Here’s a thing I never knew about olive oil – it goes off!
Well, to be more exact it changes over the first few months. I always thought the issue was about virgin or not, cold pressed or not. But actually the taste of the oil when it has first been pressed is quite extraordinary – sweet, nutty, utterly delicious and quite different from the same oil a few months later. It somehow makes winter a whole lot better.
So the trick is, in the winter months, to look for the date of the bottling – or the words ‘nuovo racolta’. The best way to eat it? on plain cooked beans with a little salt. Andrea’s parents, Rudy and Laura, came over at Chistmas and brought with them a special pot for cooking beans slowly near the fire. Suddenly the traditional lentils and trotters on New Year’s eve made sense. I may have had seconds
