Salt

Yes, we know that you might not think of salt as "an ingredient," but it is. Like so many other food products, I often think that we have been trained to expect the worse, and are then surprise when something is exceptional.

This is definitely true for salt. Salt has been a basic cooking staple for seasoning and curing since time immemorial. In times past, salt was expensive and often saved for curing foods for want of modern refrigeration. In fact our local bread, Pane Toscana (which we think is terrible for anything except bruschetta), is made without salt. It was created during the middle ages, when salt was very expensive, and they learned to make bread (pretty bad bread) without salt. The added advantage is that it keep well because of its low moisture content.

In today's world, salt is inexpensive, and available in a range of types. Most salt comes from mines where they inject water to remove natural sodium from the ground. Not very romantic, and not very flavorful.

For cooking, use coarse sea salt. But for seasoning food right before serving use Gray Salt, It is actually Gray because it is harvested from salt flat, and traces of other mineral remain -- providing the gray color and the great flavor. Only certain oceans and seas are clean enough to produce this great salt (further purification would ruin the flavor). You can find it in specialty food stores, and it is worth the expense and effort of finding it.

Put some on a focaccia, or on a fresh green or Caprese salad. You will be amazed that something as simple as salt could pack so much flavor.