Meet q.b. cucina: your new favorite shop
Meet q.b. cucina
If you love homemade pasta like I do & long to enjoy authentic Italian recipes in your own kitchen- you have to meet my friend Sarah, founder of q.b. cucina. I invited Sarah to share her story and introduce us all to her new and delicious shop!
Welcome Sarah! Congratulations on your new shop & online destination for Italian food lovers. Can you share the story behind q.b. cucina with us?
I founded q.b. cucina because I love Italian food and wanted to build an online community for other Italian food lovers like myself—a place where we can share authentic Italian recipes, ideas on Italian cooking, and beautiful Italian kitchen tools and accessories that are hard to find outside of Italy.
I guess you could say it was also for partially selfish reasons – to solve my own problem of not being able to find certain Italian kitchen tools without paying a ton in shipping from Italy!
A lot of people ask why I chose the name “q.b.” It’s an acronym commonly used in Italian recipes that stands for quanto basta, meaning “as much as needed.”
It’s often used to indicate that there is no set amount of say, salt, in a recipe—it’s up to you to decide based on your personal taste.
It’s my hope that q.b. cucina (“quanto basta kitchen”) helps you nourish your appetite and replenish your kitchen like salt in an Italian recipe: quanto basta, as much you need.
Here at Smitten Italy, we are all about helping people bring the bits of Italy they love into their daily lives at home. What are your favorite tips for doing this?
Identify that one aspect of Italy that you love–food, fashion, sports, language–and try to bring more of that into your life.
For me, it’s always been the food.
I cook Italian dishes often, exploring obscure recipes, collecting all kinds of Italian kitchen wares and pasta tools, and going out my way to find the right ingredients. I’m constantly finding new ways to recreate that feeling of enjoying a meal in Italy.
I hope that with q.b. cucina, we can help more people do the same–especially now with the pandemic while traveling to Italy is nearly impossible!
Traditional Wooden Garganelli Pasta Comb
These Italian kitchenwares are gorgeous and would be an amazing gift for yourself or any home cook or Italian food lover you know.
Olive Wood Cheese Grater
Brass Fluted Double Pasta & Pastry Wheel
Thank you Sarah- we are over the moon excited about your classes and kitchen tools (what a great resource for the Italian food loving world) and can't wait to cheer you on as your business blossoms and grows!
I'm in love with everything q.b. cucina is about. How about you?
Sarah has poured her heart and soul into curating beautiful heirloom quality tools that will help you make amazing food at home, and support local artisans in Italy at the same time. Oh, and she'll teach you how to use them- how great is that?!
What's on your wish list? I honestly would love 1 of everything! Especially this olive wood cheese board, olive wood cheese grater & all of the hand stamped linens!
Sarah is an expert in Italian food & cooking and lived in Italy for over 5 years. I first "met" her before we moved to Italy and loved following her adventures in Bologna. A few years ago she did a "one perfect day" guide for us all about visiting Bologna, that you can read here.
Enjoy a favorite pasta recipe from Sarah- find the recipe below and also on her website.
Tagliatelle with Prosciutto & Butter
Ingredients
450 grams of fresh tagliatelle pasta
Kosher salt, q.b.
6 tablespoons butter
8 ounces prosciutto crudo
Black pepper, q.b.
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Method
Prepare the tagliatelle pasta (see tagliatelle recipe here).
Bring a large pot of cold water to boil. Add kosher salt.
In a large heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter on medium-low heat. Add the prosciutto and sauté for about 7-8 minutes, or until slightly browned. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile, add the tagliatelle to the salted boiling water and cook until al dente, about 3 minutes (if using dried pasta, cook a bit longer, about 8-9 minutes).
Using a pasta claw, remove the tagliatelle (reserve the pasta water) and add directly to the pan with the butter and prosciutto.
Return to low heat. Mix everything together well, adding in about 1/4 cup of the pasta water to create a sauce.
Cook for another minute, until the pasta is glossy and well coated.
Serve immediately with freshly cracked black pepper and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
recipe reprinted with permission (get the entire recipe & photos here)
Meet q.b. cucina
QB Cucina is a content-driven, Italian kitchenware e-commerce company. We help home cooks master the art of Italian food by pairing authentic recipes and insider guides with artisan-made cooking tools and virtual classes.
Stay in touch:
Website: qbcucina.com
Instagram: @qbcucina
Facebook: @qbcucina
