{"id":6705,"date":"2019-06-18T09:39:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T09:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/olive-oil-how-to-use-it-best\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:52:10","slug":"olive-oil-how-to-use-it-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/olive-oil-how-to-use-it-best\/","title":{"rendered":"OLIVE OIL: HOW TO USE IT BEST"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>We are all now aware of the countless beneficial effects that olive oil consumption has on our health. We know it is rich in antioxidants, which can help prevent cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. It is well known that it is a boon for beauty care and an excellent natural remedy for alleviating typical and frequent daily ailments. But increasingly, while in our kitchens, we wonder if we are using this precious resource correctly&#8230; for this reason, we will now try to provide you with some useful tips for preparing your dishes.   <\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>OLIVE OIL IN THE KITCHEN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Olive oil is used primarily in the kitchen, mainly in the extra virgin and virgin categories, to dress salads, flavor various foods, and preserve vegetables in jars. Olive oil is one of the main components of the Mediterranean diet, replacing foods containing saturated fats of animal origin. In Mediterranean cuisine, it is the base of all sauces that accompany pasta and fish and meat main courses. Today it is also a protagonist in pastry making. Some desserts are made by replacing margarine, a fat created industrially through chemical processes, with extra virgin olive oil. The result is desserts with very intense flavors, but with the advantage of being highly digestible and light. What we find most difficult when at the stove is understanding how to pair olive oil, since there are different aromatic intensities; and here is how an oil:      <\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Sweet, soft, subtly fragrant<\/em> is ideal for fried fish, garden salads, mayonnaise sauce, boiled or grilled white fish, saut\u00e9s for seafood or vegetables with lemon;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Flavorful, round, fragrant<\/em> excellent for meat carpaccio, meat with tomato, fried lake or river fish, fried white meats, green beans and asparagus with lemon, beans, legume creams, boiled chickpeas, field salads, and fish soups;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Very fruity, penetrating, with a peppery finish<\/em> perfect for boiled beef, braised meats, grilled red meats, game, legume soups, and vegetable soups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;NEW OIL, OLD WINE&#8221;&#8230; this popular saying indicates that with aging, oil always deteriorates and it is good practice to consume it in the same year of production, generally within 18 months from packaging<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another typical question we regularly ask ourselves is &#8220;<strong>IS IT BETTER TO CONSUME IT RAW OR COOKED?<\/strong>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is preferred for dressing raw foods (for example, salads) or for marinating fish, because its distinctive taste and aroma manage to make food less pasty and less greasy, enhancing the freshness of the product used. Used raw, the oil retains its bitter-peppery character due to the antioxidants present; with cooking, however, many of these characteristics are lost due to phenomena that occur during heating. The cooked dish will be less rich in fragrant and herbaceous aromas and will have more subdued scents and flavors. It should also be noted that for long-term preservation of vegetables in jars, it is preferable to use simple olive oil, obtained by blending virgin oils and refined olive oils, industrially treated to make it neutral in flavor and pH and free of polyphenols. This is because the latter, very present in extra virgin olive oil, in contact with oxygen cause alterations of the product and reduce its shelf-life. In fact, for this reason, extra virgin olive oil should only be used for preserves with a short shelf life (3-6 months) and the jars must be well sealed and kept in the dark, away from heat sources.     <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230; <strong>AND FOR FRYING, IS IT GOOD?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Extra virgin olive oil has proven to be more resistant than other oils in home frying. Its use in home frying is recommended due to its richness in monounsaturated fatty acids and the presence of polyphenols, and it seems that frying with this oil transfers some of these substances to foods. It is believed, in fact, that frying with EVOO would make vegetables healthier compared to those cooked in boiling water. From some research conducted on a comparison between boiling and frying in extra virgin olive oil and mixed cooking in water and oil of cubed potatoes, pumpkin, tomato, and eggplant, a greater quantity of phenolic compounds was obtained in vegetables fried in EVOO. It is well known that frying does not greatly benefit our body, but the effectiveness of EVOO is due to its <strong>smoke point<\/strong>, which corresponds to the maximum temperature that can be reached by an oil before it begins to burn and decompose, creating toxic substances. In the case of extra virgin olive oil, its smoke point is very high (T= 210\u00b0C) and therefore toxic substances will be produced in smaller quantities.     <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230; but when we use it for frying <strong>HOW SHOULD IT BE DISPOSED OF?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First of all, oil used for frying is easily subject to oxidation in occasional preparations (home, artisan, canteens) and therefore should be disposed of after each use. It is common practice that we all, after frying, throw our oil into the kitchen sink, down the drains or, for those living in the countryside, onto the surrounding land&#8230; well, these two practices are actually very incorrect and in the long run will cause damage to our environment, as frying oil is not biodegradable and is not even an excellent fertilizer for plants; on the contrary, it is very dangerous for the soil microflora. For this reason, &#8220;spent&#8221; oil must be disposed of in special containers, which, once full, should be taken to recycling centers&#8230; or, if these are not present in your city, there will certainly be distributors who will collect them. Subsequently, this used oil will be recycled by specialized companies, which will give it new life by creating vegetable lubricants for agricultural machinery, biodiesel, and glycerin for soaps.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Using olive oil in the kitchen certainly brings benefits by offering unique flavors and aromas, regardless of the type of preparation we are making; but also disposing of it properly helps us improve life by protecting the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are all now aware of the countless beneficial effects that olive oil consumption has on our health. We know it is rich in antioxidants, which can help prevent cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. It is well known that it is a boon for beauty care and an excellent natural remedy for alleviating typical and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-and-curiosities-about-oil"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6707,"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6705\/revisions\/6707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contedoro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}