Quote:
Originally Posted by reckless
The only thing Mussolini ever did right --and it wasn't making the trains run on time-- was to irrigate southern Italy, most notably the southern eastern region of Puglia.
The very best olive oil on earth comes from Puglia; Sicily is second.
Stay away from those overpriced bitter olive oils from Tuscany and even France. And of course, stay away from any olive oil from Costco. You should definitely ignore all of those blended oils.
Pay a few bucks more for delicious olive oil from southern Italy and you'll thank me later.  |
Thanks. I'll take your suggestion! If I can find southern Italian olive oil it would be fun to compare it to what I'm using now.
The label on the California Olive Ranch brand that we are currently using says that it is made from late season Arbequina.
Wikipedia says:
"Arbequina is a cultivar of olives. The fruit is highly aromatic, small, symmetrical and dark brown, with a rounded apex and a broad peduncular cavity. In Europe, it is mostly grown in Catalonia, Spain,[1] but it is also grown in Aragon and Andalusia, as well as California,[2] Argentina, Chile, and Australia. It has recently become one of the dominant olive cultivars in the world, largely under highly intensive, "super high-density" plantation.
Arbequina trees are adaptable to different conditions of climate and soil, although it does best in alkaline soils; it thrives in long, hot, dry summers, but is frost-hardy and pest-resistant. Its relatively small cup, allows it to be cultivated under more intense, high-density conditions than other plantation olives[5] The variety is very productive and enters early into production (from the first half of November). The fruit does not ripen simultaneously, and has an average resistance to detachment. Unlike most varieties, Arbequina has a high germination percentage, making it a common seedling tree for use as a rootstock. 78% of olive oil acres in California are planted on Arbequina rootstock.[6]
Although sold as a table olive as well, Arbequina olives have one of the highest concentrations of oil, and are therefore mostly used for olive oil production.[7] Harvesting is easy since the trees are typically low to the ground and allow for easy hand picking. Oils made from Arbequina are generally buttery, fruity, and very mild in flavor,[8] being low in polyphenols.[4] The combination of low polyphenol levels and high levels of polyunsaturated fat as compared with other olive cultivars means that it has relatively low stability and short shelf-life."
