Grilled Thin Crust Pizza With Fresh Fava Bean Pesto & Arugula Salad With Gremolata Vinaigrette

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on May 10, 2012 0 Comments

 

 
 
 

Behold the bounty of spring, married with exquisite extra virgin olive oil. The possibilities are limitless and without much fuss, the results can be spectacular.


Fresh Fava Bean & Goat Cheese Pesto
3 pounds fresh Fava bean pods
2 large garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup Bella Gusta Favolosa Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 cup fresh goat cheese
1/4 cup really good quality Pecorino Romano

Have a medium bowl of ice water prepared.  Bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to boil.  Shell the fava beans and add to the salted water.  Blanch the fava beans for 2 minutes and then add to the bowl of ice water.  Allow to cool.  Slip the peel off each bean and place in to a food processor with all the other ingredients.  Pulse until pureed and creamy.  Adjust seasoning to taste and reserve.  This pesto sauce can also be used over pasta, on bruschetta, or as a dip for veggies.    

Thin Crust Favolosa Extra Virgin Olive Oil Pizza Dough
4 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
2 cups warm 110 degree spring or filtered water
1/3 cup Bella Gusta Favolosa Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon raw sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

If using a bread machine follow the instructions for adding ingredients to the machine.  If mixing in a mixer or by hand, combine the sugar and water and yeast in a large bowl or mixer bowl.  Allow to sit for five minutes.    Add the olive oil and salt.  Begin mixing in the flour.  It will be fairly wet but avoid the temptation to add more flour.  Knead for approximately 3 minutes until the dough is relatively smooth and cohesive.  Allow to rise for 1 hour covered in a warm place.  Divide and shape or roll the dough into two large thin crust pizzas or three medium thin crust pizzas.  

makes enough dough for 2 large or three medium thin crust pizzas

Simple Arugula Salad with Gremolata Vinaigrette
5 cups baby arugula, washed and dried
2 -1/2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup Bella Gusta Garlic Olive Oil
A good pinch of fresh Parsley
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
Fresh cracked pepper to taste

Just before the pizza is ready to be taken off the grill, combine the lemon juice with the sea salt.  Whisk in the olive oil and season with parsley and  pepper.  Adjust seasoning and gently toss the arugula with the vinaigrette. 

Grilled Thin Crust Pizza With Fava Bean Pesto & Arugula Salad With Gremolata Vinaigrette
Prepared pizza dough above
Fava Bean Pesto
1 pound fresh buffalo mozzarella fresca, thinly sliced
Simple Arugula Salad with Gremolata Vinaigrette

Add approximately 1/3 cup of pesto to each medium pizza or 1/2 cup to each large pizza.  Add a layer of mozzarella, season with a little sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.  Grill or bake at a minimum of 500 degrees, preferably on a preheated pizza stone, or on a large, inverted, preheated cast iron skillet.  Depending on how hot you can get your oven or grill, the cooking time will be anywhere between 5-10 minutes.  You are looking for golden brown crust and bubbling cheese.   

Remove from the oven and top with the prepared Simple Arugula Salad and serve immediately.

Serves 6-8

How To Taste Unflavored Extra Virgin Olive Oils Like A Pro

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on May 03, 2012 0 Comments

 

 
 

When you walk into a shop with twenty or thirty olive oils, it’s hard to know where to begin. 

Somebody asks you what you’re looking for.  How should you know?
 
 “Olive oils are classified in three levels of intensity, mild, medium, and robust,”   “Start with a mild oil.”
  1. Pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a small cup – some places have special glass tasting cups – Bella Gusta uses small plastic cups for tasting. You may use bread to taste extra virgin olive oils, but if you’re truly interested in the flavor of the oil, use the cup.
  2. Warm the oil: nest the cup in the palm of one hand, and cover the top with your other hand. Gently rock and twist the cup in your hand for about 20 seconds to warm or "wake up" the olive oil. The warming and the “swishing” release the fragrant aromatics in the oil – its “nose.”
  3. Raise the cup to your nose but only partially lift your hand from the cup; tuck your nose into the cup, then take a deep whiff of the oil. The first, fragrant “top notes” of the oil (its “nose”) are your clues to its flavor.
  4. Make a note of the nose—is it “big” (heavily fragrant), or is there little fragrance at all? Can you identify the characteristics? “Fruity?” “Grassy?” Or, is there something more subtle?
  5. Taste the oil: draw a long, slurpy sip into while curling your tongue upward, taking a fair amount of air into your mouth along with that first sip in order to aerate the oil. Roll the oil across your tongue and all the way to the back of your mouth, allowing your tongue to identify as many aspects of the flavor as possible.
  6. Okay, now you may swallow the oil -- some people spit at this point. By now your tongue and nose have all the information they need to tell you how it tastes. Note the flavor characteristics as well as descriptors and lingering sensations – even viscosity. Is it fruity? Peppery? Pungent? Bitter?  What did you like most? These distinctions will point you toward your favorites, and rule out other oils. With so many oils to choose from, you can be pretty specific.
  7. When you know how to taste and identify the flavors of an extra virgin olive oil, you can start to narrow your choices down the varieties you’ll like. And with the vocabulary to describe them, you can ask for the particular characteristics you enjoy most.

