The recipe, which comes from our friends at Viking Range, also uses an intriguing ingredient for flavoring: honey. In addition to all-purpose flour, the recipe calls for semolina, a coarse grind of high-protein durum wheat which hails originally from the Mediterranean.

King Arthur Four notes that semolina “gives gorgeous color and great flavor to breads, pizza crust, and pasta.” King Arthur says you can substitute semolina for “some (or all) of the all-purpose flour” in a bread recipe.

Focaccia’s roots date to antiquity. “In ancient Rome panis focacius denoted a flatbread cooked in the ashes,” writes food historian and author Alan Davidson in The Penguin Companion to Food (Penguin Books, 2002). In ancient Rome, focus meant hearth. There followed the term focacia, and ultimately focaccia in modern Italian.

Cookbook author and olive oil expert Fran Gage developed a focaccia featuring pumpkin seeds and thyme. They’re mixed into the dough.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

“In ancient Rome panis focacius denoted a flatbread cooked in the ashes,” writes food historian and author Alan Davidson in The Penguin Companion to Food (Penguin Books, 2002). In ancient Rome, focus meant hearth. There followed the term focacia, and ultimately focaccia in modern Italian.

Residents of the south of France have their own version of the yeasted flat bread: fougasse.

Focaccia and extra virgin olive oil are a natural pair. Olive oil is used as an ingredient. And olive oil frequently is drizzled or spread on top of the dough to keep it moist.

The toppings are countless – from EVOO and sea salt to herbs, onions, cheese, vegetables and meat. The sky’s the limit. Although from our standpoint, less is more. The one pictured here is topped with fresh rosemary.

Olive oil expert Fran Gage developed a focaccia featuring pumpkin seeds and thyme. They’re mixed into the dough. One of her favorite bakeries makes loaves of bread studded with pumpkin seeds.

“It was an inspiration for this focaccia,” Gage writes in her book The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009).

Gage suggests using a medium or robust EVOO. The latter includes our  Olio Nuovo and our Arbosana. But I’m sure any good EVOO would do the trick.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

“Color isn’t an accurate indicator of quality or taste,” olive oil expert Fran Gage writes in her excellent book The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009).

That’s why professional olive oil tasters use a special blue glass when they taste oils.  The blue tint is intended to mask the oil’s color so it won’t influence a taster’s judgment – although perhaps a black glass might do an even better job!

That said, an olive oil’s color will tell you other things. Olives harvested early in the season, for example, are naturally very green and therefore produce a greener oil.

“Olives picked early in the season tend to make green colored oil as they contain higher levels of chlorophyll,” Australian olive oil expert Richard Gawel writes in an excellent FAQ.

“Olives harvested late in the season will typically produce more golden colored oils due to a higher level of natural occurring levels of carotene-like substances. Both oils may be technically equivalent in quality but very different in style.”

So you want to avoid buying extra virgin olive oil in a clear bottle to see its color. Light is among the enemies of EVOO.

Together, heat, light and oxygen promote oxidation and can make the oil rancid.

“If you purchase a very green looking oil, make sure it is stored in a dark bottle in a dark place,” advises Gawel. “The stuff that makes it green (chlorophyll) helps start the reaction that makes oils rancid, but only in the presence of light.”

That’s the main reason we choose dark colored glass to bottle our extra virgin olive oils.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

It’s also a good idea to keep the oil away from heat and to minimize its exposure to oxygen.

Which brings me to a question we field frequently: “How to store extra virgin olive oil?”

For starters, olive oil doesn’t get better with age. Just the opposite.

“Unlike wine, olive oils do not get better with age,” writes Australian olive oil expert Richard Gawel in an excellent FAQ. “Extra virgin olive oils are best consumed young as it is at this time when their fresh olive like aromas and flavors, and the health giving polyphenols are at their peak.”

The bottom line: Avoid saving a special bottle of EVOO for use at some future occasion years down the road. Instead, the oil should be used sooner versus later. We recommend using the oil within 30 to 60 days once it’s been opened.

It’s also important to remember olive oil is a form of fruit juice. It’s perishable. Exposing an oil to air will speed up the oxidation process and will eventually cause the oil to go rancid.

In general, you want to store your extra virgin olive oil in a cool, dark place.

Olive oil has four key enemies:

1. Time – The time from tree to crush to fully produced oil must be as brief as possible.
2. Temperature – The optimal storage for olive oil is 60 to 69 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Oxygen – Exposure must be minimized or eliminated during storage.
4. Light – Exposure must be minimized or eliminated at all times.

