Olive Oil's Lack Of Taste Is The Thing-It Won't Catch The Attention Of The King

[+ kent]

Obviously one is not going to use EVO to make French fries! However, when used in all other cooking applicatons such as sautéing I have never had an issue, and EVO is the only oil that I ever have in the house.

 

Interestingly, a very high quality low acidity EVO has a higher smoke point than regular EVO. Virgin is higher and as noted regular cold pressed olive oil can go even higher. Pomace which you don't want to use because it is the bottom of the barrel and contains carcinogens because it is pressed with heat has an even higher smoke point. Now that brings us to the main point. When olive oil reaches its smoking point carcinogenic free radicals are produced and that obviously should be avoided. Some oils and obviously butter have an even lower smoke point.

 

So as with all things EVO when used responsibly is fine.

 

 

I use extra-light olive oil for cooking, even for popcorn (for friends afraid of coconut oil)

[whipped guy]

WG: Have you seen the reviews of Olive Oils in Cooks Illustrated ( https://www.cooksillustrated.com/search?dFR[search_site_list][0]=cio&dFR[search_site_list][1]=cco&dFR[search_site_list][2]=atk&dFR[search_site_list][3]=cookbook_collection&display_format=grid&fR[search_document_klass][0]=taste_test&q=olive+oil )?

I just checked it out... and they are spot on with their evaluations of what is available in super markets as not being exceptional. It also gives a nice overview of Italian oils and why they have the peppery finish.

 

Interestingly I just purchased a bottle of The Fredh Market's Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil and simply because I was low on EVO and I was headed in that direction. At $8.99 for 500 ml (16,9 oz) it is much pricier than Trader Joe's President's Reserve Italian EVO a comparable product ($6.99 for 33.8 oz). It has a mild olive taste as does Trader Joe's, but with double the peppery kick at the end. They also sell an unfiltered Fruttato (Fruity version) for a buck more, but I was afraid that it might be overly mild. While I like the peppery finish in both they still lack something in initial flavor. Incidentally, the TJ's Sicilian EVO that I mention above has the least bite of all. I'll save that for the mandel bread recipe that I mention above.

 

Trader Joe gives you more bang for your buck, and both really don't cut it, but in a pinch suffice. I hesitated to try other products that they had at double the price. Next year I'm shipping what I can get up north down south.

 

In the meantime I will give TJ's Spanish version a shot.

[+ PapaTony]

Scientists May Have Figured Out Why Olive Oil Is So Healthy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scientists-may-have-figured-out-why-olive-oil-is-so-healthy_us_58a3377ee4b03df370da9434

[+ Italiano]

If you travel through the Tuscany countryside, stop at a local little trattoria, and while you wait for your amazing dish of fresh pasta they bring you their crunchy fresh pane and olio to deep it in, there is no butter which can compete!

[+ Gar1eth]

If you travel through the Tuscany countryside, stop at a local little trattoria, and while you wait for your amazing dish of fresh pasta they bring you their crunchy fresh pane and olio to deep it in, there is no butter which can compete!

 

So it's just pasta and olive oil? I'll have to disagree. For me pasta goes better with either a tomato or a butter based sauce.

 

Gman

[mike carey]

So it's just pasta and olive oil? I'll have to disagree. For me pasta goes better with either a tomato or a butter based sauce.

I read it as bread and just olive oil, and then the pasta comes with whatever sauce you ordered.

[ericwinters]

I don't like it much on its own for dipping, but with balsamic vinegar I can't get enough

[MikeBiDude]

So it's just pasta and olive oil? I'll have to disagree. For me pasta goes better with either a tomato or a butter based sauce.

 

Gman

I'll disagree with you @Gar1eth! Spaghetti aglio olio so simple and good....

[+ Italiano]

Yes I meant what @mike carey said.

 

And apart from the above mentioned fabulous aglio e olio, DEFINITELY a plate of pasta with plain good olive oil and good parmesan cheese is amazing anyway!

Butter based sauce?.....Italians would kill you for much less @Gar1eth!

[MikeBiDude]

Butter based sauce?.....Italians would kill you for much less @Gar1eth!

It's an American mom device to get kids to eat

[+ Gar1eth]

Butter based sauce?.....Italians would kill you for much less @Gar1eth!

I guess it's a good thing I'm not going to Italy then.

 

Gman

[whipped guy]

Yes I meant what @mike carey said.

 

And apart from the above mentioned fabulous aglio e olio, DEFINITELY a plate of pasta with plain good olive oil and good parmesan cheese is amazing anyway!

Butter based sauce?.....Italians would kill you for much less @Gar1eth!