          Now you’re on your way to finding a favorite.

Questions about olive oil smoking points

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on January 27, 2012 0 Comments

 

Alot of questions come to us about the ability to take olive oils up over 300 degrees in cooking applications.
This can be a complicated question to answer depending on the products you are using. Supermarket olive oil, labeled as “extra virgin olive oil”, which is not adulterated with refined oil, but is of a typical poor quality as a result of lax processing standards, age, UV light exposure, and poor handling tends to be highly oxidized and / or shows signs of rancidity by the time the consumer purchases it.  Highly oxidized or rancid olive oil lacks the protective chemistry that would otherwise allow for tolerance to higher temperatures before reaching the smoke point.
Fresh extra virgin olive oil of superior quality - boasting exceptional chemistry, i.e. high oleic acid content, very low FFA (free fatty acids), and robust phenol count, can be heated to greater temperatures before reaching the smoke point, (reaching this point is undesirable for any oil used in cooking).  So the answer is that the smoke point of an extra virgin olive oil will depend on its unique characteristics.  If you are looking to heat extra virgin olive oil up to 400+ degrees, pay close attention to the chemical make-up of and choose one that is very fresh and chemically robust. 

Studies which claim that all extra virgin olive oils have a smoke point of 300 degrees, while ignoring variable factors such as chemistry and freshness are simply not accurate.  It is our assumption that such studies are conducted with a poor quality “extra virgin olive oil”, past prime and lacking the chemical fortitude necessary for durability while cooking at higher temperatures.          

Sicilian Lemon and Garlic Vinaigrette

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on January 12, 2012 0 Comments

 

Sicilian Lemon and Garlic Vinaigrette

 

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 c.  Bella Gusta Sicilian Lemon White Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese
3 Tbs. Bella Gusta California Garlic Olive Oil

Sea Salt and ground pepper to taste

PREPARATION:
Whisk together the vinegar and cheese. Slowly whisk in the olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over salad with Romaine lettuce, red onion, grape tomatoes and garlic croutons.

Excerpt from Tom Mueller's website Extravirginity.com

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on January 03, 2012 0 Comments

 

 
Below is an excerpt from the Extra Virginity website which is run by Tom Mueller, author of Extra Virginity. He outlines the best places in America to purchase quality oils. We at Bella Gusta are proud to be acknowledged by Tom as one of the world's best.
Please visit his website extravirginity.com for additional information.
 
 
 
 

As announced, I’ve compiled a guide to getting great oil (there’s a permanent tab in my navigation bar under Great Olive Oil, called “Great Olive Oils of the World” that will take you there).  It’s still work in progress, and will grow and evolve a great deal over the coming months and years, so check in again soon for updates.  This is my personal first cut at places to get great olive oil in America, and brands from various parts of the world to watch for.  For now my focus is on the North American market, though this will also evolve with time.

In the Producers & vendors by state section, I mention both producers – growers and millers – who grow their own olives and make their own oil (primarily in California), and retailers who sell fine oils made for the most part by others.  In the list of Selected brands by nation – for now Italy, Spain and Greece – I’ve listed brands that I’ve tried and loved, or know through totally reliable sources, though not all of these brands are currently distributed in the US.  (I’m working on fixing this, too!)

This list does not include all, or even most, of the best oils in the world – I’ll insert many hundreds more oils over time.  Just to take two examples:  1) I haven’t mentioned a single Australian olive oil, though on average Australian oils may be the highest quality on earth – a generous range of Australian oils are coming soon; and 2) by rights Costco should be on this list, because though I haven’t been happy with every oil I’ve found in their stores, I’ve found their Kirkland store brand to be acceptable, and the Corto Olive oils which they sell to be both very good and reasonably-priced.

Despite its current limitations, this list is the first resource of its kind, in a market where labels on olive oil bottles simply don’t indicate the quality of the oil inside, and where trust in a person, a brand, a store, or an institution is the only way to ensure you’re getting excellent oil.

 
Truth in Olive Oil

Great olive oils of the world

This list is work in progress, and will grow and evolve a great deal over the coming months and years, so check in again soon for updates.  What follows is my personal first cut at places to get great olive oil in America, and brands from various parts of the world to watch for.  For now my focus is on the US market, though this will also evolve with time.    

