Italian cooking rewards restraint — good olive oil, ripe tomatoes, and not very many other things. Several of these are pantry dishes you can make with nothing fresh in the house.
All 4 recipes
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
Garlic, oil, chilli and pasta water. A Neapolitan midnight dish that proves a pantry with almost nothing in it can still produce dinner.
Bruschetta al Pomodoro
Grilled bread rubbed with raw garlic and piled with tomatoes. Worth making only in tomato season, and unbeatable when you do.
Margherita Pizza
Tomato, mozzarella, basil - the red, white and green of the Italian flag. A hot domestic oven and an overnight dough get you most of the way to a pizzeria base.
Pasta al Pomodoro
The plainest and best Italian pasta: good tinned tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil, cooked down until the sauce clings. Nothing to hide behind, so use the best tomatoes you can.