Getting cosy with Italian cuisine this autumn

While Italian cuisine may conjure up images of pastel-coloured houses along azure seas, bustling markets with summer fruits and vegetables, Aperol spritzes being enjoyed on sun-trap piazzas and windows full of rows of gelato, it also caters to cosy season.

In fact, autumn is the perfect time for independents to spark a passion for Italian cuisine with the latest and greatest products. Reshuffling your shelves can help bring richer sauces and tinned and jarred products back to the fore.

As the weather turns, your customers will be looking for cosier, autumnal flavours, like umami truffle shavings, creamy carbonara or rich venison ragù. Sourcing locally foraged mushrooms and other seasonal veg grown in the UK will also help customers add a local British twist to their favourite Italian dishes.

For particularly hands-on customers, why not try selling cooking kits complete with everything they need to craft their own comforting pasta dinner from scratch, such as Italian 00 flour and semolina, a pasta maker and ravioli stamps? And for the more time conscious, take a fresh look at your dried pastas and risottos as well as flavour-packed, stir-in sauces to ensure your shop offers something different to the multiples.

As fewer people spend on eating out this autumn to save their disposable income, they will be looking to recreate restaurant-quality dishes at home, so make sure your shelves are stocked to the nines with these products.

Autumn is a great time to fall in love with Italian cuisine, and as customers look for comfort in food as a result of the worry caused by the cost-of-living crisis, giving them a gentle prod towards cosy and rich fine food products can make all the difference this year.

Are you passionate about Italian food and drink? Get in touch via victoria.smith@dcthompson.co.uk