benefit. What is the intensity of olive oil

Olive oil has earned a place of hon­or in the kitchens of house­wives in dif­fer­ent parts of the world. Thanks to its ben­e­fi­cial prop­er­ties and spe­cial aro­ma, it enhances the taste of var­i­ous dish­es. How to under­stand which oil to choose for a par­tic­u­lar dish? The secret lies in the inten­si­ty of the oil — the rich­ness of its taste (the nat­ur­al bit­ter­ness of the oil, pun­gency and fruiti­ness) and the smell itself.

There are three inten­si­ties of olive oils: light, medi­um and high. It depends on sev­er­al fac­tors: the vari­ety of olives, the region where the olives grow, and the time of their har­vest.

With the right selec­tion, olive oil reveals its ben­e­fits and enhances the taste of the dish. How to choose oil? Let’s try to fig­ure it out!

Light Inten­si­ty Oil:

Ide­al for non-cooked or steamed dish­es. Such oil del­i­cate­ly empha­sizes, for exam­ple, cap­rese, a tra­di­tion­al Ital­ian dish of sliced ​​​​moz­zarel­la and toma­toes, which is sea­soned with olive oil and fine­ly chopped basil.

Or serve this oil with fish baked in salt — the dish is dis­tin­guished by its sim­plic­i­ty of prepa­ra­tion and max­i­mum use­ful­ness, as it is baked in its own juice. Oil del­i­cate­ly com­ple­ments the taste of sea fish.

If you want to beat dish­es such as soup, sal­ad, grilled meat in a new way, make an inter­est­ing dress­ing, then you need to take oil with more pro­nounced taste qual­i­ties — medi­um inten­si­ty.

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The most com­mon use of oil is sal­ad dress­ing. Veg­eta­bles are espe­cial­ly fra­grant, and it is impos­si­ble not to add a riot of greens to your favorite sal­ad in this com­bi­na­tion. Basil, cilantro, dill — all these herbs are ide­al­ly com­bined with medi­um inten­si­ty extra vir­gin olive oil.

This oil is of medi­um inten­si­ty and has an incred­i­ble aro­ma of fresh­ly cut grass. Its pro­duc­tion lasts only 24 hours using the first cold press­ing method.

The secret of using oil with sal­ads: It is impor­tant to sea­son the dish with oil and salt first, and only then add vine­gar or lemon. In this way, let­tuce will retain its juici­ness and fresh look longer, because the oil forms a spe­cial lay­er on the sur­face of the prod­ucts that pro­tects the leaves from wilt­ing.

Grilled meat It will be even tasti­er and health­i­er if the fin­ished dish is poured with olive oil. Every­thing you cook on char­coal is dish­es with a juicy, bright aro­ma, which means that for such dish­es we take medi­um-inten­si­ty oil.

High inten­si­ty oil soft­ens the taste rich herbs and spices. By adding a small amount of oil to a spicy dish (for exam­ple, Indi­an cui­sine), you will give it not only a kind of “soft­ness”, but also a unique aro­ma. Also, these oils are ide­al for aged cheeses, bar­be­cue dish­es and desserts. It is impor­tant to note that high inten­si­ty oil pairs well with fat­ty meals as well as high sat­u­ra­tion meals.

Inter­est­ing­ly, for some dish­es and snacks, you can choose oils of any inten­si­ty, accord­ing to your tastes and pref­er­ences. For exam­ple, among Ital­ians, the most com­mon snack is oleo e pane. It is delight­ful in its sim­plic­i­ty — fresh, fra­grant bread is served at the table, which is poured with olive oil and sprin­kled with spices.

And how not to men­tion the Ital­ian bruschet­ta, which con­sists of a dried baguette, olive oil and gar­lic. Over time, toma­toes, moz­zarel­la, pro­sciut­to and oth­er prod­ucts began to be added to the recipe. Now there are so many bruschet­ta recipes that it’s enough for a sep­a­rate cook­book. But the basis remains the same — dried bread with high-qual­i­ty olive oil and spices, the rest is up to your imag­i­na­tion.

Try it, find new fla­vor com­bi­na­tions, add oils at the right inten­si­ty to com­pli­ment each ingre­di­ent.

Reminder: pair­ing olive oil with dish­es

Light Inten­si­ty: seafood, fish, steamed white meat, carpac­cio, fresh cheese, fruit sal­ads, may­on­naise base.

Aver­age inten­si­ty: grilled dish­es, antipasti, legumes, sal­ads, pasta/rice with red sauce, tartare, poul­try, soups

High Inten­si­ty: red meat, aged cheeses, bar­be­cue dish­es, desserts

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The opin­ion of the edi­tors may not coin­cide with the opin­ion of the author of the arti­cle.