Extra Virgin Olive Oil Is the Soul of These Classic Italian Winter Dishes

Despite tem­per­a­tures exceed­ing sea­sonal aver­ages, Italians are already turn­ing toward a more win­tery diet as newly-pressed extra vir­gin olive oil reaches restau­rants and kitchens.

October and November are tra­di­tion­ally when most Italian olives are har­vested and trans­formed into olive oil.

“One of the most inter­est­ing effects of the arrival of new extra vir­gin olive oils is the enthu­si­asm it sparks among qual­ity pro­duc­ers and con­sumers alike,” Emanuele Natalizio, founder of the Olive Oil Gala in Puglia and chef at the his­toric restau­rant Il Patriarca in Bitonto, told Olive Oil Times.

“Most newly early-har­vested olive oils have spe­cific char­ac­ter­is­tics,” he explained. ​“They don’t offer a broad range of pair­ings because the first olive har­vested in the region is typ­i­cally very del­i­cate, with bit­ter­ness, spici­ness and a bal­anced yet mod­er­ate polyphe­no­lic pro­file.”

“The unique aspect of the new oil, being a fresh and early press­ing, is always a dis­tinct pres­ence of chloro­phyll,” he added. ​“When you look at this olive oil, its emer­ald green color stands out, and you can sense all its fla­vors, like the almond scent char­ac­ter­is­tic of Bitonto’s olive oils.”

The new sea­son brings fresh extra vir­gin olive oil pair­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties

Considering the chang­ing sea­son and its bounty, Natalizio shared some tips for show­cas­ing extra vir­gin olive oils at their best.

“A good com­bi­na­tion for this time of year, when they’re at their peak, is with pump­kins,” he said. ​“You can go for a pump­kin risotto or pair it with chest­nuts, which are also in sea­son.”

“Or you could try pap­pardelle pasta with pump­kin and a sprin­kle of salted chest­nut on top,” Natalizio added. ​“But they also work in desserts. The same dessert could be made with pump­kin flour, caramelized chest­nuts, and, of course, olive oil. Or you could pair olive oil with a chest­nut cream.”

Olive oil pairs per­fectly with mush­rooms as autumn becomes win­ter

“The typ­i­cal Apulian car­don­cello mush­room works well in a meat dish, like lamb ribs,” Natalizio said. ​“Baked with car­don­cello, a sim­ple sea­son­ing of gar­lic, pars­ley and basil cre­ates a light mari­nade, high­light­ing the mushroom’s sweet and slightly bit­ter fla­vor, which has a nice tex­ture.”

The extra vir­gin olive oil it is paired with enhances the mush­room’s qual­i­ties. ​“When served warm, the olive oil acts as an aroma enhancer,” Natalizio said.

Time to use EVOO for cook­ing

“As the new sea­son kicks in, my patients increas­ingly ask me for recipes that use extra vir­gin olive oil for cook­ing, to favor the con­sump­tion of warm foods,” said Monica Binello, a biol­o­gist spe­cial­ized in ther­a­peu­tic nutri­tion in the north­west­ern city of Turin.

“Look at very impor­tant mol­e­cules, such as lycopene, a mol­e­cule found in toma­toes believed to have anti-tumor prop­er­ties,” Binello noted. ​“In that case, the com­bi­na­tion of high tem­per­a­tures and extra vir­gin olive oils impacts the mol­e­cule and makes it sig­nif­i­cantly more bio-avail­able.”

Along with lycopene, she added that other mol­e­cules exhibit sim­i­lar behav­iors when com­bined with extra vir­gin olive oil.

“Beyond such ben­e­fits, using extra vir­gin olive oil in cook­ing sea­sonal food such as chicory, broc­coli, cau­li­flower or even arti­chokes might also stim­u­late diges­tion,” she said.

“That hap­pens because when cook­ing veg­eta­bles in a pan with extra vir­gin olive oil, a lipid layer is formed and it stim­u­lates the pro­duc­tion of gas­tric juices,” Binello added.

She sug­gests that peo­ple with diges­tive dif­fi­cul­ties boil raw veg­eta­bles in a pan before cook­ing them with olive oil.

“This way, they dry up a bit and become more digestible thanks to this lipid layer,” she said.

Binello rec­om­mended extra vir­gin olive oil in pinz­i­mo­nio, a tra­di­tional dress­ing based on olive oil, salt, pep­per and some­times vine­gar, as a clas­sic win­ter dish.

