You bought a bottle of proper extra virgin olive oil. Not the supermarket stuff in the plastic bottle — something with a name on it, from a place you can point to on a map. Now what?
Most people do one of two things. They save it for special occasions and never open it, or they use it exactly the way they used the cheap stuff and wonder what the fuss was about. Both are wrong.
Good olive oil is not a garnish. It is not a luxury reserved for dinner parties. It is the single most useful ingredient in your kitchen, and the fastest way to make ordinary food taste like someone who knows what they are doing made it.
Here is how to use it properly.
Breakfast
Pour it on eggs. Scrambled, fried, poached — it does not matter. A generous drizzle of good olive oil on eggs is one of the simplest upgrades you will ever make to your morning. The oil brings a peppery warmth that salt alone cannot deliver.
On toast with a pinch of flaky salt. No butter needed. This is breakfast across the Mediterranean and has been for centuries. If you want to feel ambitious, rub half a tomato across the toast first, then add the oil and salt. That is pa amb tomàquet and it will ruin you for regular toast forever.
Stir it into porridge. Before you react — this is common across the Middle East. A spoonful of extra virgin olive oil in oats with a little honey and sea salt. The oil makes the porridge silky and keeps you full until lunch.
Lunch
Every salad you make should start and end with olive oil. Not a vinaigrette from a bottle. Just good oil, a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar, salt, and pepper. That is a dressing. Anything more is usually unnecessary.
Drizzle it over soup. Any soup. Lentil, tomato, butternut squash, even a simple chicken broth. A thread of green-gold olive oil on top adds richness and flavour in a way that cream cannot match, without the heaviness.
Dip bread in it. Keep a small bowl of olive oil on the table with lunch. Tear bread, dip, eat. Add a few drops of balsamic if you like, but it is not required. The oil should taste good enough on its own.
Dinner
Yes, you can cook with it. The idea that you cannot fry or roast with extra virgin olive oil is a myth that will not die. Good extra virgin has a smoke point above 200°C — well above the temperature of most home cooking. The polyphenols that make it healthy are also what make it stable at heat.
Roast vegetables in it. Toss broccoli, courgettes, peppers, or potatoes in a generous amount of olive oil, season, and roast at 200°C. The oil caramelises the edges and carries the seasoning into every surface. Do not be stingy — this is not the moment to measure.
Finish pasta with it. Cook your pasta, drain it, and toss it with olive oil before adding the sauce. Or forget the sauce entirely — pasta with olive oil, garlic, chilli flakes, and parmesan is a complete dinner. The Italians call it aglio e olio and it takes eight minutes.
Marinate meat and fish. Olive oil, lemon, garlic, herbs. Leave it for an hour or overnight. The oil tenderises and carries the flavour into the protein in a way that nothing else does.
The Rule
There is only one rule worth remembering: if you can taste the food, you can taste the oil. Use good oil wherever flavour matters. Use it generously. Do not save it.
A bottle of proper extra virgin olive oil should not last months. If it does, you are not using enough. Open it, pour it, finish it, and open another one. That is what it is for.
Murataj & Son extra virgin olive oil is first cold pressed from Albanian olives grown in our family grove in Kotë, Albania. Available from hydo.co.uk.
Leave a Reply