NOTES:

  • VF – olive oils at all of these locations are supplied by Veronica Foods, a pioneering importer run by Veronica and Mike Bradley, whose work is described in detail in my book Extra Virginity.  These stores sell a range of olive oils in stainless steel fusti, and encourage you to sample them before you buy.  Many store owners are olive oil experts, enthusiasts and apostles in their own right, and offer an ideal environment for learning about fine olive oil.

 

A note from Tom Mueller, author of "Extra Virginity" acknowledging Bella Gusta's exclusive importer - Veronica Foods.

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on December 07, 2011 0 Comments

 

Roasted Asparagus with Eureka Lemon Mayonnaise

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on November 22, 2011 0 Comments

 

 A GREAT HOLIDAY RECIPE

For the mayonnaise:
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
3 turns of freshly ground black pepper from the grinder
½ cup of our Biancolilla mild extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup of our Eureka Lemon Fused olive oil
1 tablespoon cool water

For the asparagus:
2 pounds thin asparagus
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon mild Biancolilla Olive oil
1 tablespoon Eureka Lemon Olive oil

Make the mayonnaise:
Put the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt, and a few grindings of pepper in the small bowl of a food processor. Mix the oils together. With the processor running, drizzle the oil through the feed tube, starting with a few drops at a time and gradually increasing to a thin stream. Add all the oil, then the water. If the mayonnaise is too thick for your taste, add a little more water. Transfer to a serving bowl, and refrigerate if not serving immediately.

Roast the asparagus:
Preheat a convection oven to 400°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Break off the woody ends of each stalk: Put the stalks on the baking sheets in one layer. Salt and pepper liberally. Mix the oils together and drizzle on the asparagus. Roll the stalks so they are evenly coated. Bake until the stalks brown and the tips start to char, about 10 minutes. (Thicker stalks will take longer. Poke one with a skewer to see if they are done.)

Serve warm or at room temperature.  Serve the mayonnaise as a side condiment .

This recipe also works well with our other citrus flavored oils such as Persian Lime or Blood Orange.

Be wary of imposters...

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on November 21, 2011 0 Comments

 

 

 

As many of you may already know, Veronica Foods Company (our sole terrific importer for Bella Gusta in oils and vinegars) and Mike Bradley (co-owner of Veronica Foods with his wife Veronica) are prominently featured throughout Tom Mueller's new and highly anticipated book Extra Virginity which explores the world of extra virgin olive oil today and historically. Mike Bradley, a world renowned olive oil expert and sensory evaluator contributed greatly to the research for the book and a photo of Mike evaluating extra virgin olive oil can be found towards the center of the book on p.147.

CBS just recently aired a special which highlighted the olive oil trade and some of the unethical practices that are played on consumers with regard to olive oil and base most of their research from Tom Mueller's new book. Our products always have and always will maintain the highest standards for freshness, quality and integrity, and our source of supply is second to none.

If you get a chance, please give it a read.

 

Alan

Smashed Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes with Garlic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on September 02, 2011 0 Comments

 

Here's a recipe that's as easy as Sunday morning.  There are only four ingredients necessary, and the results are heavenly!

Lynda's Garlic "Smashed Potatoes"

2 pounds baby Yukon Gold potatoes
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sea salt
fresh cracked pepper to taste
1/3 cup Bella Gusta Garlic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 400.  Cover the potatoes with water and add one tablespoon of sea salt.  Bring to a full boil and cook for approximately 7 minutes or until the potatoes are tender but not mushy when pierced with the tip of a knife.  Drain the potatoes thoroughly.  Rub a sheet pan liberally with garlic olive oil.  Place the potatoes on the sheet pan and gently crush each potato in to a disk using the bottom of heavy glass that has been greased with garlic olive oil.  Sprinkle the smashed potatoes with the remaining sea salt and and fresh cracked pepper to taste.  Drizzle liberally with the remaining garlic olive oil and bake until golden brown and crisp, about 15-20 minutes.

Serves 4-6    

Lemon Pasta

Posted by Lynda Przybylski on August 10, 2011 0 Comments

   

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of pasta (linguine or spaghetti)

  • 2/3 cup fresh extra virgin olive oil

  • 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

  • 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)

  • Good pinch of Sea Salt and some freshly ground black pepper

  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest

  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the oil, Parmesan, and lemon juice in a large bowl to blend.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the starched cooking liquid. Toss the pasta with the whisked lemon sauce, and the reserved cooking liquid, adding 1/4 cup at a time as needed to moisten. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with lemon zest and chopped basil. 

Buon Appetito!!!