With its purple petals and three red-orange stigmas, only a bloom as beautiful as the saffron crocus flower could produce such a precious seasoning that used to make treasured dishes like French bouillabaisse, Spanish paella, and risotto alla Milanese. While each saffron thread holds an abundance of color and fragrance, it takes an incredible number of 4,000 flowers to make just one ounce of this spice. When the stigmas are dried, they reveal how only nature can put together a substance as perfect as this -- the deeper the threads' color, the stronger the aroma, and this saffron, produced by Sidoni family since 1937, is as fire red as the sun. To release their enchanting aroma and egg yolk-colored tint, saffron threads should be steeped in alcohol, or a hot or acidic liquid.

Steep in alcohol, or a hot or acidic liquid for at least 20 minutes or overnight for a more potent infusion. Use the saffron-infused liquid (inlcuding the soaked filaments, themselves, if you prefer) in recipes from rice and pasta dishes, soups, and desserts. Try it for poaching pears, too.

Fairway Marketplace is brought to you by Fairway Market, a specialty food chain that started back in 1933 with a small fruit and vegetable stand on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Today, Fairway Market is legendary for its experts and expertise in all things food, and a relentless obsession with quality throughout all of the different departments in its stores. In December of 2011, Fairway launched this online shop, so that we could bring the best of the best of what Fairway offers, at the same great values, to those who don’t live near one of our stores. Why keep all of this foodie goodness to ourselves? That simply would not be fair.