It's an American mom device to get kids to eat

In my family only olive oil was used to make any type of sauce for pasta. Our backyard neighbors were Italian. The grandmother lived with them. Her last name was Amlin and she was from northern Italy. I recall that she made her sauce with a butter base and she did it "for the kids". I was invited to eat supper once and things tasted all wrong to me, but I was probably about ten or so years old at the time so what did I know?

 

I do recall being served a dish of pasta in San Remo on the Italian Riviera and a bit of butter was placed on the bottom of the dish prior to the pasta being served. The sauce was of a very light variety and the taste of the butter was prominent. I was not really impressed, but it was different.

 

Incidentally I totally agree with [uSER=3916]@xafnndapp[/uSER] about pasta with only olive oil and parmigiano. Having worked in a profession where garlic breath was vietato... forbidden... that was often the compromise.

 

I might add that if one adds chick peas aka garbanzos aka ceci in Italian into the mix along with some garlic and parsley and topped with some parmigiano it can be a taste of heaven. I wonder if that is something that [uSER=3916]@xafnndapp[/uSER] being from Italy has experienced. (I hope I did not freak out poor Gman with that... as something tells me that he will now never visit Italy!)

 

Now should I even dare to mention my other favorite pasta dish... Pasta e Piselli (peas)... onion, basil, olive oil, with or without a light red sauce... and of course topped with parmigiano if desired. Incidentally I prefer a good parmigiano which is delicato vs. the bold flavor of a pecorino romano. My moms side of the family preferred parmigiano while my dad's side used to get the pecorino shipped to them from Italy. ( The old family homestead where my grandfather was born was turned to a small cheese factory.)

 

When I partake of such Italian dishes, which are basically peasant food, I feel like Alfredo in La Traviata when he sings, "Io vivo quasi in ciel". (I live as if in heaven.)

[+ Funguy]

Now, Alfredo, as in Fettuccini Alfredo, when made properly, is heaven

[whipped guy]

Now, Alfredo, as in Fettucini Alfredo, when made properly, is heaven

Yes! I agree, and decadent to boot! Plus, with all that butter and cream it's a cholesterol lovers dream death wish! However, Fettuccine Alfredo never became a hit in Italy. It seems to be popular only outside la Bella Italia and especially in the States!

 

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall10/hoppner_v/history.html

 

The closest thing that my mom made to Fettuccine Alfredo was indeed Pasta al Burro as mentioned in the brief article noted above. One aunt who married into the family made a pasta dish with milk and a bit of butter which is a closer to the original Alfredo version. I first learned about that from my cousins and I wonder if it was just her own healthier vesion of Alfredo. In any event, no heavy cream was involved in either as in the original recipe.

[+ Funguy]

Tho i love it, once a year i can have it but only after i have been a good boi.

[whipped guy]

Tho i love it, once a year i can have it but only after i have been a good boi.

Well a number of years ago I was attending a convention in DC and they were offering free cholesterol checks. Of course I had just had my fix of Fettuccine Alfredo... as I was a very good boy way back when... since it was a freebie I thought that it would be interesting to see what the results would be. It was within the normal range. Though it did not give LDL or HDL levels... so who knows what the real effect of the FA was.

 

Actually I really can't recall the last time that this bad boy has had FA. As I might have mentioned at the begining of this thread, nowadays butter upsets my stomach...

[+ Italiano]

I guess it's a good thing I'm not going to Italy then.

 

Gman

 

Oh yes. Be happy at Olive Garden

[+ Italiano]

Now, Alfredo, as in Fettuccini Alfredo, when made properly, is heaven

 

As you well know if you go to Italy and at a restaurant you ask for "Fettuccine Alfredo" they will look at you like if in the US you go to a burger place and ask for the "Famous Burger John" .

But I agree that Alfredo (which I tried here for the first time in my life, having grown up in Milan) is a decadent goodness.

 

If you like butter with pasta (and more cheese...) the Italian version of Fettuccine Alfredo is "Spaghetti cacio e pepe" (literally cheese and ground pepper"), a Roman specialty, which is of course lighter and simpler than Alfredo, as all authentic Italian dishes compared to what it's believed to be Italian food here, and very good.

 

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/cacio-e-pepe

[whipped guy]

If you like butter with pasta (and more cheese...) the Italian version of Fettuccine Alfredo is "Spaghetti cacio e pepe" (literally cheese and ground pepper"), a Roman specialty, which is of course lighter and simpler than Alfredo, as all authentic Italian dishes compared to what it's believed to be Italian food here, and very good.

 

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/cacio-e-pepe

I had to laugh that there would even be a recipe for such a simple dish. As my aunt recently told me, anyone who needs to follow a recipe to cook most Italian dishes does not know how to cook! However, I understand that there are those who don't have the family background whereby such recipes were handed down.

