stout shapes and sometimes stuffed. Pasta will always be found in Italian kitchens whether it’s dry or fresh as they both have benefits depending on the type of dish you are making. Combine with fresh spring produce for use in pasta dishes. Also good in stews, soups, salads, any time of the year pasta dinners or slow cooked and/or baked dishes.
Featured is La Molisana Pasta from Italy.
Molisana Pasta
Scarpone’s Artichoke Hearts
If you love artichokes, but do not have the time to spend in the kitchen properly preparing the fresh ones, canned artichoke hearts are the next best thing. Italy is the largest producer of artichokes in the world, and they are an important part of Italian cuisine.
Grill them, add to salads, dressings, antipasti platters, dips, tapenades, soups or risotto. The options are endless.
Scarpone’s Artichokes Hearts
Anchovy Fillets
Anchovies are small, salt water, foraging fish with more than 100 different species spread across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. They travel in large schools making them easy to catch in large quantities. They are a large part of European, Middle Eastern, and North African cuisines where supply is plentiful.
Even though their taste is not pleasant for some, people eat them due to their various health benefits. They are normally sold in tins or cans and can be put on pizzas, sandwiches, in Caesar salad dressing, and are the hidden flavour burst in many sauces.
Try the Agostino Recca Anchovies Fillets from Italy.
Agostino Recca Anchovies Fillets
Scarpone’s Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
Fresh tomatoes, when charred over an open fire reveal a sweet, smoky depth of flavour that ordinary, freshly harvested tomatoes can not replicate. Fresh tomatoes are carefully roasted to add a subtle, yet caramelized smokey tomato flavour before going into the can. Look for them to enhance salsa dishes, soups, sauces for pasta or on chicken, chili and any of your favourite Mexican dishes.
Scarpone’s Fire Roasted Tomatoes
All our Scarpone’s products are 100% natural with no artificial preservatives or ingredients. They are available through our distribution centre for whole sale, in our store or through many grocery stores in Western Canada.
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