I internalized this message from my upbringing: choose quality over quantity. I have always believed that buying the best quality you can makes a huge difference, even if means saving and waiting or buying less quantity. This is true for clothing, and for home furnishings, but nowhere are the benefits more immediately obvious than in food and ingredients.

A lot of other cultures seem to understand this better than we do here. We are busy and we don’t tend to be mindful about our eating most of the time. We shovel in whatever is easy and on hand to stave off hunger.

BUT Great ingredients, simply prepared, can elevate merely eating to the simple pleasure of dining.

Here are some key foods where I find buying quality offers the most obvious benefits

Herbs

Fresh herbs add not only great flavor, but color and texture to a dish. Dried herbs are fine and sometimes the only choice, but fresh herbs are such an easy way to up your cooking game. Fresh rosemary, basil, mint, tarragon, thyme, sage, or dill can make a simple broiled or roasted dish into a gourmet treat.

These tend to wilt quickly, though there are some storage hacks for fresh herbs to help them last longer…and you can always use any extras in adult beverages….did someone say Mojitos?? If at all possible, I highly recommend growing potted culinary herbs to have access on demand, but short of that a quick trip to the market will be worth it for the boost in flavor.

potted herbs are a source for fresh ingredients #weeknightgourmet #cookingathome

If you do stock dried herbs and spices, buy smaller quantities and pay attention to the expiration dates. No, it probably won’t kill you, but the flavor diminishes remarkably over time, and the whole point of seasonings is to add flavor!

Produce

If you live in a climate that can grow things year round, you have no idea how lucky you are. But for the rest of us, most vegetables and fruits sold here are picked before they mature to keep them from rotting on the journey across the country or around the world to get to our grocery store shelves. This means much of the produce for sale has nowhere near the flavor the good Lord intended.

And fresh tomatoes or lettuce? Who knew these could actually taste like something!

When tomatoes are allowed to ripen before harvesting and are sold immediately close by, wowza, what a difference. We discovered these awesome tomatoes that actually have flavor. In the winter. In New England. (I know, shocking!)

Anyway, we discovered them totally by accident - they came with a delivery order from a local gourmet fast food place and we looked them up to discover they were available right at our local grocery stores! How did I miss this all these years? They are grown in greenhouses in Maine and are fresh and filled with flavor. We refer to them as the “fancy” tomatoes in our house, and they taste just as good as the ones eaten right from the garden during our painfully short growing season - well, not OUR garden - My failure on the tomato growing front is legendary.

We also discovered a similar local lettuce source in our grocery stores that tastes appreciably and noticeably better than the stuff coming from far away. It is grown hydroponically in greenhouses just 2 towns away. I always thought of lettuce as a filler or garnish, or merely a carrier for the good stuff (like dressing!) until I discovered that it could actually have flavor of its own!

The bottom line? Look for local produce whenever possible. It will always taste better!

Cheese

Another key ingredient where quality matters is cheese…there is a WORLD of difference between Parmigiano Reggiano which is imported from Italy and the cheese-like-food-like substance in the green shaker can, which is little more than cheese scented salt. Italians take their food in general, and their cheese in particular, very seriously and a little of the good stuff goes a long way. Our kitchen is never without a chunk of good Parmesan!

Chocolate

Buy the good stuff - you’ll need so much less of it to savor the flavor. A decadent, silky smooth piece of dark chocolate can be so much more indulgent feeling and satisfying than a bagful of cheap, waxy tasting chocolate. Better for both your taste buds AND your waistline! And chocolate labeled ethically sourced or fair trade means not so much that the cocoa beans were kept happy, as that the growers and harvesters weren’t exploited. Good chocolate is one of life’s little luxuries that is totally worth the indulgence.

The list goes on - superior taste is evident in farm fresh eggs from our friends chickens, higher quality meats, better olive oils and balsamic vinegars, and local bakery or homemade breads and pastries. Buy quality ingredients for a taste (see what I did there??) of living well.