In cucina (pentole e posate)

Pots and pans

The recipe lesson gave you la ricetta, mescolare and the grammo; this one gives you the hardware. Water boils in a the pot (for cooking)

la pentola — the tall pot pasta lives in — while meat and vegetables go in a the frying panla padella, the flat frying pan. Italian drops the article for the method: cucino la carne in padella — cooked pan-style.

On the table

Le posate is what Italians call the cutlery set. You already know the knife — il coltello — and this lesson adds the rest, plus the cup:

object	what it is for
the spoon	il cucchiaio
soup, stirring sugar into coffee
the fork	la forchetta
pasta — never a spoon to help it
the cup	la tazza
a cup of caffè or tè

What you do vs what the food does

You already cucinare — that is the cook's activity. to cook (heat until done)

cuocere is what happens on the heat: the cook cooks, the pasta cuoce. Its past participle is irregular: cotto — la pasta è cotta, the pasta is done. to boilbollire is the special case of cooking in bubbling water: first the water bolle, then in goes the pasta.

Shopping for the recipe

Everything a recipe lists is an the ingredient

l'ingrediente. Two staples to measure: the flourla farina, bought by the chilo like fruit, and milk or water by the the literil litro — the liquid measure that completes your grammo / chilo set.