The Mediterranean Summer^® Pantry

A brief history

Well before the invention of refrigerators fresh ingredients throughout the Mediterranean region have been dried, cured, milled, fermented, salted, pickled, smoked, and canned. These natural methods of preservation are the building blocks of the pantry.

Conserved foods have been moved around during periods of discovery, emigration, and trade. Oils, vinegars, herbs, and spices are ubiquitous but the entire Mediterranean pantry offers a fascinating picture of this part of the world. The stories of ingredients such as saffron, sea salt, cured anchovies, almond paste, honey, and traditional balsamic vinegar will take you back many years and to many places.

In the days of royals and aristocrats when prime cuts of meat like crown roasts of pork were destined for the palace dinner table the remainder of the animal they came from was salt-cured, smoked, dried, baked, or boiled into hams, salami, sausages, mousses, and terrines. Then, as there is today, numerous uses for the organ meats, blood, and lard. Rennet from the stomachs of lamb made its way in the preservation of milk resulting in hundreds of types of cheese. And since ancient times, turning virtually inedible raw olives into lamp fuel, cooking oil, a preservative for fish, a healing balm, and made into soap is innovation at its finest.

Read also: The Message Is In The Bottle

The cooking of the Mediterranean experienced a Renaissance after Christopher Columbus brought back fruits and vegetables from the New World. For example, a variety of red bell peppers from Central America found a home west of Madrid, Spain in an area called La Vera. The prime growing conditions in this part of the country led to their preservation from drying and smoking then ground into a seasoning that has permeated Spanish cooking, pimentón de la Vera. Other kinds of peppers infiltrated the Mediterranean finding their way to Italy as sweet peperoni and hot pepperoncini, in the Turkish red pepper paste biber salçasi, the Aleppo chili powder of Syria, and just about every North African cuisine has a version of harissa.

Reaching beyond the ordinary

Sometimes when going to the market to replenish the cupboard or following a grocery list pantry ingredients are taken for granted. Getting extra virgin olive oil, fine sea salt, dried pasta, and whole peeled tomatoes by these descriptions will suffice. All of them are waiting for you on the shelves in the store. But when the oil is from a particular country or region, the salt was harvested from interesting areas of the sea, the pasta is artisan, and the tomatoes are a specific type, what you make with these ingredients will always be much, much better.

Going into the recipe development for my book, I put a lot of thought in the creation of the recipe list to make sure the ingredients can be found just about anywhere. There are a few where I mention it may take some searching although these days they are easier to find. For the rest, everything can be purchased at a large chain supermarket. I shopped at these stores for the bulk of the development and testing. Everything turns out just fine. But as soon as better ingredients are used the results are sublime.

What’s inside the container matters. It’s on us to have a keen eye for the good stuff and create demand. We must also embrace our core values when we shop for food. Is it paying less and sacrificing flavor, or spending a little more to eat better and support smaller producers? At the same time we should choose pantry ingredients that have flavor characteristics because of origin. This creates an opportunity to be more authentic in our cooking.

Read also: Ingredient, Ingredient, Ingredient

Recipe: Penne all’Amatriciana

A sense of place through taste

From land and sea, high quality naturally preserved ingredients are a result of climate, geology, growing methods, harvesting, and handling during production. Thus, where they’re from is important to the distinction of one product over another. It’s similar to what’s called “terroir” in winemaking. The lemons of Menton, France and Amalfi, Italy are famous for confections, oil, and spirits. The acquaculture around the salt pans of Ston, Croatia helped to make the storage of this salt worthy of protection by a stone wall built around the entire town similar to the Great Wall of China.

Another example where provenance can be tasted is dried oregano. There are subtleties between oregano from Sicily and that from Calabria just across the Straights of Messina in Southern Italy. And ask someone from Greece about their oregano. After they convince you it’s the best, the conversation can quickly evolve toward a preference for whether it was grown on lower elevations or higher towards the mountains. One might be better crushed on thick slices of feta cheese in a Greek salad, the other cooked in moussaka.

