What’s our key to cooking a delicious, no-stress dinner when we’re rushed for time? While we’d love to say it’s our amazing meal planning skills or our superhero-like ability to multitask, the answer is much simpler: a few staple ingredients. By keeping your pantry and refrigerator stocked with several powerhouse items, you can whip up boldly-flavoured suppers in no time at all. Here are the five ingredients you should always keep on hand in order to make the most of your meals and wow your family with awesome Italian-inspired dishes in a flash.
Olive Oil
The foundation of the Italian pantry, extra virgin olive oil can transform any dish from bland to beautiful. If you have lettuce and a few random fresh veggies on hand, simply chop them up and drizzle olive oil over them for a sophisticated salad. Have some chicken in the freezer? Thaw it and marinate it for a few minutes in olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. And we probably don’t need to tell you how satisfying a big bowl of pasta can be after it’s been lovingly kissed by a bit of rich extra virgin olive oil. Just make sure that kind you buy is of the highest quality – you won’t able to find good olive oil at just any shop or Italian delicatessen in London. At Diforti, we hand-select and sample our olive oil to ensure it has the fruitiest flavour and freshest aroma – so we can guarantee it will take your cooking to the next level.
Anchovies
These little fish pack big flavour into a meal. At once briny, rich and bright, anchovies can effortlessly add an unexpected element to a number of quick dinner dishes. Blend them up in a salad dressing; quickly sauté them with tomatoes, olive oil and garlic for a punchy pasta sauce; you can even layer them whole on bruschetta or crostini.
Pasta
When you think of authentic Italian food, there’s a good chance you imagine someone simmering a red sauce on the stovetop for hours, carefully stirring it and attending to its seasonings. However, a good pasta dish doesn’t require a long cooking time. Traditional recipes like cacio e pepe take just a few minutes to throw together. But you don’t even need to follow a recipe to make great pasta – simply take what you’ve got lying around, whether it’s some veg or a few slices of prosciutto, sauté it in a frying pan while you boil the pasta, then add the pasta to the pan along with a bit of the pasta cooking water and toss, toss, toss! Finish the dish with olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano and black pepper and you’ve got yourself a moreish meal.
Eggs
No, eggs aren’t just for breakfast – they’realso the perfect protein for a quick weeknight dinner. And while a fried egg tastes good atop pretty much any dish, you can do so much more with them. Use up the odds and ends hanging out in your fridge by throwing together a frittata, or whisk together a carbonara-style pasta sauce for a dish that’s both impressive and easy to prepare.
Pesto
Flavouring a meal with pesto is about as simple as it gets. Plus, it tastes great! We love to serve salmon or chicken with a hefty spoonful of this vibrant green sauce, or slather it onto sandwiches and bruschetta. Of course, you can always use it on pasta or in salads, too – whatever you pair it with, pesto is the ultimate sauce for maximum flavour with minimum effort.
You don’t need to have super powers to cook a great dinner quickly – you just need to know Diforti’s tips and tricks for big flavour. With these five ingredients in your pantry, you’ll be able to put a delectable dinner on the table, even on the busiest of nights.