What Olivia Tiedemann Can’t Cook Without

’Nduja is essentially a spicy blended salami — which sounds kind of weird, but it’s really good. It adds a lot of depth of flavor. You can stir it into a dish at the same stage you would add tomato paste. For example, if you have a mirepoix going, you can use this to give a rich, smoky, spicy, and meaty background flavor. You can also add it to tomato paste. It’s great as a base for pasta. Sometimes when I’m making a basic tomato sauce or vodka sauce, I’ll add a little ’nduja at the same time I put in the tomato paste. I prefer to cook it down rather than just melting it into things, as getting some caramelization on it works really well. It’s also great with beans. If you think about how chorizo works in a dish, ’nduja functions in a similar way.

Tomato paste is a fundamental backbone of cooking. It’s an essential pantry staple for braises, short ribs, soups, sauces, and pastas. I really like the Mutti brand. Its triple-concentrated paste is great because a little goes a long way. If you realize near the end of cooking a ragù that the dish needs more depth or acidity, you can cheat by squeezing in a bit of tomato paste at the end and bringing it back to a boil. While you’re generally supposed to cook out the tomato paste at the beginning, using it at the end works as a handy fix.

I love lemons. I use them almost every day. I recommend squeezing lemon juice over your food at the very end. You generally don’t want to cook lemon juice because it turns sweet, unless that’s what you’re aiming for. I finish a lot of foods with it: sauces, pastas, soups, or grilled chicken. A little bit of lemon juice at the end lifts all the other flavors in the dish and makes everything taste much more alive. Lemon zest is great. You can also candy lemon rind. Sometimes, I’ll cut a lemon into segments and throw those into a dish if I want a bright pop rather than just acid throughout. You can also dice a lemon, toss it with olive oil, and spoon that over fish.

I like using mascarpone in place of cream because it has a better depth of flavor. It isn’t super-cheesy; it’s just creamy, rich, and decadent. Where someone might normally toss in butter at the end of a dish or add a splash of cream, I’ll use mascarpone instead. For instance, with vodka sauce or any pasta that calls for cream, I prefer adding a little scoop of mascarpone. I recently made a risotto, diced up some black truffles, stirred them into mascarpone, and piped little dollops of that on top of the risotto. It created great contrasting textures in every bite. It’s very versatile in sweet dishes as well. A lot of Italian desserts use mascarpone because its flavor profile is neutral enough to be interchangeable with cream. It’s just richer and higher in fat. I don’t do much baking myself, but it works very well when sweetened. It’s a fantastic, underused ingredient.

I’m not big on most condiments, but I love Dijon, even just on toast. After searing lamb chops, I like to slather them in Dijon and dip them in fresh herbs so they stick. It’s also great on a sandwich, of course, or stirred into macaroni and cheese. It provides a strong, savory punch. If I have nothing in my fridge except a piece of steak, I’ll grill the steak and eat it straight with Dijon.

I love cooking with vinegars, and Brightland’s Champagne vinegar is exceptional. It hits a great balance of sweet and tart with a subtle wine flavor. Red- and white-wine vinegars have stronger wine flavors, while Champagne vinegar feels lighter and almost more citrusy yet still provides serious acidity. I like it in dressings and to finish cooked dishes, similar to lemon juice.

Sherry vinegar has a distinct sweetness compared with other vinegars. It’s great in vinaigrettes or for marinating fresh tomatoes. One thing I love to make with this and the Spanish chorizo that’s next on my list: I fry that up until it’s crisp, then blend it in a food processor with this sherry vinegar, olive oil, and a touch of honey. It makes an incredible chorizo vinaigrette — the sherry vinegar and chorizo pair naturally together.

Speaking of, this is probably my most purchased product in my life. I don’t think I buy anything more frequently than this stick of chorizo. Probably not even, like, paper towels. It’s a dry-cured, aged pork sausage made from Iberian pigs. Because of that, the fat and meat quality are incredible. It’s delicious straight out of the package. Beyond eating it plain and using it in dressings, you can slice it, crisp it up, and blend it into bread crumbs to top macaroni and cheese. It’s very different from Mexican chorizo—firmer, drier, less sweet, and heavily seasoned with smoky Spanish paprika.

Cannellini beans are versatile, healthy, and high in protein and fiber. Whether you use dried or canned, they’re great to have on hand to quickly bulk up a dish. I love putting them into pastas and soups. This is such a stupid name, but I make this little soup called baby-food soup, and I feed it to my girlfriend. I boil a bunch of bone broth, put a little pasta in there, dice whatever vegetables are around, and then add some beans. It’s just really good. And a squeeze of lemon at the end, of course. Cannellini beans are great with fish and seafood like mussels, too. With dried, I soak them overnight, then simmer them for about 45 minutes with stock, fresh rosemary, garlic, and a splash of olive oil to infuse flavor directly into the beans.

So many pickles out there are absolute trash, garbage, electric-green dumpster fires. Meaning pickles in general can be hit-or-miss, but cornichons are always reliable. Pickles can sometimes make a sandwich or burger soggy, whereas cornichons maintain their crisp texture without that issue. You can chop them up for a rémoulade, and they’re an essential addition to a cheese board.