Olive Oil

Olive Oil

Olive Oil – Just Like Wine – A Sublime Grand Cru Or Quaffable Plonk?

It’s all about the oil! Olive trees form the landscape of Mediterranean countries and their oil fuels the people who live on it; the same pure extra-virgin liquid gold that has been valued in Mediterranean cooking for millennia. These cultures usually have good health and longevity. We trust and love olive oil.

I remember standing in our friend’s kitchen in Tuscany admiring an old tile – it was painted with an image of medieval peasants collecting olives from the trees. Out of the window that day I could hear a familiar sound and looked out to see the same image of men hard at work gathering olives, only this time with electric rakes. Nothing had changed in this eternal marriage between Italians and their beloved olive oil. This was my first lesson in Italian cooking. Don’t try and cook Italian food with any other cooking oil; the flavour won’t be the same.

Check out the range of regional oils on offer in shops and delis and always bring some back if you travel in Italy. Price is a good indicator of quality. We buy one standard extra-virgin olive oil probably made from a blend of olives from Europe for cooking and a more expensive single-estate oil for finishing food.

Extra-virgin olive oil loses its flavour over time. Every winter, new oil is made and this fresh oil is used where you can taste it the most; as a final flourish on a tomato salad, swirled into a warm soup or drizzled over grilled meats or steamed vegetables where the heat will warm up the oil and release the aroma of freshly pressed olives. Last year’s oil can be used for everything else.

We often get asked how to choose a good olive oil and what to do with it, as there are so many conflicting suggestions in the media. Here are our opinions and tips on using olive oil.

  • Generally we use plenty of extra-virgin olive oil in our cooking as it will make a positive difference to your finished dish. Italians use olive like the French use cream, it makes everything taste better. For a start a generous quantity in the pan will stop onions and garlic burning and give a rich deep flavour to your cooking. So don’t stint on its use, burnt onions will never make a good tomato sauce.
  • When choosing oil, if tasting is not an option, price is generally a good guide.
  • Colour has nothing to do with flavour or quality – green olives make green oil, riper black ones make golden oil. Professional olive oil tasters use blue glasses so that the colour doesn’t distract them.
  • There are lots of good oils from all over the Mediterranean; we are not fixed that it must be Italian! There is a variance in taste and aroma depending on where the olives are grown, soil, weather and variety.   For this reason, different areas produce different flavours, for example a spicy oil will originate in Sicily, a herby delicate one from Liguria and powerful and grassy from Tuscany.
  • “Extra-Virgin” refers to the purity of the first oil made from cold pressing, this means keeping the temperature below 27c in the production as heat is an enemy of extra virgin olive oil.
  • Always keep oil in a dark cool place and use within 6-8 weeks of opening away from direct sunlight as heat can cause the flavour to change, but not too cold as it will solidify.
  • For centuries Italians have used extra virgin olive oil to cook with, the only exception is deep-frying which is done with seed oil as it holds a higher temperature for longer and has a higher smoke point.
  • Extra-virgin olive oil is just as fattening as any other oil but it is full of polyphenols that are anti-oxidants and are proven to be health beneficial.
  • Salads and vegetables containing green leaves are better with oil so that we can obtain the fat-soluble vitamins.
  • Use the stronger flavoured oils with care, they can dominate delicate flavoured fish or meat but be perfect to drizzle over pasta or soup.
  • Olive oil does have a lower smoke point than rapeseed or coconut oil but it is only a little lower and you would never shallow or deep-fat fry over a high heat when using olive oil.

Four bottles of oil from one olive tree – my trip to a Tuscan oil press

There is still something magnificent about the process of making olive oil even though it may have developed far from the early days of production when donkeys pulled giant stone grinders.  I went to the Filippo Berio plant in Tuscany and watched the first oil of the season being made.  To witness the gleaming machinery go into action on a vat of fruit picked that morning was amazing as the first absolutely luminous green oil poured into the first bottle.  We tasted it within seconds of being made on a spoon, it was as powerful in flavour as it was vibrant in colour. Then we ate it poured over Ribollita (thick Tuscan vegetable soup) to celebrate the new season just as Tuscans have done for years. There is a Tuscan word “fett’unta” meaning “oiled slice” which refers to the slice of bread used to dip into the oil, often rubbed with garlic – the forerunner of bruschetta.

The production is about separating the ‘pomace’ (the solid matter from the skin, pips and flesh) and the water from the oil. The olives that we saw being picked in Tuscany were on the turn between green and purple.  It is this mixed batch which is important to create the right flavour.

The harvested olives are separated from their leaves and then washed.

After being  milled to a paste the liquids are separated from the solids, traditionally by a hydraulic press or now usually by a centrifuge. The oil and water is then separated by a second centrifuge.  At the end of it all it will have taken around 5 kilos of olives for every litre of oil produced, that’s around four bottles of oil from one tree.

The separated extra-virgin olive oil from the first pressing is bright and luminous.

The leftover pomace is collected as used as fertiliser to improve the ground, nothing is wasted.

Cold-pressed?
When heat was used more frequently to separate the oil, the “cold pressing” was really important and made that oil stand out from the rest.  Heat is the enemy of flavour here and fortunately the steam and hot water processes that used to make this separation easier are now confined to history. So all the oil we know as ‘virgin’ is entirely cold pressed these days.  It is often not even mentioned on labels any more so don’t choose one just because it states “cold pressed” on the label, they all are.

The grading of olive oil is based on acidity – the lower the better. Higher acidity compromises the flavour of the oil.  Some of the best Italian extra virgin oils have an acidity of less than 0.1% but this is difficult to find outside Italy.

Now for some definitions set by the IOC, the International Olive Council:

  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil – considered the best, least processed, taken from the first pressing of the olives, less than 1% acidity. It should have no defects and have a fresh flavour of olives. It should not be extracted with the aid of chemicals and should be produced under the temperature of 30oC.  Any higher temperature would degrade the oil.
  • Virgin Olive Oil – has up to 2% acidity. This will be refined before being sold or if designated not fit for consumption will be known as lampante virgin olive oil.
    Refined Olive Oil – has up to 0.5% acidity.
  • Olive Oil – undergoes processing, such as filtering and refining, often blended with refined and virgin olive oil – up to 3.3% acidity
  • Olive Pomace oil also known as Olio di Sansa– chemically extracted from the remaining olive pulp after the other oils have been removed, refined and then blended with virgin olive oil. Up to 0.5% acidity.

To taste oil
Firstly know that colour doesn’t matter. Professional tasters are often given blue glasses to taste oil as the colour disguises any natural colouring of the oil. A deep green oil is no better than a golden yellow one.

Flavours vary considerably. Many much sought after extra virgin oils from Tuscany and Southern Italy have a very peppery taste and can be beautifully pungent. In contrast there are those with a mild fruity taste or a herby scent. Just like wine you can find a whole host of background flavours from grass to tomatoes, hints of lemon or even a tinge of artichoke. And like tasting a wine swirl a small amount around in a glass in the warmth of your hand.  The heat will gradually release the scent of the oil.  Smell the oil first and then take a small sip.  Swill it around your mouth tasting it in all parts of your mouth and finally swallow.  Concentrate on the flavours, is it pungent and peppery, is it fruity (like tomatoes), or bitter?  Does the flavour last after you have swallowed it and most importantly did you like it?  Don’t be surprised if the oil makes you cough, that doesn’t mean its bad and it frequently happens on our olive oil tasting sessions. If however, the oil tastes bitter and unpleasant that means it has a defect and should be discarded.