✓ You've got everything — happy cooking!
TipTap any item to check it off as you shop. One batch of bolognese makes 6–8 cups — three meals’ worth: two nights of rigatoni plus the stuffed peppers. Its ingredients are marked Bolognese; buy those first and three of your five dinners are handled.
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Garlic
Soup (4 cloves), chicken (3 crushed), lamb marinade (2–3 sliced), duck fat potatoes (3–4). Buy two heads and you won't be counting.
Soup · Chicken · Lamb · Potatoes
2 heads
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Yellow Onion
Finely chopped for the soffritto — it should melt into the sauce by the end
Bolognese
1 medium
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Carrots
Finely chopped for the soffritto; they bring the sauce its natural sweetness
Bolognese
2 medium
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Celery
Finely chopped; completes the classic soffritto base
Bolognese
2 stalks
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Bell Peppers
Seeded and halved lengthwise — 5 or 6 whole peppers gives you the 10–12 halves the recipe fills
Stuffed Peppers
5–6
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Fresh Broccoli, Pre-Cut
A large bag from the produce section, already cleaned and cut. Buying it pre-cut is the whole trick on a school night.
Garlic Butter Chicken
1 large bag
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Yukon Gold Potatoes
Peeled and cut into 1½-inch chunks. Yukon Golds have the starch content for crisp outsides and creamy centers.
Duck Fat Potatoes
4 lbs
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Roma Tomatoes
Meaty and dry-fleshed — these are the ones doing the thickening in the soup
Soup
4
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Compari Tomatoes
Sweet and low-acid, with more flesh than a cherry tomato
Soup
3
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Angel Sweet or Other Sweet Cherry Tomatoes
The sugar in the pot — they're the reason the soup never needs a spoonful of sugar to correct the acid
Soup
1 pint
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Strawberries
Sliced, not halved — more cut surface means more syrup
Macerated Strawberries
1 pint
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Lemons
One for the broccoli finishing squeeze; 2–3 Tbsp of juice for the lamb marinade plus a squeeze after the rest
Chicken · Lamb
3
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Fresh Rosemary
The workhorse herb this week — chicken pan sauce, lamb marinade (3–4 sprigs), and steeped into the duck fat (2–3 sprigs). One good bunch covers all three.
Chicken · Lamb · Potatoes
1 large bunch
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Fresh Basil
Sprigs for the soup garnish, if you can get it
Soup
small bunch
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Bagged Salad
Whatever's good and quick — the peppers are rich and want something cold and raw beside them
Stuffed Peppers
1 bag
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Coarsely Ground Beef
Coarse grind gives the sauce texture and substance. Ground chuck works well; beef cheek is our preference but needs the full 3 hours to break down.
Bolognese
2–2¼ lbs
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Pancetta or Bacon
Renders first to build the fat base. Pancetta is more traditional; good bacon works fine.
Bolognese
12 oz
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Whole Chicken, Cut Up for Frying
Take the two breasts for the garlic butter chicken and keep the rest for stock or a second dinner. An $11 cut-up bird beats the same weight in breasts alone — or just buy 2 very large breasts if you'd rather skip the knife work.
Garlic Butter Chicken
1 bird (or 2 lg breasts)
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Lamb Loin Chops
Ask the butcher to cut them 1 to 1¼ inches thick so they grill evenly. Buy day-of if you can.
Lamb Chops
8 chops (2¼–2½ lb)
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Whole Milk
1 cup simmered into the bolognese (this is what makes it silky — don't skip it) plus 2½ cups for the pudding
Bolognese · Chocolate Pudding
½ gallon
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Heavy Cream
Soup takes 1–2 cups depending on how acidic your tomatoes are, tiramisu takes ¾ cup, and the strawberries want whipped cream. Buy the quart.
Soup · Tiramisu · Strawberries
1 quart
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Butter
3 Tbsp for basting the chicken, 2 Tbsp stirred into the pudding off the heat
Chicken · Chocolate Pudding
1 stick
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Mascarpone
The heart of the tiramisu — whipped into the sweetened cream before it's folded into the yolks
Tiramisu
1 cup (8 oz)
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Shredded Mozzarella
Piled over every pepper half — this is what browns under the broiler
Stuffed Peppers
2 cups
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Before you buyOpen the fridge and the door shelf first. Butter, Parmesan and heavy cream are the three most commonly re-bought items on this list — and the wedge left from last week is very likely still in there.
