My extended trips to Italy changed how I grocery shop in Canada

Toronto-based Fil Bucchino first learned how the abandonment of olive groves affects the land on a visit near his hometown of Florence, Italy.

“This causes two problems: fires and flooding,” says 50-year-old Bucchino, who moved to Canada as a teen.

That visit fuelled his olive oil obsession and his passion to revive neglected olive trees, while offsetting the effects that abandoned groves have on the climate crisis taking place across the peninsula.

Since 2016, he’s been spending four months of the year working with his company Abandoned Grove to rejuvenate and preserve abandoned olive groves in the Tuscany region, where there are four million abandoned olive trees.

Bucchino says his extended trips to Italy have affected how he shops for food at home in Toronto, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

They prioritize high-quality ingredients over processed foods.

“We use three to four ingredients max per dish,” he says.

To source staples like fresh fruit, Italian cheeses and fresh meats that make his dishes, his family takes advantage of the multiple shops near his home in Toronto’s Danforth neighbourhood, opting for trips to multiple stops like a butcher, a seafood supplier and the local farmer’s market when it takes place in the summer months.

“For staples like packaged pasta we shop at IGA, but for everything else, we buy it when we need it,” says Bucchino.

Olive oil, he says, starts every dish in his home. It helps that he can source it from revitalized groves in Tuscany.

Here is how Bucchino shops for groceries.

How I save money on groceries: We have a “clean the fridge” system. We won’t cook anything new until we’ve eaten whatever is leftover in the fridge. It’s a way to make sure we don’t waste anything.

How I splurge on groceries: I splurge on different Italian cheeses that I really like. Caciocavallo (the one shaped like a teardrop), and pecorino romano. I usually save room in my luggage for cheese that I bring home from Italy, but even now, in Toronto, there’s a number of specialty stores (such as Bruno’s Fine Foods and Cataldi Fresh Markets) that import it from Italy. It’s more expensive, but it’s worth it.

The hardest shopping habit to keep up: I really enjoy seasonality. It can be hard when you’re craving a certain fruit – like figs – when they’re out of season, but I can tell there’s a difference in taste when you don’t buy in-season. I also find it’s more expensive to buy out-of-season produce.

How I’ve changed my eating habits recently: My daughter may have some gluten intolerance, it’s something we’re still figuring out. But we’ve recently started cooking gluten-free pasta for her. We’re trying different brands to find one that tastes closest to the real thing.

Four items always in my cart:

• Parmigiano Reggiano wedge – Parmissimo – $88.99: Costco stocks some of the best Italian cheeses. This one has the protected designation of origin (PDO or DOP in Italian), which you’ll see on the packaging. It’s a designation from the European Union for food and wine meaning every part of the production, processing and preparation takes place in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. To be considered Parmigiano Reggiano it has to have the designation.
• Bucatini pasta – Rummo Pasta – $3.99: We eat pasta at least three times a week.
• Baguette – Blackbird Baking Co. – $5: We eat bread with most meals. When it goes stale we make panzanella, a salad made with stale bread soaked in water.
• Dandelion greens or black kale – $3.99: What we buy depends on the season. In the summer, we make a lot of salads and pastas with dandelion greens and in the winter, black kale mixes really well with beans, cabbage and tomatoes in a soup.

This interview has been edited and condensed.