Your Frugal Italian Kitchen

By: Ashley McHale
Living in a historic city such as Florence leaves you surrounded by pricey Trattorias and Ristorantes, so making meals in your living space can help keep your wallet in tact. Visit the grocery stores and markets often enough and you can create your own Italian cuisine on a good budget. Grocery stores are easy to find. Despar is a popular chain of grocery stores in the historic area of Florence and there are also other chains of stores such as Supermercati II Centro, which has five locations in the main area of the city. Make sure to get to one of the markets: Mercato Centrale or Mercato di Sant’ Amrogio, before they close which is at 2pm daily and are closed on Sunday.

Pick up a few items that could make a dinner for four while costing only 15.00 euro. The markets are the best place to shop for fresh vegetables, fruits, meats, cheeses, oils, spices and wine. The grocery stores carry all of these things as well.

Putting together simple dishes such as pastas and salads can be very easy to do in a kitchen with a stove, refrigerator and basic utensils. Purchasing pasta noodles such as farfalle and penne at supermarkets can be as low as .75 euro and up to 1.50 euro depending on the size of bag you buy. With a bag costing only .75 euro you can feed up to 5 people depending on how hungry you and your guests are.

When buying things to accompany pasta such as olive oil, pesto sauce or pomodoro sauce (tomato sauce), it is better to go to a market. Usually the vendors can assist you with your purchases and tell you what sauces and spices pair with either pasta or to make an appetizer with.

Adding olive oil to your pasta can easily be done, it is very common in a lot of Italian dishes, go to a vendor specifically selling olive oil and ask to try different kinds. This way you get to know what you like and maybe even get some history behind the brands that you taste. “Olives come from every region and will have a different taste from each region depending on the weather in which they are grown, if they are grown in hotter regions they will have a stronger taste,” said Ilaria Colombo, manager of Marconcini a wine and olive oil shop in the Mercato Centrale.

Being creative in the kitchen with fresh, authentic, Italian ingredients can be an experience in itself. Picking up a bag of pasta, a few tomatoes, a bag of spices (a mix of oregano and red pepper flakes), olive oil and bufala mozzarella can make a salad and up to 6 servings of pasta, for three people it can be up to two dishes each.

This will only set you back 15.00 euro, which would include a bottle of olive oil for 10.00 euro that can last weeks. Accompany your meal with a glass of wine or two, for you and your guests. A bottle of red or white at most grocery stores can be as low as 3.00 euro. Eating an authentic Italian meal on a budget can easily be done and can also be a terrific experience. So don’t let high price menus discourage you from soaking in Italian cuisine, get hungry, get inspired and eat up!