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Parmesan Wedge
Grated over the rigatoni and over the hot broccoli. Check the fridge first — if there's a wedge left from last week, this is the week it gets used up.
Rigatoni · Chicken
1 wedge (pantry check)
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Eggs
You need 4 yolks for the tiramisu cream
Tiramisu
1 dozen
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Rigatoni
Cook the box's serving size times the number at the table. There's enough sauce for two rigatoni nights, so buy accordingly. Wide ridged tubes hold a meat sauce the way strands never will.
Rigatoni
1–2 boxes
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Basmati Rice
1 cup dry yields the 2 cups cooked the peppers need. Measure the dry cup, not the cooked.
Stuffed Peppers
1 cup dry
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Cannellini Beans
Two cans, rinsed — one gets blended into the soup for body, the other goes in whole at the end
Soup
2 cans
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Canned Whole Tomatoes
Drain and crush by hand before adding — whole tomatoes have better flavor than pre-crushed
Bolognese
1 can (28 oz)
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Canned San Marzano Tomatoes
The backbone of the soup. Or reach for last year's home-canned stewed tomatoes if you put any up — this is the soup to open them for.
Soup
1 can (28 oz)
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Tomato Paste
Cooked out in the pan before the tomatoes go in, to lose the raw edge
Bolognese
2 Tbsp (small can)
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Beef Stock
Start with 2 cups; keep a little extra for topping up if the sauce dries out over the long simmer
Bolognese
2–3 cups
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Olive Oil & Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Heavier use than usual this week — a full ¼ cup goes into the soup and stays there, plus the lamb marinade, the broccoli, the chicken sear, and a drizzle over each soup bowl at the table
Soup · Lamb · Chicken · Bolognese
check the bottle
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Check the pantry firstEverything from here down is a staple you may already own — sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, vanilla, cooking spray, salt and pepper. Check the shelf and tick off what you have rather than buying a second one of it.
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Granulated Sugar
½ cup tiramisu, ½ cup pudding, 2 Tbsp on the strawberries
Tiramisu · Pudding · Strawberries
~1¼ cups
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Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
⅓ cup into the pudding, 2 Tbsp dusted through the tiramisu
Pudding · Tiramisu
1 container
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Cornstarch
The pudding's thickener. Must boil a full minute to lose the chalky taste.
Chocolate Pudding
3 Tbsp
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Vanilla Extract
Stirred in off the heat so the flavor stays bright
Chocolate Pudding
1 tsp (pantry check)
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Cooking Spray
A quick pass over the sheet pan so the pepper bottoms release cleanly
Stuffed Peppers
1 can (pantry check)
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Salt & Black Pepper
Every recipe this week. Salt the pasta water, the parboiling water, and the soup after blending — the beans and cream mute it.
All
pantry check
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Duck Fat
Small jars, near the specialty meats, the charcuterie case, or shelved with the oils. Butchers and specialty grocers reliably carry it, and once opened it keeps for months in the fridge.
Duck Fat Potatoes
1 jar (5 Tbsp needed)
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Alessi Ladyfingers
One package — not two. That's a correction from the person who actually makes the tiramisu in our house.
Tiramisu
1 package
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Dry Red Wine
Cooked until completely evaporated into the sauce. Nothing precious, but nothing you wouldn't drink.
Bolognese
1 cup
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Whole Coffee Beans
Ground fresh and brewed strong — 2 cups through the Chemex. No espresso machine needed.
Tiramisu
enough for 2 cups
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Bittersweet or Semisweet Chocolate
3 oz chopped into the pudding off the heat; 1–2 oz shaved over the tiramisu just before serving
Pudding · Tiramisu
4–5 oz
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Charcoal
A full chimney, banked to one side for a two-zone fire
Lamb Chops
1 bag (check supply)