5 pantry staples that make weeknight cooking easy

A good weeknight kitchen runs on a small, reliable set of staples. Keep these five and you can always build a meal: a can of crushed tomatoes, dried pasta or rice, eggs, an onion, and a hard cheese like parmesan. From there, almost everything is a variation.

Round it out with pantry "flavor bombs" — soy sauce, olive oil, garlic, and a chili crisp or hot sauce you like. These do the heavy lifting on taste so a plain bowl of rice or noodles becomes something you actually want to eat.

Buy staples in quantities you'll finish in a month or two. A stocked pantry only helps if it's fresh enough to use.