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What is the best olive oil to use for Italian cooking?
- Thread starter Happybunny
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I hand make all of my salad dressings and I've recently converted from oilve oil-based dressings (direct from itlalian farmers) to low-fat yogurt-based dressings. it actually tastes better (brings out the mustard flavors) and is healthier.
i should admit that with the low-fat yogurt-based dressing do require some oil still, but about 1/10th the normal volume.
One moment please, your definitive answer will be forthcoming. 
I use extra-virgin for both, when I actually use some.
I know that oil and vinegar dressing is better for you, but WTH, I love Caesar dressing.
EDIT: Whoops, I was one minute too slow.
I use extra-virgin for both, when I actually use some.
I know that oil and vinegar dressing is better for you, but WTH, I love Caesar dressing.
EDIT: Whoops, I was one minute too slow.
Last edited:
for one, i only cook on stainless, which has properties lending itself to sunflower.
I use lighter olive oils (some of the Spanish ones can be quite light & 'fruity') for cooking - they tend not to overpower the food, but I like cooking with olive oil - and more flavoursome - perhaps 'heavier' - olive oils, (often, say, Italian), or some of the better Portuguese ones, for salads. While natural yogurt has its place - and can be pretty good for for some winter type salads, (cabbage and carrot types), personally, I love an oil & lemon juice based dressing on greens. In general, I don't use olive oil 'brands' but find that good delis, or farmer's markets with links to olive oil producers, can offer good quality oils from small producers at reasonable prices.
Re cooking, it depends on preferences, what one is cooking and what one is in the mood to cook with. Sometimes, I use stainless steel, sometimes, cast iron, and sometimes - when I have plenty of time, and want to treat myself and guests, friends, family, I'll use copper.
Cheers
Re cooking, it depends on preferences, what one is cooking and what one is in the mood to cook with. Sometimes, I use stainless steel, sometimes, cast iron, and sometimes - when I have plenty of time, and want to treat myself and guests, friends, family, I'll use copper.
Cheers
I use a lot of extra virgin olive oil and butter. Yes, I'm more about taste than health!
Italian should be olive oil all the way I would have thought.
For Indian type food I use ghee (clarified butter) and for deep frying I use rice bran oil, since it has a super high smoke point over 250C.
Italian should be olive oil all the way I would have thought.
For Indian type food I use ghee (clarified butter) and for deep frying I use rice bran oil, since it has a super high smoke point over 250C.
That is very interesting about the rice bran oil, I have seen that on the supermarket shelves. I will be giving a try soon
The ghee butter I will have to dig around to see if I can find any here.
One further point is it best to have a separate pan for each ie one for Italian a different on for Indian?
Wow! you would be really handy to have around...It seems you literally "Do It All"
Give coconut oil a try as well. It can stand very high temperatures and gives a great taste if you're doing Thai or Indian food. Not the best for Italian though since it has a coconut flavor (not very strong but still).
I didn't know coconut oil existed for cooking
I'll have to watch out and make sure I never get served anything cooked with it. I get deathly ill at the taste or smell of coconut and stay sick for hours and hours.
Most italian olive oils are mixed (Ouch!), low quality olive oils, based on low quality ("production waste"-quality) olive oils from other countries. The best olive oils come from Crete (Greece), a wonderful island with a long olive oil tradition (> 4000 years, AFAIK). It is impossible to produce a high quality olive oil for a low price (ok, if you buy it directly in greece, then it is cheaper). So all big bottles (750 ml, usually) for a low price are certainly italian low quality olive oil. However, high prices are not equal with high quality, so it is probably the best, i describe my current olive oil, which i found after 10 years of "experiments":
- From Crete (Greece)
- Extra-virgin (cold pressed)
- The oil comes from the so called "Koroneiki" olives, and only from this cultivar
- Green bottle, not more than 500 ml
- Price lower than 10,- Euros/500 ml
More info:
http://www.todayonline.com/WineandDine/EDC120127-0000008/The-great-olive-oil-scandal