Finishing Touches

These pantry items are the intensely flavored condiments that can bring an ordinary dish to life and make its personality sparkle. A smoky-flavored salsa to enhance a black bean soup, a pungent olive sauce to toss with pasta or spread on toast, the sweet-tart bite of a chutney to complement the hot flavors of a curry, Chinese pepper salt to sprinkle over eggs—these are the small items that transform and complete other foods. They are the vibrant dash of color in a more subtle landscape.

These flavored butters, sauces, salsas, pastes, and fruit preserves can be made at the last minute, but they all keep well, for at least a week, and many will keep more or less indefinitely. Once you have them on hand, you’ll have the power of a quick-change artist. Having an array of condiments in your pantry will allow you to put together a number of unusual and tasty foods quickly and easily or to finish a dish with a flourish.