 

Still all joking aside I learned how to cook most Italian dishes by simply watching and absorbing what my mom did, not to mention certain dishes that were made by various relatives. As an example, my parents were never fond of pasta e ceci (pasta with chick peas as noted above) so I would visit a now deceased aunt to enjoy the dish. Again I learned by watching as there was absolutely no written recipe.

 

In addition, each town, not to mention each family within a given area, had their own variations. As an example, one uncle who married into the family insisted that uva passa and pinoli (raisins and pine nuts) should be incorporated into meatballs.

 

Incidentally the proper Italian word for pine nuts is pinoli not pignoli as it us uaually referenced in the USA. A pignolo is a very pig headed, fastidious, and pedantic type person... a nut of a different sort. Of course if I am wrong about that may [uSER=3916]@xafnndapp[/uSER] flog me with a wet fettuccine noodle!

 

As an aside an aunt who made the best pignoli (sic) cookies passed about a year ago and of course there was no written recipe so her secret is buried with her. Fortunately my mom wrote her recipe down.

[marylander1940]

I don't want to talk about olive oil's reported health benefits. I only want to talk about taste as it is used for bread/vegetable dipping. Maybe my palate is jaded. But I just don't see how it could be preferred to butter.

 

Now go and discuss.

 

Gman

 

it has good fat just like avocados and almonds. Butter is BAD fat.

[+ Italiano]

I had to laugh that there would even be a recipe for such a simple dish. As my aunt recently told me, anyone who needs to follow a recipe to cook most Italian dishes does not know how to cook! However, I understand that there are those who don't have the family background whereby such recipes were handed down.

 

Still all joking aside I learned how to cook most Italian dishes by simply watching and absorbing what my mom did, not to mention certain dishes that were made by various relatives. As an example, my parents were never fond of pasta e ceci (pasta with chick peas as noted above) so I would visit a now deceased aunt to enjoy the dish. Again I learned by watching as there was absolutely no written recipe.

 

In addition, each town, not to mention each family within a given area, had their own variations. As an example, one uncle who married into the family insisted that uva passa and pinoli (raisins and pine nuts) should be incorporated into meatballs.

 

Incidentally the proper Italian word for pine nuts is pinoli not pignoli as it us uaually referenced in the USA. A pignolo is a very pig headed, fastidious, and pedantic type person... a nut of a different sort. Of course if I am wrong about that may [uSER=3916]@xafnndapp[/uSER] flog me with a wet fettuccine noodle!

 

As an aside an aunt who made the best pignoli (sic) cookies passed about a year ago and of course there was no written recipe so her secret is buried with her. Fortunately my mom wrote her recipe down.

 

Pasta e ceci (chick peas), pasta e piselli (peas), pasta e fagioli (beans), pasta e broccoli, pasta e patate, pasta e zucchine, pasta e zucca (butternut squash) and so on...There so many variations of the (mostly) Southern Italian old poor and simple tradition of making delicious pastas with so many basic natural cheap ingredients.

ALL of them with good olive oil, never butter!

And no, in Italy you will never find a pasta dish with chicken.

 

@whipped guy you are absolutely correct about the difference between pinoli and pignoli.

 

Pasta e piselli:

http://piattoforte.tiscali.it/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_B_ap_Pasta_piselli_6d7c9a8932.jpg

 

pasta e ceci:

 

http://inlovewithanisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PastaeCeci.jpg

 

pasta e fagioli:

 

http://cookdiary.net/wp-content/uploads/images/Pasta-E-Fagioli.jpg

 

pasta e zucchine:

 

http://comefare.donnamoderna.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/pasta-e-zucchine.jpg

 

pasta e zucca:

 

http://www.lospicchiodaglio.it/img/ricette/pastazuccapancetta.jpg

 

pasta e broccoli:

 

http://www.albertobarbazza.it/Ricette/images/Pasta_coi_broccoli_e_acciughe.jpg

 

pasta e patate:

 

 

Now I am hungry!

 

 

 

[whipped guy]

Pasta e ceci (chick peas), pasta e piselli (peas), pasta e fagioli (beans), pasta e broccoli, pasta e patate, pasta e zucchine, pasta e zucca (butternut squash) and so on...There so many variations of the (mostly) Southern Italian old poor and simple tradition of making delicious pastas with so many basic natural cheap ingredients.

ALL of them with good olive oil, never butter!

And no, in Italy you will never find a pasta dish with chicken.

 

@whipped guy you are absolutely correct about the difference between pinoli and pignoli.

