The key to pantry cooking is simplicity. Glamorous cooking gurus will tell you to insist on fresh lemons and fresh herbs, and share all these wonderful recipes that call for twenty ingredients, most of which you don't normally use. I prefer to base my meals on 'pasta, and things that make it taste different'; 'custard/quiche, and things that make it taste different'; 'vegetables, and the spice rack'; and so forth.