How to choose olive oil– Tell us,How do professionals taste olive oil? At professional tastings, oil is served in special blue glasses. Blue so that you can evaluate only the taste, without paying attention to the color of the oil. It is believed that greenish oil is better than yellow, but this is not true. And on a blue background, color nuances are not visible. You need to take the glass in your hand and hold it until it heats up and the oil begins to emit aromas. The main aroma should be the olive. You sniff the oil and take a small sip - but do not swallow it, but hold it in your mouth. Good oil should have three qualities at once: it should be sweet, bitter and piquant. And industrial oils are usually very smooth, you do not feel either aroma or taste in them. Is it possible to identify good oil without tasting it? Yes, read the label carefully. For example, the abbreviation D0P on the label of Italian oil means that the oil is certified according to a quality control system similar to the French appellation system for wine. D0P is a certain guarantee of quality: it means that olives of a certain variety were used, which were collected from a specific, very small area, and the oil was made in compliance with all traditions - first pressing, extra virgin, and so on. All stages of production are certified by third-party organizations. This is a serious guarantee, and, it seems to me, it is especially relevant in countries where there are no culinary traditions regarding olive oil. – How do oils from different regions differ? – Oil from Central Italy, from Tuscany or Umbria, has a light fruity flavor, and southern oils are richly fruity, in addition, they contain herbal aromas. Oil from more northern regions has a sweetish taste. – Oil from which regions of Italy is considered the best? – Good oil can be made anywhere olives grow, just as good wine can be made anywhere grapes grow. Quality – is largely a question not of region, but of the honesty of the producer. In my opinion, the best Italian oil is from Puglia, in southern Italy. This is where 45% of the country's olive oil is produced, and only here do the ideal olives, the dauno variety, grow. I think this is the best place in the world for olive oil production. My favorite oil from this region has tomato notes in the aroma, it is good for dressing caprese salad. – What other favorite notes in the smell of oil do you have? – Depends on the dish - like with wine. Nobody drinks red wine with dessert. The same with butter. To understand the patterns, you need to try to combine butter and food. Spicy, bitter butter goes well with vegetables. But if you pour bitter butter over fish, it will drown out its true taste, while sweet butter, on the contrary, will emphasize it. By the way, my daughter is eight years old, and she already chooses different types of butter for different occasions.
