I've lived a long time without a lot of kitchen gadgets, but now that I'm part of the Pomodori e Vino project I find I can't get along without a pastry cutter, meat pounder and spice grater. Oh, not the usual meat pounder used to pummel a perfectly innocent piece of meat - one of those has always been around - but the kind recommended by Marcella Hazan in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, one with a smooth surface designed to stretch the meat, thinning and evening it out without tenderizing it. Anyway, the kind I got today does both. It's a batticarne doppio uso.
