CS Fishery Oregon Albacore Tuna
While we love boutique cans and jars of tuna imported from Italy, Spain and Portugal, their prohibitive pricing makes them feel like a real splurge. This Pacific albacore tuna is caught and canned often within the span of a day, so its freshness rivals the European quality but at a much lower price point. Unlike supermarket tuna, which can be mealy or soggy, CS Fishery's product is wonderfully dense and flaky—you can tell this is tuna meat. The fresh, mild and meaty fish is packed in olive oil and seasoned with Jacobsen sea salt, made from the same waters from which the fish are caught. This is premium American tuna—with a clear supply chain—at a reasonable price.
Graza Co. Squeeze "Drizzle" and "Sizzle" Olive Oil Set
Enjoy the best of both worlds with Graza’s “Drizzle & Sizzle” combo pack of extra-virgin olive oils. Grown and made in Jaen, Spain, the country where about half the world’s olive oil is produced, Graza uses 100% picual olives for both their blends of extra virgin olive oil. Use “Drizzle” for finishing, made from olives harvested by hand in October when they are still young, green and not fully ripe. The younger olives make an olive oil that is full of attitude, grassy and peppery, with a spicy zip that finishes a dish beautifully. “Sizzle” is for everyday cooking, made from picual olives harvested in December and January, when they are more mature and juicy. Once pressed, “Sizzle” is a bit more mellow and milder in flavor—though still with a grassy, peppery bite—perfect for roasting, searing, poaching, pan frying, baking and marinating. Both versions also come packaged in an easy to use squeeze bottle, so you can emulate exactly what chefs do in restaurants.
Casablanca Market Preserved Lemons from Morocco
Casablanca Market's preserved lemons have a bright, balanced flavor and they aren't overly salty or bitter like some brands. We like that they add a bold, piquant kick to dishes without being too sour, and their tender texture is perfect for chopping finely and incorporating into recipes.
Mutti Triple-Concentrated Tomato Paste
Mutti Tomato Paste is tomato paste as it was originally intended. Traditionally, this ingredient was made by drying tomato sauce on wooden boards in the sun; likewise, Mutti's modern version has a sun-dried flavor and caramelized richness reminiscent of molasses. Yet the tomato paste is not overly sweet—as tomatoes cook, their amino acids break down, which produces savory umami compounds. And unlike most tubed tomato pastes which are double-concentrated, this version is triple-concentrated, so a little goes a long way. We far prefer it to other tomato pastes in tubes, not to mention canned varieties that inevitably have a metallic taste from reacting with acidic tomato juice.
Il Colle Del Gusto Sicilian Pistachio Spread
Made from Sicilian pistachios and extra-virgin olive oil, Pistacchiosa is a creamy, aromatic spread you will want to put on all your desserts and, yes, eat straight out of the jar.
Pure Indian Foods Organic Tamarind Paste
Pure Indian Foods’ organic tamarind paste has a pure, clean flavor with a bracing tartness. This thick, smooth paste is our favorite form for using tamarind as a souring agent. While fresh pods are available in some markets, it’s more commonly sold as a concentrate or as dense blocks of pulp that need labor-intensive soaking and straining; both forms sacrifice nuanced flavor in favor of convenience, whereas this tamarind paste is both easy to use and intensely flavorful. Pure Indian Foods, which traces its roots to 1889 in northern India, still uses traditional methods to make its products. The company’s pantry staples have a complexity and authenticity that just can’t be imitated.
Eat This Yum Balsamic Caramelized Onions Jam
A little sweet, a little savory, this Balsamic Caramelized Onion spread from Eat This Yum is a cheese board’s best friend. Two varieties of onion, Vidalia and red—paired for well-rounded flavor—are diced and cooked down with balsamic vinegar. The onions get jammy but stay intact for a chutney-like texture—unlike some jams that can feel overly gelatinous. And it’s surprisingly well balanced: Balsamic vinegar shines in this, cutting through the jam’s sweetness for tang and umami. Made with just five simple ingredients, this versatile onion jam pairs well with a variety of savory recipes.
Bona Furtuna Sundried Tomatoes
Grown carefully in limited harvests, these sun-dried tomatoes grown in Sicily are bright and sunny red in color and soft and supple in texture, which can be hard to come by in sundried tomatoes. On the nose, the smell of warm tomatoes in the sun and sweet dried fruits. The flavor is noticeably bright, salty and acidic—very powerful for a sun-dried tomato. In fact, the brightness and strong tomato flavor is the most exceptional aspect of Bona Furtuna’s sun-dried tomatoes.
Morita Brand Mentsuyu (All-Purpose Noodle Soup Base)
This amber-hued liquid is the epitome of full-flavored versatility. Used widely across Japan as a stand-along sauce, soup base and a quick and bold way to dress cold noodles, we love the umami-packed zing mentsuyu brings to the table, as its main ingredient is soy, but it also yields sweet, earthy, salty and smoky flavors. That unique balance is what makes its taste so distinctive and layered. We love this one, made from premium ingredients and no artificial additives. Savory awase dashi broth, briny kombu (seaweed) and rich katsuo dashi (made from bonito) come together to form a flavorful stock, while a special mixture called “hongaeshi” is added to draw out even more complexity. It entails slowly melting sugar into a mixture of soy and mirin over a low temperature. In our store, we have dashi bases, mushroom broths, soys and all sorts of flavoring agents from Japan, but this one is unique in that it is equal parts ingredient and finisher—it won’t overwhelm your dish while also being complete as is.
Masseria Mirogallo Hand-Peeled Tomatoes
Produced by the Belfiore family in the province of Matera (one of Italy’s oldest towns), these hand-peeled tomatoes are stunningly packaged and taste terrific—sweet, fruity, bright and bold.