 

Pasta e piselli:

http://piattoforte.tiscali.it/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_B_ap_Pasta_piselli_6d7c9a8932.jpg

 

pasta e ceci:

 

http://inlovewithanisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PastaeCeci.jpg

 

pasta e fagioli:

 

http://cookdiary.net/wp-content/uploads/images/Pasta-E-Fagioli.jpg

 

pasta e zucchine:

 

http://comefare.donnamoderna.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/pasta-e-zucchine.jpg

 

pasta e zucca:

 

http://www.lospicchiodaglio.it/img/ricette/pastazuccapancetta.jpg

 

pasta e broccoli:

 

http://www.albertobarbazza.it/Ricette/images/Pasta_coi_broccoli_e_acciughe.jpg

 

pasta e patate:

 

 

Now I am hungry!

 

 

Thanks Xaf... good to hear that all this is still what I call "Italian Soul Food". I make them all and yes!!! Only made with olive oil!!!! Never butter!!!! Plus, I am glad that you mentioned pasta with butternut squash! I had not made it for quite some time and in the past few weeks I have been literally been making up for lost time!!!

 

My dad used to reference this as "depression food" as that's all that they could afford in the 1930's! For that reason he

never used to like such dishes.... it was a phychological thing... However, when I became his caregiver late in his life he really learned to appreciate them and actually looked forward to savoring all those "specialties" from his youth!

 

Also many thanks to Xaf for posting the pics as now I'm hungry as well!!!!

[MikeBiDude]

Pasta e ceci (chick peas), pasta e piselli (peas), pasta e fagioli (beans), pasta e broccoli, pasta e patate, pasta e zucchine, pasta e zucca (butternut squash) and so on...There so many variations of the (mostly) Southern Italian old poor and simple tradition of making delicious pastas with so many basic natural cheap ingredients.

ALL of them with good olive oil, never butter!

And no, in Italy you will never find a pasta dish with chicken.

 

@whipped guy you are absolutely correct about the difference between pinoli and pignoli.

 

Pasta e piselli:

http://piattoforte.tiscali.it/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_B_ap_Pasta_piselli_6d7c9a8932.jpg

 

pasta e ceci:

 

http://inlovewithanisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PastaeCeci.jpg

 

pasta e fagioli:

 

http://cookdiary.net/wp-content/uploads/images/Pasta-E-Fagioli.jpg

 

pasta e zucchine:

 

http://comefare.donnamoderna.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/pasta-e-zucchine.jpg

 

pasta e zucca:

 

http://www.lospicchiodaglio.it/img/ricette/pastazuccapancetta.jpg

 

pasta e broccoli:

 

http://www.albertobarbazza.it/Ricette/images/Pasta_coi_broccoli_e_acciughe.jpg

 

pasta e patate:

 

 

Now I am hungry!

 

 

It's Sunday breakfast time here on the left coast and these pics have be craving pasta, now!!

[+ Gar1eth]

Pasta e ceci (chick peas), pasta e piselli (peas), pasta e fagioli (beans), pasta e broccoli, pasta e patate, pasta e zucchine, pasta e zucca (butternut squash) and so on...There so many variations of the (mostly) Southern Italian old poor and simple tradition of making delicious pastas with so many basic natural cheap ingredients.

ALL of them with good olive oil, never butter!

And no, in Italy you will never find a pasta dish with chicken.

 

@whipped guy you are absolutely correct about the difference between pinoli and pignoli.

 

Pasta e piselli:

http://piattoforte.tiscali.it/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_B_ap_Pasta_piselli_6d7c9a8932.jpg

 

pasta e ceci:

 

http://inlovewithanisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PastaeCeci.jpg

 

pasta e fagioli:

 

http://cookdiary.net/wp-content/uploads/images/Pasta-E-Fagioli.jpg

 

pasta e zucchine:

 

http://comefare.donnamoderna.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/pasta-e-zucchine.jpg

 

pasta e zucca:

 

http://www.lospicchiodaglio.it/img/ricette/pastazuccapancetta.jpg

 

pasta e broccoli:

 

http://www.albertobarbazza.it/Ricette/images/Pasta_coi_broccoli_e_acciughe.jpg

 

pasta e patate:

 

 

Now I am hungry!

 

 

 

I used to make a pretty mean Hamburger Helper Chili Mac-minus the cheese of course.

 

 

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/juyppb00sg3hkoi/File%20Feb%2019%2C%2011%2041%2031%20AM.jpeg?dl=0

 

Gman

[mike carey]

And no, in Italy you will never find a pasta dish with chicken.

One thing I love about the adoption and adaptation of classic cuisines like Italian in the US, UK and Australia (and others, I'm sure) is that people are prepared to try things that are unthinkable in the native culture but which work. (Of course it doesn't always work!) My, perhaps uninformed, observation is that quite a few, but not all Italian-Americans maintain the taboos (maybe even if practice has since changed in Italy). From what I've seen most Australians of Italian descent maintain a more symbolic link to the cuisine. They may grow a million tonnes of tomatoes each summer and make passata, and even devote a weekend to converting a pig into salami, but they will adapt and adjust what they cook.