Salt and Pepper are breaking up. They’ve been together in our kitchens for too long. They have become such partners at the table that you would think they’d been officially married by some Higher Power. And although salt and pepper are essentially two separate ingredients with different roles to play on the plate and palate, somewhere along the line they got fused into one, with pepper as salt’s inevitable sidekick.
No matter what other seasoning goes into a dish, most recipes invariably finish with “salt & pepper”. Salt and pepper are eternally paired in matching shakers on the table. Chefs in restaurants mix pepper with salt together in a bowl and use it to flavor every dish that walks out the kitchen door. Waiters attempt to indiscriminately garnish everyone’s plate with fresh grinds of black pepper. We season by rote.
Well it’s time for Salt and Pepper to get a divorce!
After 12 years spent cooking in Tuscany, I found myself reaching for the pepper mill less and less until I stopped using it altogether. I began to notice this when my students started asking me why we weren’t putting pepper in anything. My answer was always “because it isn’t necessary.” I had learned to season food differently, relying on strong flavors like Tuscan olive oil, sage and rosemary.
Tuscan cuisine utilizes intense flavors like rosemary, sage, capers, wild fennel and garlic, all of which are free for the picking in gardens and fields. In addition, Tuscan extra virgin olive oil is peppery, adding a heat to the dish that renders black pepper unnecessary.
When we season with other strong spices like cumin, cinnamon, clove or cayenne, it’s because we want a particular flavor to stand out. We don’t put those spices indiscriminately in everything we eat, but use them to add sweetness, complexity or heat to a dish. Black pepper is the only spice we use without thinking. Putting black pepper in everything we cook results in both a failure to truly appreciate it as well as a sameness of flavor.
So think before grabbing the pepper mill the next time you’re in the kitchen. Set salt and pepper free from each other and see what it does for your cooking!