Even names of an ingredient can be indicative of a place. Nyons olives are from the Nyons area of southern France. Castelvetrano olives are from Castelvetrano, Sicily and Kalamata olives are named for Kalamata, Greece. Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is from the Parma and Reggio-Emilia areas of northern Italy. A San Marzano tomato must be from that area in Campania, Italy. But of all things one would think Dijon mustard is from the city of Dijon, France and it is when the label includes moutarde de Bourgogne—mustard of Burgundy.

Recipe: Salsa Verde

Pure and Natural

There’s fertile soil, then there’s soil around the Mediterranean region that has limestone or lava in its makeup. These kinds of mineral environments make everything that grows in them much more robust. When the harvests from these areas are captured and preserved, the difference in taste is noticeable. Put real herbes de Provence and fine sea salt from the Camargue region in southeastern France on a chicken to roast. Or cook with tomatoes from the areas around the volcano of Mount Vesuvius. The flavors from each will be much more pronounced.

Honey is a natural product reflective of local horticulture. While the oranges in Andalucía, Spain are part of the Moorish story in the region, their bitterness was adopted by the British to make marmalade. But when you visit Granada, don’t forget to bring home a jar of orange blossom honey from the area since Miel de Granada is a product of protected origin.

Then there’s the coveted honey from Montalcino in Tuscany, Italy. No wonder one of the best wines on earth—Brunello—comes from the same area. If only for the honey and wine there’s plenty of reason to visit that beautiful part of the region. Go in early September during the period of the annual honey festival.

Recipe: Dijon Vinaigrette

Destination eating

The Mediterranean pantry is laden with history, culture, and tradition. There is so much more on the other side of the Atlantic than what we have access to at home. Oftentimes there may not be enough of something made for it to be exported. This makes personal acquisition that much more special. It can inspire a trip, cruise, or a short-term rental to the places where these ingredients come from. Even though you can get a lot domestically, you’ll make great discoveries and never forget how the flavors of a place and the experience of being there can be captured in a bottle, can, tin, or jar. This in turn creates everlasting taste memories.

It’s okay to be a food shopaholic during your travels. I’ve brought home copious amounts of ingredients for my pantry. Oils, vinegars, seasonings, honey, and jams are regulars. But also many types of legumes, pastas, tinned fish, nuts, confections, coffee, condiments, and aged cheeses.

Here’s how to “import”: Pack an extra soft bag in the outbound checked luggage and use that bag for dirty laundry, shoes, and anything else that’s not fragile for the return. Bring a roll of plastic wrap and bags to cover glass bottles and containers, some bubble wrap, and a small roll of shipping tape. A significant portion of the main checked bag will be the shipping container. While packing for the return use clothing for padding and make sure everything is snug.

When you use these ingredients at home they’ll make you think about the day and place where you got them. I can almost guarantee it will be a memory of a good time and no doubt you’ll have a story to tell. The bummer is when you notice the bottle or jar is almost empty. Time for another trip!

Recipe: Tuna and Chickpea Tapa

Measuring Up

Most of the ingredients used for making pasta, batters, in baking, and desserts are preserved versions of something that was grown. Many of these items we call “basics” or “staples.” Different flours, sweeteners, dairy, and the versatile egg in varying combinations allow for an enormous range of what can be made. When adding other pantry ingredients like seeds, nuts, dried fruit, citrus, spices, extracts, syrups, and of course, chocolate the range becomes infinite. And just like everything else, when you go for better ingredients what you make will be superior.

Wherever and however you get your ingredients, the ongoing replenishment of the pantry can be an extension of a personal culinary adventure and a reflection of your cooking style. In the end, it’s on us to have the desire for higher quality and create demand so we can choose and use our pimentón to be from La Vera, our oregano from southern Italy or the mountains of Greece, or canned tomatoes from the foothills of Mount Vesuvius.

The entire Mediterranean Summer Pantry Shopping List is here.

Recipe: Torta di Cioccolato