Here are some suggestions and thoughts to keep in mind:

• Store olive oil in a dark cupboard and away from direct light. Ultraviolet rays can break down an olive oil over time.
• Try to store olive oil in a cupboard away from any heat source. It can get damaged if exposed to warmth or heat from a nearby stove or oven.
• Avoid refrigerating your olive oil. It can damage the oil. “Each time the bottle is removed from the cold, condensation can form on the inside of the lid and drop into the oil, introducing oxygen,” writes olive oil expert Fran Gage.

As I mentioned, we bottle our oils in dark colored glass to guard against light . Our larger bag-in-box packages – which many chefs use – also protects the EVOO from light. The boxes have the added advantage of preserving the oil’s flavor longer. That’s because the  the bag inside collapses as the oil is dispensed. The oil doesn’t come in contact with oxygen because the bag is flushed with nitrogen.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

To make the pasta, we turned to a favorite cookbook, Fran Gage’s “The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009), and adapted her recipe for spaghetti with Olio Nuovo.

It’s a simple dish featuring spaghetti, Olio Nuovo, plenty of garlic, a pinch of red chili flakes and a hand-harvested sea salt known as fleur de sel. We adapted Gage’s recipe by using a bit more garlic – we’ve supplied a range, depending on your garlic appetite. And we’ve added three tablespoons of chopped parsley. We also referred to a recipe published in Cook’s Illustrated for ideas about proportions.

Our spaghetti with Olio Nuovo (recipe below) is a riff on the classic Italian dish pasta aglio e olio. It’s a pasta with a colorful history.

“Its humble origins are in the shanty towns of Rome, but it is now a universal favorite, especially among Rome’s chic insomniacs, who depend upon a wee hours’ spaghettata to see them through the night until their early-morning bedtime,” writes Italian food expert Marcella Hazan.

Feel free to vary the ingredients for our spaghetti. More garlic? Fewer red pepper flakes? More Olio Nuovo?

You decide. And please let us know of your favorite creations using Olio Nuovo.

Spaghetti with Olio Nuovo

4 to 6 servings

1 pound dried spaghetti
6 tablespoons California Olive Ranch Olio Nuovo, divided
2 teaspoons table salt or kosher salt, divided
¼ to 1/3 cup minced garlic (about 20 medium garlic cloves)
¼ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
fleur de sel to taste
freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Bring about 5 quarts of water to boil. Add the spaghetti and 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt, cooking the spaghetti until al dente.
2. While spaghetti is cooking, gently heat 3 tablespoons of Olio Nuovo and half a teaspoon of salt in a 10-inch skillet over low heat. Add the garlic and cook until it becomes straw-colored, stirring the garlic often to prevent it from becoming overcooked. Turn off heat and add the red pepper flakes and parsley.
3. Drain the pasta, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking water. Add the garlic and olive oil mixture to the pasta as well as the additional 3 tablespoons of Olio Nuovo. Stir to combine, adding some of the reserved cooking water to help coat pasta with the sauce. Add fleur de sel to taste.
4. We like to top our pasta with freshly grated Parmesan and a drizzle of Olio Nuovo.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Now I’ve discovered what could possibly be a better – or at least healthier – recipe for pecan pie. It involves making the crust from extra virgin olive oil instead of butter.

The recipe comes to us via our friends at Viking Range Corp. and culinary educator Elaine Trigiani.

The Viking experts say the key to making a shortcrust pastry with olive oil is to get the oil to the consistency of butter.

“Measure the oil, pour it into a glass bowl, and place it in the freezer for about 1-1/2 hours, or until it is very thick, but not too hard,” they advise.

I love the idea of substituting extra virgin olive oil in place of butter for health reasons. In addition, the flavor of EVOO adds a new flavor dimension. Olive oil expert Fran Gage says a delicate extra virgin olive oil such as Arbequina is a good one for baking.

You can check out our selection of dishes for the Thanksgiving holiday. They all use extra virgin olive oil.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Years later, when my own son was in elementary school, we threw an annual pumpkin carving party at our house for Halloween. It was a blast. Families would bring their kids and pumpkins. We’d  head to the garage and carve the pumpkins in our own creative ways.

Past memories and the present come together in the following dish perfectly suited for this time of year: sautéed pumpkin cubes with cannellini beans and Olio Nuovo.  The recipe comes to us courtesy of olive oil expert Fran Gage.

“This autumn dish celebrates pumpkins and fresh new olive oil on a base of cannellini beans,” she writes in her book, The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009). Gage served the dish as a starter for a multiple-course pumpkin dinner.

Pumpkins, of course, are everywhere in late October. And next month we’ll begin shipping our Olio Nuovo, the freshest extra virgin olive oil we produce.

