My apartment doesn’t have a pantry. Instead, I invested in some cabinets to hold everything that doesn’t belong in the fridge or freezer, from flour to popcorn. The pantry can be a magical place of inspiration, but it can also feel like you’re staring into the abyss. It can be paralyzing, even when you have a well-stocked one. A lot of recipes these days utilize ingredients you may not have in your pantry, which makes it especially difficult to cook when running out to the store may not be the easiest thing to do. Instead, why not make your cookbook do the work for you? The recipes in these books can help you make a meal that’s greater than the sum of its parts. We talked to a few seasoned food writers about what cookbooks work for their pantries and rounded up a few others to make yours feel like a farmers market.
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