Italian food, told from the kitchen

The best way to share a shopping list with your family is a list on everyone's phone that updates the moment someone writes on it. How the note on the fridge, the family chat, shared notes and a shopping list app compare, and the one rule that makes any of them work.

To split groceries with roommates, agree on a list of shared products, choose one of three payment systems and keep a single shared shopping list. Which items to share, how a common fund, turns or split receipts work, and how to keep track of who bought what.

A supermarket loyalty card is worth it if you shop at that chain at least twice a month. Points often return around 1% of what you spend, member prices much more. How to calculate the real value of each card, what data you give in exchange, and which cards to keep.

Grocery shopping for an elderly parent works best with a fixed day, a standard list of the products they always need and one shared list for everyone who helps. What should never be missing from their kitchen, how siblings and carers coordinate, and how to know the shopping was done.

For a party, plan 300 to 400 grams of food per person if the buffet replaces dinner, about 1 litre of soft drinks and water per guest, half a kilo of ice and one 100 to 120 gram slice of cake each. The quantities for food, drinks, ice, cake and tableware, and how to avoid buying too much.

In Italy long pasta is eaten with the fork alone, never shortened with a knife. The habit goes back to the noble dinners of the 1800s, when pasta was served alongside the meat and followed the etiquette of vegetables. How to twirl it, and the rule for every other shape.

Seasonal produce is picked ripe, travels less and costs up to 40% less than the same product out of season. Here is what is in season month by month in Italy, and how to recognise it at the market.

The Mediterranean diet is not a diet in the weight-loss sense: it is a way of eating built on vegetables, legumes, whole grains and olive oil. Here is what the research says and how a normal week of shopping looks.

Five dinners that take between 10 and 25 minutes and use pantry staples: pasta, eggs, canned tomatoes, legumes and whatever vegetable is in the fridge. Quantities for two people.

With five shelf-stable ingredients you can put dinner together on any evening, without shopping. Which ones they are, how much to keep, and how long they actually last.

Italian households throw away around 500 grams of food per person every week. Most of it is planning, not laziness. Here is a method that takes fifteen minutes and a shared list.

Tomatoes, potatoes and bananas lose flavour in the fridge. Salad, berries and courgettes need it. A room by room guide to making produce last up to twice as long.

Learn how to make tiramisù the traditional way, with mascarpone, eggs, espresso and savoiardi. Exact quantities for 8 people, resting times and the mistakes that ruin the cream.

Pasta al sugo is the simplest Italian pasta dish: tomato, garlic or onion, olive oil, basil and salt. Here is how to make a tomato sauce that tastes like an Italian home kitchen in 30 minutes.

Authentic spaghetti alla carbonara uses only guanciale, eggs, pecorino romano and black pepper. Here is how to make carbonara with a silky cream, with quantities for 4 and the temperature trick that prevents scrambled eggs.