Need to make dinner when all you've got is week-old bread, olive oil and salt?
Clara is here to tell you how. She's 93 years old now and blessedly 1st generation Italian-American, so her 50 cent meals look pretty damn awesome. I love her anecdotes, and she dices a mean potato.
Oh, and Dingfod, she also turns off the heat after adding the pasta. They did it during the Depression to save gas.
I'm really interested in this stuff. For a long time after I began cooking I bought expensive ingredients for individual recipes. Eventually I learned how versatile a reasonable pantry could be. Then I finally learned how to cut costs without losing quality. That was a big step for me because all the entirely quotidian ingredients I knew best from my childhood are fancy imports here.
I'm still in that last phase. My bi-weekly produce delivery and Costco have revolutionized my approach to food budgeting and creativity. It's been challenging, fun and unexpectedly satisfying. I thought I would feel a sense of loss but I don't at all.
I mean, I still splurge on some things (Parmigiano Reggiano, there is no other, so help me God. Costo has it for 10 bucks a pound, though, fully half what you would spend at Whole Foods.) but I've been amazed to find that overall, the flavor and quality of my cooking has dramatically improved. I'm not settling in the least.