For the pantry, we have olive oils both single varietal and blended, from Italy, France, Catalonia and Spain and a white winter truffle oil from Umbria.  The truffle aroma only truly develops when it is added to warm food, so use it in your risottos, pasta and soups.  We stock both single grape variety and balsamic vinegars.  Look out for the intense and smooth Valdespino Sherry Vinegar from a small bodega in Andalucia. 

Another vinegar produced by the solera method is that made from sun-dried Pedro Ximenez grapes by the Spanish company Sotaroni.  It is rich and dark with aromas of dried fruits, with a bittersweet, intense flavour.  For a "dipping" vinegar, try our Ricco Balsamic vinegar, which is eight years old, left to thicken naturally in barrels.  Use it sparingly to add a deep richness to meat stews and sauces or to dress a tomato salad.

Our olive oils include a provencal herb oil from A L'Olivier.  Try it in couscous and vegetable salads, with new potatoes or fresh green beans and peas.  It makes a good alternative to a herb garden.  We also have olive oils that are excellent all rounders and good for cooking, as well as nut oils for simple dressings and vinaigrettes.

We stock Vialone Nano rice for risotto, Calasparra rice for paella and stews, chorizo sausages from Brindisa, wonderful cooked Spanish beans and chickpeas, great for one pot winter warmers as well as summer salads.  A quick and easy lunch or light supper is made from a tin of Ortiz tuna, some tinned giant Greek baked beans in tomato sauce, finely sliced red onion, diced avocado, dressed salad leaves and a few salted capers. 

One of the best dried pastas we can find is from an Italian producer called Sapori di Casa, who uses fresh local free-range eggs (most commercial pasta producers use liquid eggs).  You can make a good tomato sauce from a jar of our whole, organic peeled San Marzano tomatoes.  They are soft and will fall apart during cooking.  Try them straight from the jar on toast covered with Comté, a French Gruyere cheese, which you could melt under the grill.