The Summer Pantry
Plus, an electrolyte deli mocktail and a cookbook update.
Reframing summer cooking to summer assembling makes sense this time of year. The produce requires less from us. It’s usually perfect on its own or drizzled with a little something and sprinkled with flaky salt. In the Bay Area, where summers are mild and temps heat up in September and into October, it’s less about keeping the kitchen cool and more about doing the least and letting the produce shine.
Instead of hunkering down with bowls of soup, a salad suddenly sounds good. Smoothies are back in the morning rotation. We’re all looking for ways to use up too much [insert gorgeous farmers market fruit or vegetable you overbougt].
When my countertop baskets shift from butternuts to peaches, I reach for different items in my pantry and cold storage (fridge/freezer). Sharing a short list of what I’m bringing to the front of the shelf, plus a recipe for a mango-mint electrolyte drink that’s keeping me hydrated through cookbook recipe testing.
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Summer Pantry Essentials
Flaky salt: This is the season for flaky finishing salt. Sprinkle on tomatoes, melons, salads or anything fresh off the grill to bring out it’s flavor (what salt does best!)
Dried chili: One of my go-to appetizers for my private chef clients is a riff on a caprese. On a platter, I assemble burrata or fior de latte with sliced ripe stone fruit (nectarines, peaches, plums), a fruity olive oil (see below), flaky salt and dried chili. Serve with sliced, toasted baguette.
A fun olive oil: I tend to pull out the infused and co-crushed oils this time of year, like basil, garlic or Meyer lemon, for drizzling on grilled vegetables, pasta, grilled pizza, caprese riffs or garnishing dips like hummus or yogurt green goddess.
Chili crisp, rice vinegar + soy sauce: Where would we be without Hetty Lui McKinnon summer dumpling salads? I’ve made both the tomato and the cucumber variations. My go-to dinner formula: frozen potstickers + a fresh veggie + pantry condiments.
Vinegars: In addition to lighter, sweeter rice vinegar, I gravitate towards light and flavorful vinegars, like sherry (great in gazpacho or romesco), champagne (mild and sweet for vinaigrettes) and white balsamic (a natural fit with tomatoes).
Couscous: There is some kind of magic when you boil a kettle of water, pour it over a bowl of Moroccan couscous (not pearl), put a plate on top and come back in 5 minutes to fluff it with a fork, perfectly cooked. Add tons of chopped herbs, toasted, chopped pistachios or almonds, oil and vinegar for a quick warm or cold side dish.
Short pasta: There’s a time and a place for a long noodle, but I tend to gravitate towards shorter cuts like lumache, mezze rigatoni or orecchiette in the summer for pasta salad, cradling tomato sauce and pesto.
Rice noodles: When I do crave the twirl of a long noodle, rice noodles are there. Quick-cooking and perfect served cold with julienned carrots, scallions, cucumbers and a soy-based sauce, they make the perfect based for any grilled protein.
Chickpeas and white beans: I saw someone call these the “vegetarian version of boneless skinless chicken breasts” and I can’t unsee it. Endlessly versatile, I reach for these more often than other beans for their neutral flavor and color in dips and dense bean salads (see my pal Violet Witchel’s profile in the NYT!)
Bonus: 3 Freezer Pantry Staples
Frozen pesto: This is my kind of preservation. Blitz up a batch, pour into ice cube molds and freeze for instant pesto anytime, for months and months!
Frozen proteins in marinade is a genius summer move because 1) you may already be freezing your meat, so you're combining two steps into one, and 2) you can stick it in a cooler (frozen or partially thawed, depending on your timeline), bring it camping, to the beach, or to a summer rental house, and it's ready to go.
Frozen burgers: A food friend swears by frozen turkey burgers on frozen brioche buns, with whatever condiments are in the fridge, for the first night back from vacation. I love the idea of having a “welcome home meal” like this. Pre-formed patties in the freezer mean instant summer meals in a pinch and less stress when hosting a cookout. Here’s a turkey-veggie slider recipe I developed for Hillary Dixler Canavan’s newsletter that only takes a few more minutes to cook from frozen.
More to come on this topic, but tell me, what do you keep in your pantry, fridge and freezer?
Recipe for Paid Subs: Mango-Mint Refresher
Inspired by Olivia Noceda deli container mocktail recipe series, I created this drink for Material Kitchen. This post is not sponsored, but I do create paid social UGC content for the brand. Use code Clare20 for 20% off Material Kitchen.