Get Your Italian Pantry Staples Delivered From Family Farms in Puglia

What if you could stock your pantry with pasta sauce made with tomatoes grown on a small farm in southern Italy? A Brooklyn-based company is making that possible.

They say the secret to good Italian cooking is simple, seasonal ingredients, but that doesn't mean it's easy to go to your own kitchen and replicate the kind of food you eat on vacation in the Mediterranean. But there's no harm in trying, especially if your ingredients come from sustainable family farms in sun-soaked Puglia, Italy.

How does one manage that kind of sweet set up? One way is through a farm share program from Especially Puglia, a Brooklyn-based, Italian import business that ships handcrafted wooden crates filled with artisanal foods from Puglia to customers around the U.S. The company only sources non-GMO goods that are farmed sustainably (sometimes organically) by small, independent producers in the northern part of the region.

Shipments include traditionally preserved and shelf-stable goods made with crops from the most recent harvest. Spring and summer yields are delivered in September or October, while fall and winter foods go out the following March or April. What's inside varies with the season, but current offerings include durum wheat semolina, small-batch pasta, tomato sauce, marmalade, vincotto vinegar, jared artichokes, and vegetables preserved in olive oil — the kind of authentic Italian foodstuff that gets imported en masse anyway. Might as well choose a trade route that supports the little guy.

WHERE TO BUY

Seasonal boxes are available for $160 each on especiallypuglia.com.

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