One More Chair — There's Always Room, There's Always Enough
At a Sicilian table there's always room for one more, because the cooking was always meant to be more than enough. A pantry of preserved summer, like Tutto Sicilia's Sun-Dried Tomato Pâté and Hot Pepper Cream, is what lets you say yes to the extra chair.
Nonna never made exactly the right amount of food.
She made too much. Every time, deliberately, without apology. Because someone always came who hadn't been expected, or someone stayed who was about to leave, or what looked like enough at the beginning turned out not to be once everyone was actually sitting down.
Always make more
The Sicilian answer to this is simple: you make more. Not a little more. More. And if some of it is left at the end, it becomes tomorrow's lunch — and that's not a problem, that's just good thinking.
A pantry that says yes
That's the whole idea behind The Garden Collection. Sun-dried tomatoes and hot pepper cream — things that were made when the garden was giving everything it had, in August, when there was more than could possibly be eaten fresh. Dried slowly. Preserved in olive oil. Kept for the months when the garden had gone quiet.
The preserved summer fed the winter table. It also fed the unexpected guests, the extra chairs pulled in from the other room, the one more who arrived just as the food was being brought out.
There's always room. There's always enough. That's not wishful thinking — that's a pantry that's been thought about. Jars that let you say yes to one more person at the table without doing the math in your head.
Cook a bigger pot of pasta. Open another jar of sun-dried tomato pâté and put more bread on the board. Pour the wine. Pull up a chair.
The table that always has room is the one worth coming back to. The one people remember. One more chair. There's always room.
For that bigger pot of pasta, make Pasta al Capuliato, and read The Long Table, about the meal that made everyone stay too long.
Questions about the Sicilian table
Why do Sicilians always cook too much?
Because someone always comes who wasn't expected, or stays who was about to leave. Leftovers become tomorrow's lunch.
What's in a Sicilian pantry for unexpected guests?
Preserved summer: things like sun-dried tomatoes and hot pepper cream, made in August when the garden gave more than could be eaten fresh.
How do you feed extra guests quickly?
Cook a bigger pot of pasta, open another jar of sun-dried tomato pâté, and put more bread on the board.
The garden remembers everything. So does the jar.
the pantry
FROM THE SAME SHELF, GENERATION TO GENERATION
