Risotto Alla iPad

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F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas

PINCH, SWIPE, STIR | Chef Sara Jenkins's iPad app facilitates spontaneous cooking, Italian-style.

The App

Sara Jenkins' New Italian Pantry ($4, available for iPad)

I have always been jealous of those women who have a streamlined wardrobe, in which a few essential, covetable items come together in different combinations to form countless chic ensembles. Try as I may, such a wardrobe will not be mine. But when I saw New York chef Sara Jenkins's new cooking app, I wondered if, perhaps, such a pantry could be.

"Sara Jenkins' New Italian Pantry" is built around a core of 16 staple ingredients. Were the 80 recipes making use of those of another chef, I might have skipped the download. But I am a fan of Ms. Jenkins's restaurants—Porchetta sandwich shop, Porsena trattoria and Porsena Extra Bar—and her cookbook, "Olives & Oranges," is one of my favorites.

Ms. Jenkins created "New Italian Pantry" for the many people who tell her they dream of being more impromptu with their cooking, the way Italians are. As long as you have "a well-stocked pantry of ingredients that aren't going to go bad," she says in the introductory video, "it allows you to be spontaneous in your daily shopping." You can, she asserts, start with what's in your kitchen and have the app strategize your trip to the market; or, you can start at the market, iPad in hand, see what produce whets your appetite and have the app generate recipes that will use what you have back home. As I watched the chef stirring tomato sauce and heard her saying "dried pasta," "extra-virgin olive oil," "Parmigiano cheese" and "salt-dried capers," I began to envision a brighter future for my kitchen.

The Test

I feel pretty confident at the stove, but I wondered how a fledgling cook would take to the platform. So I recruited a test case, my childhood friend Victoria Pettibone. Vicki started flying planes in high school; surely, I figured, she could prepare dinner. We overhauled our pantries, put them to use and compared notes.

The app

Eager to dig into a stash of farro, I searched the app for a recipe that featured the grain and landed on Kabocha Squash Farrotto—farro, given the risotto treatment. I began, as directed, by browning my squash and onions and toasting my farro. I knew, without being told, to turn down the heat when I began to add chicken stock to the skillet, and I knew when to stop ladling in the stock, too. Vicki, on the other hand, who was attempting risotto for the very first time, didn't achieve the perfect al dente outcome I did. She did, however, nail the Seared Scallops with Brown Butter, Capers and Lemon. "I couldn't believe it," she beamed. "It was like I was in a restaurant." Overall, Vicki was "impressed by how little there was to buy and how complex the flavors were." She learned to appreciate the ingredients, which is the guiding principle of Italian cuisine. "Very little is done except what is necessary to achieve the end result," she said.

Ms. Jenkins's recipe for endive simply tossed with anchovy vinaigrette is a perfect example. Consisting of just six ingredients, it delivered well-balanced, citrusy, bitter, briny, bracing bites and a versatile dressing I can apply to other salads.

The Takeaway

The program has its flaws—Vicki and I agree it makes an excellent cookbook but could do more with the technology the medium offers. Still, its strengths far outweigh its demerits. Vicki, a new convert to cooking, said, "I could see myself looking at what I have in my pantry and fridge and riffing off of one of her recipes." Me, I have the culinary wardrobe of my dreams.

A version of this article appeared February 1, 2013, on page D7 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Risotto Alla iPad.