🥔 Food People, Parent Picks: Giulia's Favorite Things
The Tuscan cookbook author on her three pantry staples, weekly pizza night, the frozen vegetables she swears by, and the Italian ingredient hiding in your fridge.
Food People, Parent Picks: we ask our favorite chefs, food writers, and industry insiders who we interview in our Order Up! Series to share the products, books, and bites they can’t live without.
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Earlier this week, we sat down with Giulia Scarpaleggia — Tuscan cookbook author, cooking class teacher, and the home cook behind Vegetables in the Italian Way [Bookshop, Amazon], Cucina Povera [Bookshop, Amazon] and the Letters from Tuscany Substack newsletter. In the Order Up! conversation we talked about cooking one dinner for everyone, the art of making do, and what it means to feed her daughter in the same kitchen where three generations of her family cooked before her. If you haven’t read it yet, you can read it now, we promise it’s worth it! [Read it here!]
Today we’re getting practical. Giulia shares the pantry staples she swears by, the store-bought shortcuts an Italian cook actually uses, the cookbook she gives to friends who want to cook more Italian food at home, and the one ingredient most non-Italian kitchens are missing. (It’s small. She thinks you already have it.)
Three pantry or fridge staples you always keep in the house?
Extra virgin olive oil. That’s the first one.
Eggs. We have chickens, and I love eating our own eggs.
Tomato sauce. I’m a walking cliché of an Italian.
A weeknight dinner on repeat right now?
Pizza night. I spent 10 years trying to get my pizza recipe right, and two months ago I finally did. Livia said, “Fantastic — we’re having pizza night every week.” So now we do.
I make the dough in the morning and keep it simple: tomato puree and mozzarella. Livia has pizza margherita — mozzarella, tomato sauce, basil leaves. Tommaso and I add anchovies, vegetables, sometimes prosciutto. Same base, everyone gets what they want.
What finally worked: more water in the dough than I used to use, the right amount of dough for the pan, and baking it directly on the bottom of the oven first to get a crust underneath, then moving it up to the top shelf to finish. (I’m still tweaking — I’ll share the full recipe once I’m sure.)
One store-bought shortcut you actually use?
Frozen vegetables. I love frozen spinach — you need a whole bag of fresh spinach just to cook a small amount, and the frozen version is so much easier.
I use frozen artichokes when fresh ones are too expensive, and frozen grilled vegetables, too. I look for vegetables without added ingredients — ideally Italian-grown, picked in their peak season. Great quality, perfect for weeknights.
One kitchen tool that makes cooking easier?
A good knife. You don’t need thousands — three good knives, and cooking gets easier.
A cookbook to give a friend who wants to cook more Italian food at home (besides your own)?
The new English translation of Ada Boni’s Il Talismano della Felicità — The Talisman of Happiness [Bookshop, Amazon]. It’s from the early 20th century, and I know the translation has been very respectful of the original.
The recipes are straightforward, but they ask for a little participation — you have to look at the food, taste it, pay attention. Thousands of recipes in there. A great place to start.
Livia’s favorite snack?
Chocolate. But if I have to be more Italian about it: taralli.
They’re little ring crackers from the south of Italy, made with white wine and olive oil — like bread rings. She loves them.
And when she’s watching TV and wants to munch on something, that’s when I hand her raw vegetables. She’ll eat all of them.
Favorite herb or seasoning?
Basil. The other herbs survive our Tuscan winters, but basil only shows up in summer. For me, it’s the smell of summer.
An Italian pantry ingredient most non-Italian kitchens are missing?
Tomato paste. It’s our umami. A teaspoon or tablespoon in soups, stews, or a meat sauce adds so much flavor — one of my grandmother’s secrets.
Can I add a second one? Parmigiano rind. When you buy a wedge of parmigiano, don’t throw away the rind. Clean it, freeze it, and drop it into soups and stocks. Same richness, same depth. Something you would have thrown away — don’t. Keep it in the freezer.
Anything else you want people to know about your new book?
Vegetables in the Italian Way [Bookshop, Amazon] isn’t a vegetarian or vegan book. There’s cheese, anchovies, a little pancetta, sometimes sausage — but vegetables are at the center of every recipe. So if you want to eat more vegetables without being strict about it, this is a book that can help.