udging by the empty shelves in supermarkets, many of us are planning to spend the next four months living on pasta al pomodoro. Delicious as that is, stock your cupboards with a little more thought – and much more variety (no stockpiling here) – and you will thank yourself later, lockdown or not. Not that I’m knocking the comforting properties of carbs. Rice of all kinds is incredibly versatile; basmati may not be the traditional choice for risotto, egg-fried rice or rice pudding, for example, but it will still be delicious if you can’t get other varieties. Couscous, polenta, noodles and bulgar wheat are all helpful to have around, and you might like to freeze a sliced loaf, or buy the ingredients to make your own bread. The Indian chef Maunika Gowardhan says she is never without atta flour for roti and parathas, while the author of Black Sea, Caroline Eden, recommends oatcakes. The food writer Nicola Miller says she always has a stash of tortillas in the freezer. Advertisement Friends in China recall finding kimchi and other preserved vegetables very welcome – sauerkraut, pickled onions, peppers, gherkins and beetroot are all great, especially if you don’t have freezer space for stuff such as peas and spinach. Tin Can Cook’s Jack Monroe is a huge fan of tinned peaches (she even puts them into curry), but jarred and frozen fruit will also come in useful. Caroline Craig, author of Provence: the Cookbook, reminds me that potatoes, garlic and onions all store well in a cool, dark place, as does butternut squash. Baked beans may be short on the shelves at the moment, but they are great source of fibre and B vitamins (the nutritionist Jo Saunders, the founder of Eight, a healthy frozen-meals range, calls them “an absolute store cupboard essential”), but if you can’t get them, lentils and other dried or tinned pulses and legumes can be the base for everything from hearty soups to satisfying salads. Sign up for Word of Mouth: the best of Guardian Food every week Read more Tinned tuna may be hard to track down, but sardines, mackerel and anchovies are all incredibly versatile, and cured meat lasts for ages if properly stored, as will eggs and hard cheese such as parmesan. The Cookout Club chef Philip Britten recommends soy sauce and Marmite to add oomph to dishes, and suggests freezing stock in ice cube trays. That said, there’s nothing wrong with a stock cube, either; I find vegetable and chicken the most versatile varieties. Like Marmite, peanut butter and honey are good for more than just toast (Fuchsia Dunlop’s peanut butter noodles are one of my favourite quick suppers). Check supplies of your favourite spices and condiments as well as fats and long-life dairy or alternatives – the food historian Annie Gray always keeps a few packs of frozen butter “as it is so core to my very being”. Finally, the food writer Harry Eastwood informs me she recently decided to slice and freeze all the lemons in the house “because gin without lemon is almost not worth it”. Almost. Good luck all!