In this episode of Cooking with an Italian Accent, I talk with Melina Hammer, a longtime friend of Letters from Tuscany—food stylist, photographer, recipe developer, award-winning author of A Year at Catbird Cottage, and host at Catbird Cottage in the Hudson Valley—for the first conversation in a new series dedicated to other people’s pantries.

We explore the pantry as a place of security, abundance, memory, and possibility, from beans, jams, canned tomatoes, tinned fish, and honey to fermented garlic, tomato confit, and the freezer as a second pantry. A warm conversation about how the ingredients we keep close shape the way we cook, eat, and live.

The podcast now lives inside our newsletter on Substack, Letters from Tuscany, where you’ll find all the links mentioned in this episode, and where you can join the conversation by leaving a comment.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit julskitchen.substack.com/subscribe