Gage drizzles a few tablespoons of Olio Nuovo over the sautéed pumpkin cubes and beans before serving. (You can check out her other suggestions for pairing Olio Nuovo with food.)

Gage used a squat French heirloom pumpkin called rouge vif d’etampes when she prepared the sautéed pumpkin for the pumpkin dinner. That particular variety features a deep orange skin and flash. A worthy substitute, she added, would be sugar pumpkins or butternut squash.

Good eating and trick or treat.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

We expect to begin shipping Olio Nuovo next month. So I’m thinking about how to pair food with it and our other robust extra virgin olive oil, Arbosana EVOO.  (Click on these links if you want to read about pairing food with delicate extra virgin olive oils, such as Arbequina, and medium oils.)

Robust oils deliver the highest pungency and bitterness. They also provide the highest level of polyphenols – the chemical substances found in plants that may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. According to olive oil expert Fran Gage, robust oils also last longer than delicate or medium oils.

Here are Gage’s guidelines for pairing food with robust oils:

• Brushed atop bruschetta
• In Spanish romesco sauce, like the almond-laden sauce pictured here
• With soups in general, as an ingredient and/or drizzled on top
• In the seafood medley paella
• With garlic mashed potatoes
• Drizzled on top of a grilled and sliced rib eye steak
• In biscotti as an ingredient
• In olive oil ice cream. Here, too, the guidelines are flexible. Famed pastry chef and author David Lebovitz suggests a delicate Arbequina EVOO in his excellent olive oil ice cream.
• For all things chocolate – although chocolate is actually a special case, according to Gage. It pairs well with all types of olive oils. (Is there anything not to like about chocolate?)

One final note: In her book, The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009), Gage dishes up a delicious spaghetti made from Olio Nuovo. The noodles are simply tossed with peeled and sliced garlic, a pinch or two of red chile flakes, Olio Nuovo and some fleur de sel.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Photo courtesy of Jeff Alexander and DHC © Alexander Imaging

We expect to begin shipping Olio Nuovo next month. I bring it up because I’m thinking about how to pair food with our robust extra virgin olive oils, namely Olio Nuovo and Arbosana EVOO.  (Click on these links if you want to read about delicate extra virgin olive oils, such as Arbequina, and medium oils.)

The guidelines below come from a talk I attended at the University of California, Davis, Olive Center. Olive oil expert Fran Gage led the discussion.

Robust oils deliver the highest pungency and bitterness. They also provide the highest level of polyphenols – the chemical substances found in plants that may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. According to Gage, robust oils also last longer than delicate or medium oils.

Here are Gage’s guidelines for pairing food with robust oils:

• Brushed atop bruschetta
• In Spanish romesco sauce
• With soups in general, as an ingredient and/or drizzled on top
• In the seafood medley paella
• With garlic mashed potatoes
• Drizzled on top of a grilled and sliced rib eye steak
• In biscotti, such as those pictured here
• In olive oil ice cream. Here, too, the guidelines are flexible. Famed pastry chef and author David Lebovitz suggests a delicate Arbequina EVOO in his excellent olive oil ice cream.
• For all things chocolate – although chocolate is actually a special case, according to Gage. It pairs well with all types of olive oils. (Is there anything not to like about chocolate?)

One final note: In her book, The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009), Gage dishes up a delicious spaghetti made from Olio Nuovo. The noodles are simply tossed with peeled and sliced garlic, a pinch or two of red chile flakes, Olio Nuovo and some fleur de sel.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I want to follow up on Gage’s eye-opening talk she gave recently about pairing different styles of extra virgin olive oil with food. I heard the talk during a conference at the University of California, Davis, Olive Center.

Last week I focused on “delicate” extra virgin olive oils, such as our Arbequina.

Medium-style EVOO, notes Gage, has a pleasant bitterness and pungency. These oils also “tend to be very versatile,” she writes in her book, The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009). “The best of these olive oils have characteristics of both delicate and robust oils.”

What are examples of medium-style oils? Those made from French olive varietals such as Aglandau and Bouteillon or the Spanish varietal Hojiblanca, according to Gage.

Gage stressed her pairing suggestions aren’t hard-and-fast rules and other styles of olive oil can be substituted successfully. Here are her suggestions for foods that pair well with medium oils:

• Basil pesto that includes garlic
• Red wine vinaigrette
• Bitter greens (Gage didn’t specify, but I’m thinking chicory or escarole, for example.)
• Corn salad
• Spicy dishes, such as the curry-flavored mayonnaise featured in Gage’s book
• Fish dishes which are spicy
• Sautéed or slow-roasted meat dishes, such as the lamb shanks featured in Gage’s book

I’ll wrap up soon with a look at robust EVOO.

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch