In Italian cooking there are only two highly venerated liquids, wine and olive oil.  Both heal your spirit, your mind, your tastebuds and your heart, literally on the heart on both counts.  Many Americans have an inkling about the benefits of olive oil, not only from the standpoint of Italian and Mediterranean cooking, but also of the health benefits.  While olive oil is on the table in virtually every single household in Italy and every Italian restaurant from Florence spiraling outward, the per person consumption of olive in the United States is only 1/20th of what it is in Italy.  So how does one go about learning what to look for in an olive oil, learning the health benefits, and learning how to incorporate it more in your diet?

To learn about what to look for, and what the differences are in EU regulations and US categorizations the Wikipedia article on olive oil is a great source, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil. It not only gives you the history and current regulations, which if you have any familiarity with DOC’s and AOC’s you know are always different in the US and Europe, but also will give you everything you need to know about the technical health benefits.

To summarize the article I would say you need to know just a few things.  Use extra-virgin olive oil on any cold foods or salads or when you add it at room temperature, or for quick cooking, sauteeing vegetables. Virgin olive oil can be used for cooking, anything below that grade is generally not tasty.  In Italy and other Mediterranean countries the prices are reasonable enough to use extra-virgin in everything, but I have seen the same oil in the US for four times the price, and if you are just going to use it prevent your chicken from sticking to the pan…..

The important part is to incorporate more olive oil into your daily diet.  In addition to making for a healthy heart and clean arteries but research in Germany and Japan has shown that the presence of squalene in olive oil also helps to reduce the appearance of aging and has shown a correlation to lower skin cancer rates. Plus it tastes good.  In addition to eating more Italian style food, throwing in more tomatoes, and going for some Greek or Moroccan food, substituting olive oil where you would normally use butter is an easy way to go.  It may take a little acclimation, but I now use it for cooking everything, eggs, veggies, etc. and just adding a little butter when I’m doing sauces.  We all know how much flavor and texture it adds to sauces.  Instead of buttering a baked potato, drizzle olive oil over it, sprinkle with sea salt and crack some pepper over it, your heart will be happy and you may just start looking younger.

When you want to start experimenting with creating your own recipes it is a good idea to have a general guideline regarding which herbs best complement which ingredients. Just as centuries of taste experimentation have led to classic food and wine pairings, the same experimental process over the course of time has led to standard pairings for herbs and meats and vegetables.

If you only use dried herbs, many of the bottles will have recommended pairings.  But, if you are like many people (myself included) who prefer the freshness and intensity of flavor that you get when slicing up fresh herbs a general guideline will prevent you from tossing the wrong herb into the mix.  I like to grow my own as much as possible but a little tip if you buy fresh herbs at the store is to take them out of their packaging and place their stems in a glass of water in the refrigerator, bouquet-style.  You’llj be amazed how much longer they stay fresh.

• Basil-Basil is classicly paired with tomatoes, either in tomato sauce or a Caprese salad.  It also pairs well with mild cheeses, eggs,nuts and vegetables.  Of course, it is the main ingredient in pesto sauce as well.
• Dill-Most commonly paired with fish, especially in conjunction with lemon juice. It plays well with cucumbers as well so is used in pickling and also in the Greek style cucumber, yogurt and dill combos that are so good on a hot summer day.
• Marjoram-Is extremely flexible, but best with eggs, vegetables and lamb.  It takes almost any vegetable based dish to the next level, whether that is soup, salad or roasted mushrooms.
• Oregano-Essential in Italian cooking and it pairs well with hearty dishes and tomatoes.  Game, fish and blue cheese all pair well with it and it is nearly mandatory in pizza sauce.  Meaty soups and pastas are ideal for sprinkles of oregano, but always near the end of cooking time, it can lend a bitter flavor if overcooked.
• Parsley-Always the kind with the flat leaves. Fantastic with meats, especially beef and game, including meat sauces. It works well with stronger vegetables as well, like asparagus, onions and mushrooms and is partnered well with tomatoes also.
• Rosemary-Blends with virtually every kind of meat and seafood available, from chicken to aged beef and lamb.  It is fantastic with potatoes, garlic, tomatoes and fennel.
• Sage-Firstly, is significantly better fresh.  It works with all kinds of poultry, game and pork, and is better with veal than beef.  It also works very well with citrus flavors.
• Tarragon-is ideal with any egg or mayonnaise based sauce, especially if the sauce is to be used with fish.  Mushrooms, poultry and tomatoes also pair well with it, it is fairly delicate so should not be over cooked.
• Thyme-Blends with nearly all fruits and vegetables, especially those with a fairly high sugar content, and happens to be the only herb I use in my fig and plum sauce.

HAPPY EXPERIMENTING!!!!

If it’s not been made blatantly obvious by previous posts,  I am a huge fan of the Slow Food movement.  The idea of food that is grown locally and sustainably is appealing on many levels.  First, the environmental aspects are obvious.  Second is the greater freshness of the ingredients.  Third is the better flavor and nutrient aspects of the food.  Now, of course, it’s hardly as if everyone can grow their own food and cure their own meats.  But the more everyone does to foster this type of consumption, the higher the quality of food will be for all.

From an environmental standpoint there are two major factors to consider.  Primarily the NIMBY mentality prohibits these generally smaller producers from engaging in any practices that could possible be harmful.  If you know what you are producing could end up in your childrens’ lunch at school or the meal you are served at a friends house, the chances of using any chemical or product you don’t want to consume yourself is low.  When people say, “yes, we got this cheese/tomato/chicken from (insert farmer’s name here)” that is showing confidence in the food and the farmer.  The other factor is shipping.  When food is taken from a local farm to a farmer’s market 30 miles away only enough fuel to travel that short distance is used, not the fuel to ship the food 2000 miles.

Playing off that point is the freshness.  Everyone that has raised summer tomatoes knows the difference between the perfume of a vine-ripened tomato and going to the store and sniffing tomatoes that were plucked green and spent 12 hours in a truck.  There is absolutely no comparison.  This is not as much of a factor for certain meats because of the aging process and most dairy with proper refrigeration, but for produce the difference is unmistakeable.

Lastly, the flavor and nutrient content of foods that are fresher will be higher.  At least half of the flavor of food is taken in with scent.  If you have tried to eat really good food when you can not breathe you know the difference that this makes in flavor, an onion and an apple can taste almost identical with no scent.  Of course, the older food is the more nutritional content it loses, cells simply break down or in non-citrus fruits energy from the fruit is converted to ethylene gas.

For those that want to keep good, healthy, flavorful food around for future generations the thing to do is embrace the Slow Food movement.  A worldwide movement that is gaining support steadily and has branches in most countries, and yes, it was started by an Italian.

http://www.slow-food.info/

http://www.slowfood.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Food

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/

For those that have traveled to Italy already and indulged in Bistecca alla Fiorentina you know how good this beef is. It is a carnivore’s dream. Juicy. Succulent. Tender. Perfectly marbled. And always rare to medium rare just like Dracula would have appreciated.  My appetite progresses from “healthy” to “oh my God, did you see what she ate” and have on a number of occasions polished off a 1 kg steak myself.  I had a brief fling with vegetarianism many years ago, but my typically slender bod went down to “have you been sick?” and my canines were aching to tear flesh so my inner hedonist returned.

Chianina is one of, if not the, oldest breeds of cattle there are.  There are images of these huge cattle in Roman artifacts when they were used only as draft animals, but then of course, the quality of their meat was discovered.  The breed is pure through most of Italy and extremely carefully regulated.  When I say careful I mean that each individual calf is registered, only certified packers can pack the meat and each package is labeled with a number designating the animal the meat came from.  So in the supermarket here you see the number of the individual animal on the meat you buy for your home, I guess the modern equivalent of knowing the farmer you buy your meat from.

A full-blooded Italian Chianina did not actually make it to the US until 1973, long after his countrymen had instilled a love for all variations of imported Italian food in Americans.  The Chianina is frequently cross bred with various cattle here and finding true, pure Chianina is not common in the US.  When you do find it, it will most likely be in a restaurant and you should indulge, even if you have a cholesterol test the next day, just go for it.  You will see why Tuscans take such pride in this meat.  If you end up in London it will be a bit easier to find there, and of course when you come here, come armed with a steak knife and your appetite.

Making pasta from scratch is not something most Americans typically do.  But it’s actually not high on the difficulty scale and the reward is a great payoff.  I was told by a wise and well traveled Italian that there are three things that go into making good pasta, the eggs, the weather and the hands that knead the pasta.  After tasting the pasta that his wife makes, I am in complete agreement.

Typical of many of the best Italian foods, pasta has a short list of ingredients where freshness is key.  Here you need only flour, eggs and salt.  A little more specifically the quality and type of the flour is important, luckily DeCecco imports their semolina flour into the US.  If you can’t find that use the highest quality bread flour available.  Fresh eggs, medium sized, because the yolks are larger in comparison to the whites, and generous sprinkly of salt.

Make a mound of flour on a pre-floured wooden cutting board.  You want it to look like a volcano with eggs for lava. You want a ratio of about 1 cup of flour to 1 egg per person.  Sprinkle a healthy pinch of salt over the top and knead the dough until it is elastic and resilient. Add little sprinkles of flour as you are kneading whenever you feel any stickiness. It should take about 15 minutes.  Roll the dough out thoroughly, again with regular sprinkles of flour to make sure that the dough sticks to neither your rolling pin or the cutting board.  You want to get the dough to the thinness of a dime and this should  take about 20-25 minutes.

At the end of your little upper body workout slice, or slice and stuff and cook.  For the sliced pastas allow 4-7 minutes for cooking, less for thinner and more for wide noodles like lasagna.  For ravioli or tortillini; which can be filled with virtually anything, allow 5-10 minutes.  Fresh pasta begs for a simple fresh sauce and just a sprinkly of parmesan and cracked pepper.