Odette Williams - Simple Pasta: Pasta Made Easy. Life Made Better. [A Cookbook]

I could quite happily spend my days in an Italian grocery store. Nothing makes me happier than a basket full of handsome ingredients. Ive said it before, and Ill say it again: When you have only a few ingredients in a recipe, you want them to be the best you can get your hands on.

Aged Gruyre

Aged and white balsamic, red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, Champagne, Moscatel, and sherry vinegars

Burrata

Butter, salted, unsalted, and European-style with a higher percentage of fat

Cannellini beans and chickpeas

Capers and caperberries

Certified D.O.P. San Marzano canned tomatoes

Crme frache

Dried porcini mushrooms

Fontina

French or Greek feta

Guanciale (pigs cheek), pancetta, prosciutto, or Italian sausage

Heavy cream

Kosher and flaky sea salts (especially Maldon)

Mascarpone

Nocciolata hazelnut-cocoa spread

Oil-packed anchovies, tuna, and artichoke hearts

Olives of various varieties

Pecorino, including Romano, Toscano, and Sardo

Real-deal Parmigiano Reggiano with its waxy, lettered rind

Red pepper flakes

Umbrian or Puy lentils

Vanilla beans

Whole black, white, pink, and Kampot peppercorns

Whole-milk ricotta

Dried Pastas (and my favorite gluten-free pastas)

Look for bronze-drawn, air-dried pasta. Rustichella dAbruzzo, Rummo, and Monograno Felicetti are brands that I love, and I can always find the reliable De Cecco, in any shape I need, in every grocery store. I love to have myriad shapes on hand. For gluten-free pastas, I stick with brown rice, buckwheat, and farro pastas made by Jovial, Rustichella dAbruzzo, and Tinkyda.

Eggs

Lets talk about eggs; theyre important. They add flavor, color, protein, and nutrients to pasta dough and make it luxurious and silky. Simple Pasta uses standard-size large eggs that weigh approximately 2 ounces, or 57 grams. To make a dough even more luxurious, feel free to use only yolksno whites. But make sure the weight is equivalent to whats in the recipe. Alternatively, egg white can replace the water in pasta dough.

Fresh Produce

When selecting fresh fruit and vegetables, always check for ripeness. If you are unsure, ask the seller whats best. Buy locally grown produce whenever you can and eat in sync with what each season offers. If you have a garden, plant things that go perfectly with pasta, like zucchini, tomatoes, snap peas, fennel, a variety of lettuces, leafy and woody herbs, chard, spinach, citrus, and edible flowers.

Oil and Wine

When it comes to oil and wine, I can never have enough. I know the good stuff costs a little more but splurge when you can, since its an investment in flavor. Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a bit like wine in that there are many varieties; each type inherits the terroir particular to the region in which the olives are grown. Extra-virgin olive oil is unrefined and made from cold-pressed olives (on a traditional press), whereas regular olive oil is a blend, including both cold-pressed and processed oils. Cold extraction keeps the nutritional value while maintaining the olives unique qualities. Some EVOOs are made from a single variety of olives, while many are a blend. I tend to use two types: a versatile, neutral oil to cook with, and a more distinct oil for finishing. Before cooking with any EVOO, taste it. Is it pungent, peppery, grassy, bitter, or persistent? Or does it linger with mellow afternotes and subtleties? Think about what youre pairing it withmeat, fish, vegetables, or perhaps dessert? Olive harvest begins in autumn; when stored in a dark place and sealed from oxygen, the bottle of oil should last for a year (if there is a date of production, its a clue youre on to a good thing). Like all fruit, olives are best handled with care; look for hand-picked. I generally buy Italian brands such as Frantoia, Partanna, and Lorenzo, or Californian ones, like California Olive Ranch or Cobram Estate, but there are so many different brands, and discovering them is half the fun.