Ingredients
- Guanciale Cured pork jowl, what you'd use in Roman pasta dishes if you could pick. Soft fat, deep flavour, renders into something almost buttery.
- Pancetta Cured pork belly, the everyday cured pork most Italian households reach for. Leaner than guanciale, lighter in flavour.
- Pecorino Romano DOP Aged sheep's milk cheese, salty and sharp. The cheese for Roman pasta dishes and a fair bit beyond.
- Parmigiano Reggiano Aged cow's milk cheese from Emilia-Romagna. Sweeter and nuttier than pecorino, the everyday grating cheese in most of Italy.
- San Marzano Tomatoes A long, plum-shaped tomato grown in the volcanic soil south of Vesuvius. Sweet, low-acid, and dense enough that it holds its shape in a sauce.
- Carnaroli Rice An Italian short-grain rice, harder-shelled than Arborio. Holds its bite through a long stir and absorbs stock well without going to mush.
- Porcini A wild mushroom with a dense, meaty texture and a deep savoury flavour. Fresh in autumn, dried (and powerfully concentrated) the rest of the year.
- Mascarpone A soft, very fatty fresh cheese from cream and a touch of acid. The body of tiramisù and a fair number of pastry creams.
- Savoiardi Dry, dusty, slightly sweet sponge biscuits. The structural layer of tiramisù and the base of a fair number of cold desserts.
Techniques
- Mantecatura The final step in risotto and a fair few pasta sauces: beating in cold fat and cheese off the heat to bind the dish into something glossy and loose.
- Acqua di Cottura The starchy water pasta cooks in. The hidden ingredient in most Italian pasta sauces. Always scoop some out before draining.
- Soffritto Finely chopped aromatic vegetables (usually onion, carrot, celery) sweated slowly in fat. The flavour base under most Italian braises, ragùs, soups.