I met another madman. Madly in love. Madly in love with olive trees and oil. Madly in love to the point of wanting “the best” for his beloved olives. And it is based on this love that he decides when to harvest them. Based on love and based on the altitude at which they grow. So he takes the olives that grow lower down to a certain mill, while he takes those that grow 700 meters above sea level to another mill, where they treat them delicately and extract a very pure juice. I dare say divine.
Because I have no doubts about the divine nature of olive oils.
I often talk about it in class: I explain how polyphenols and flavonoids – as well as vitamins – in oil can boost our immune system and how the genome of olive oil – the one from well-treated trees without “poisons” – can interact with our DNA. I explain the composition, mostly of monounsaturated fatty acids and how the percentage of polyunsaturated ones – the essential linoleic and linolenic, Ω3 and Ω6, are similar to the percentages of these fatty acids in human milk.
I explain how, if not brought to the smoking point, it maintains its triglyceride structure.
In short: I get boring. So I change register, I shift the course, I adjust the aim. We start to cook and taste.
These are oils like this that are used at Gigliocooking during the cooking classes. But not by chance. The oils are paired with the foods. Pesto – another majesty of our regional cuisine – we make with Taggiasca olive oil, from Liguria. But sometimes with a delicate and sweet Tuscan oil. We let our students and guests taste them, so that they understand the difference and the reason for the choice.
Heer is a fun post with the Pesto recipe:
At school we have a special oil from Valdichiana. I had already made a post on this blog, to show my friend Nicola while he climbs among the branches:
Another strong, almost bitterish Florentine oil:
https://www.ortobioattivo.com/
The latest arrival is from Reggello, a pre-Apennine hill area dotted with a few castles: there is the very particular one of Sammezzano and there is the Torre della Bandinella.
And then oils from my island, Giglio:
I am a little crazy too: the search for good food is in my family traditions. My father was a sailor and when he was home “landed” he took the family to look for the best products in the area. We could return home with a demijohn of water drawn from a spring in the mountains, with a vat of wine from the farmer, with a lamb, or a rabbit, a dozen eggs, a wheel of Pecorino, a large loaf of bread cooked in a wood oven, a bag of walnuts or chestnuts and obviously with good oil. They were our trips out of town.
I brought this research to Gigliocooking, where you can find not only good oils, but where everything, or almost everything, comes from certified sources and is tested by… my palate.