“When we talk about win­ter food, extra vir­gin olive oil might be pro­posed raw with sea­sonal veg­eta­bles in pinz­i­mo­nio, such as cel­ery, car­rot and fen­nel, where the extra vir­gin olive oil used raw enhances all its prop­er­ties as well as those of the raw food, such as vit­a­mins A and E, and phe­nols,” Binello explained.

Pumpkin Vellutata soup

Vellutata is an Italian vel­vety cream that is usu­ally made by blend­ing veg­eta­bles. The name comes from vel­luto, the Italian word for ​“vel­vet,” a direct hint to the smooth tex­ture of the serv­ing.

While other cook­ing fats are occa­sion­ally used, extra vir­gin olive oil is con­sid­ered the best fat for such a dish.

“In Pumpkin Vellutata, the gar­lic is sautéed in extra vir­gin oil, then the pump­kin is added, cooked, passed through a food proces­sor and is even­tu­ally adjusted with corn­starch to get the creami­ness you want,” Binello said.

“Once you are there, you can still add some ricotta or Parmigiano cheese and then a driz­zle of raw extra vir­gin olive oil,” she added.

Such a choice of ingre­di­ents in com­bi­na­tion with extra vir­gin olive oil is not only a mat­ter of taste.

“I rec­om­mend it because, for exam­ple, with ricotta and Parmigiano, it gets enriched in cal­cium,” Binello said. ​“Olive oil by itself also favors the bio-avail­abil­ity of cal­cium and the bone rem­iner­al­iza­tion process.”

“That is why I sug­gest this serv­ing dur­ing menopause, for exam­ple, or in cases of osteope­nia, preg­nancy, dur­ing child­hood and more,” she added.

The veg­etable clas­sic: Trifolato Artichoke

The crisp autumn air and the onset of win­ter often stim­u­late the appetite of many Italians.

“I always say to my patients that we need to priv­i­lege qual­ity over quan­tity, as lots of healthy serv­ings can sat­isfy the palate with­out leav­ing the perime­ters of the Mediterranean diet,” Binello said.

Such is when sautéing sea­sonal veg­eta­bles with high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

“Looking at some­one in good health and with no spe­cific ill­nesses, I would pro­pose sea­sonal veg­eta­bles such as tri­fo­lato arti­choke,” Binello said.

Trifolato is a cook­ing method that adds gar­lic and pars­ley to the sauté pan as ideal com­pan­ions for the main veg­eta­bles. This tech­nique is widely used in Italy for prepar­ing var­i­ous dishes, with mush­rooms being the most pop­u­lar choice.

“Artichokes are not only tasty but also good for those who need liver stim­u­la­tion. Of course, they are not a choice for those who suf­fer from hepatopathies or intesti­nal inflam­ma­tion,” Binello explained, stress­ing how sea­sonal food choices must be tai­lored to per­sonal taste and health con­di­tions.

Similar con­sid­er­a­tions apply to other pop­u­lar veg­eta­bles in Italy, such as chicory, tra­di­tion­ally sautéed in olive oil, with or with­out gar­lic, often accom­pa­nied by arti­chokes and some­times other veg­eta­bles like pota­toes.

The per­fect win­tery salad: Orange Fennel

A clas­sic in Italian culi­nary tra­di­tion, orange and fen­nel salad show­cases the nat­ural pair­ing of sea­sonal ingre­di­ents, espe­cially when enjoy­ing raw foods sea­soned with extra vir­gin olive oil.

“The orange and fen­nel salad is a per­fect serv­ing in the sea­son,” Binello said. ​“Of course, it would not be a good choice for those who have dia­betes or gas­tric con­di­tions.”

She added that she often includes olives in the salad along with the extra vir­gin olive oil for the fla­vor and as another source of vit­a­min E.

“With the vit­a­min C com­ing from the oranges and the diuretic and anti-mete­oric effect of fen­nel, it comes per­fect for the sea­son,” Binello said.

“And then, for a per­fect mid-morn­ing or mid-after­noon snack, why choose any­thing dif­fer­ent from some grilled bread with extra vir­gin olive oil on top,” she added.

Natalizio is on the same wave­length. ​“One of the best things you can do with freshly pressed extra vir­gin olive oils is to savor their exquis­ite taste and unique­ness with the king of all dishes: olive oil on bread,” he con­cluded.