Tales from the pantry

I had a revelation recently. The night before, I served asparagus for dinner, steaming the whole bunch (which was a pretty good size bunch) and then topping with a chimichurri sauce I made a week ago. As I was cleaning up, we had about half the batch left over and while some vegetables can be used the next day, asparagus isn’t one of them. They were already cooked, a little limp, and really kind of sad looking.

So the next day when I’m getting ready for dinner, I was tempted to just toss the asparagus out to clear some space in the refrigerator. Then I had my revelation – dried mushrooms. I almost always have dried mushrooms on hand. Scoop out a handful, soak in hot water for 15-20 minutes, and now you not only have a handful of great tasting mushrooms but a small dish of mushroom broth. I poured a couple of tablespoons of the broth in the skillet, chopped up the asparagus to de-emphasis their long, limp shape, added the mushrooms and heated until the broth more or less evaporated. The results worked really well. The asparagus retained their taste and the mushrooms and broth made the whole dish more flavorful and complex.

Now this isn’t a lesson on how to cook leftover asparagus but I was struck by how many times adding an item or two from the pantry can make a dish. Last week I had a package of celery that was starting to lose its crispness. To save it, I chopped up 3-4 sun-dried tomatoes, added some capers and anchovies and voila! A unique version of celery puttanesca that turned out to be a great side dish.

Or there was the day I felt completely uninspired by the refrigerator and couldn’t leave the house to get anything. What was available was some spaghetti and a can of tuna packed in oil, and believe it or not, I turned out a perfectly delightful meal. By the way, the idea for tuna and spaghetti, while triggered by staring at the pantry shelves, has been simmering for a long time in the culinary portion of my brain. It comes from Popes, Peasants, and Shepherds: Recipes and Lore from Rome and Lazio, a wonderful book written by Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen Fantasias that lovingly tells the story of the history of the culinary styles of Rome and and the surrounding Lazio region. I was amazed at how often tuna packed in oil showed up in the recipe section of that book.

These are just three examples, though, of creating interesting dishes without shopping for new ingredients and without leaving the home. I’m beginning to approach the use of my pantry in a different way. I’ve always had a selection of Asian ingredients (rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, toasted sesame oil, black vinegar, etc) but sometimes the use of an unusual ingredient can completely change a dish. For example, I love broccoli roasted to the point where it starts to caramelize and cook it often. A dash of fish sauce on roasted broccoli can transform it into something else entirely.

My vinegar selection is expanding. For the longest time, I had white, balsamic, and rice wine vinegars. Then I discovered the complexity of sherry vinegar. A dish of mushrooms panfried in butter is delicious. A dish of mushrooms panfried in olive oil with a tablespoon of sherry vinegar is also delicious but is a different dish entirely. Even better, try a light salad with just a splash of a flavorful vinegar like yuzu or white balsamic.

Not long ago I put together a lunch with nothing except fresh lettuce and pantry items. Lentils, toasted walnuts, raisins reconstituted in balsamic vinegar, dried sausage, and sun-dried tomatoes served on lettuce with a red wine vinaigrette.

I think some of this fresh approach to the pantry is related to the social distancing of the COVID crisis. In the past I often conceived of my meals while in the grocery store or at the market and I really miss not being able to do that. But right now, daily shopping is not an option and that can mean purchasing larger quantities of things that will last longer. That, in turn, means running the risk of preparing the same thing with a little too high a frequency, which is where innovation from the pantry comes in.