From delicate and buttery to bold and peppery, these Italian extra virgin olive oils are made for dressing salads, finishing pasta, or dipping fresh bread. Stock up on the pantry essentials you’ll reach for all summer long.

• Made with hand-picked olives from the hills of Italy’s Orcia Valley, this Toscano IGP extra virgin olive oil is grassy and herbaceous, with a hint of bitterness and a black pepper finish. It’s perfect with bread, bruschetta, red meat, salads, and soups.

• Hand-painted ceramic bottles hold award-winning extra virgin olive oil that is soft and balanced, with notes of fresh grass and artichoke, a sweet almond finish, and a touch of peppery spice. Enjoy it with fish dishes, salads, grilled meats, boiled vegetables, or legume soups.

• Hand-picked Taggiasca olives give this DOP Riviera dei Fiori-certified extra virgin olive oil a buttery, fruity flavor with delicate notes of fresh almonds. Drizzle it over seafood dishes, use it as a bread dip, or blend it into pesto or salad dressings.

Ready, Set, Drizzle !!

Croutons with Black Truffle

Wellbeing and cooking are interconnected

but this does not only translate into healthy eating, but rather into a circularity between the choice of raw materials, the attention and care in preparing meals and the pleasure of sharing food with others. These three elements together create the chef’s overall cooking philosophy

we always find ingredients chosen with care and attention. the cuisine is made up of “natural raw materials, not processed at all or very little in advance”, with the awareness that “the time spent preparing them, preferring them to ready-made food, represents a direct and indirect investment in our health and that of those around us”.

Among the essential ingredients of Mediterranean vegetable cuisine, extra virgin olive oil stands out, known not only for its unique aroma and flavor, but also for its numerous health benefits. Essential in the preparation of his dishes are also aromatic herbs and spices, nuts, oil seeds, vegetables, and seasonal fruits, all elements that enrich the dishes and provide essential nutritional properties for a balanced diet and for the correct functioning of our body.

Furthermore, the careful selection of raw materials is also “an act of preservation of the environment in which we live, together with the many local productions of excellent fruit and vegetable varieties that bring unique flavors, aromas and scents to the kitchen that are incomparable to those of the standardized production of industrialized food supply chain markets”.

Mediterranean culinary traditions in the kitchen

A cuisine that has its roots in ancient Mediterranean gastronomic practices, from which many recipes handed down over time derive, representing a true historical treasure.

“Mediterranean culinary traditions are the beating heart of daily passion – a celebration of the authenticity and simplicity that characterize the food culture of the Mediterranean. “

However, a chef does not neglect the opportunity to update traditional recipes, using modern preparation techniques and more balanced dosages, to ensure a contemporary approach to Mediterranean cuisine.
A continuous research, with passion and tenacity

Promote healthy and delicious cuisine, where well-being and taste meet in perfect harmony

Little expense and lots of flavor for this Roast rabbit with sweet and sour sausage sauce

The recipe for Christmas

The Roast rabbit with sweet and sour sausage sauce is a Christmas recipe from Vicenza

«Every time you cook something you put something of yourself into it, because the act of nourishing has a lot to do with love and I always hope that they like my recipes»,
«I love old-fashioned ingredients and simple flavors. The rabbit roll, accompanied by polenta and an onion sauce, is an inexpensive and very tasty dish, Chef Luigi Marella explains to us».

Time 1 hour and 30 minutes
Product 6 people

Ingredients
1 whole boneless rabbit
500 g spinach
500 g chard
250 g corn flour for polenta
200 g sausage
7-8 slices of bacon
1 onion
1 anchovy in oil
clove of garlic
rosemary
pine nuts
raisins
dry white wine
vegetable broth
granulated sugar
butter
lemon
extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar
fine and coarse salt
pepper

Method
Step 1
Season the rabbit meat with a pinch of salt and pepper; roll it up, keeping the meat inside; line the roll with the bacon slices and tie it like a roast, inserting 2-3 sprigs of rosemary; brown it in a pan with a drizzle of oil, until it is evenly golden. Blend with 1⁄2 glass of white wine and season with salt and pepper.

Step 2
Transfer the roll to a baking dish, add a few flakes of butter and bake at 170 °C for about 1 hour, basting the meat
from time to time with its cooking liquid (if it is running low, you can also use
vegetable broth).

Step 3
Prepare the accompanying dressing: chop the onion and let it soften in a couple of tablespoons of oil, with a knob of butter and the anchovy; then add the crumbled sausage, 1 tablespoon of raisins, previously soaked in water, 1 teaspoon of pine nuts, the grated rind of 1 lemon, cover with vegetable broth and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes; add more vegetable broth and cook for another 30 minutes; finally add 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 generous tablespoon of red wine vinegar and finish cooking, obtaining a coarse sauce with a sweet and sour flavor. Keep it warm.

Step 4
Prepare a soft polenta in the pressure cooker: bring 1.6 liters of water to the boil, salted with 1 tablespoon of coarse salt; add, little by little, the corn flour, sifting it, then close the pressure cooker and cook for 35 minutes from the whistle.

Step 5
Wilt the chard and spinach in a pan with a knob of butter and the garlic for about 5 minutes, adjusting the salt and pepper at the end of cooking.

Step 6
Distribute the sweet and sour sauce on the plates, place a couple of slices of rabbit roll on top and accompany with the sautéed vegetables and polenta.

OLIVE OIL is as triumph. Of light, colors and smells. Our senses are engaged with no holds barred… It is its aroma that most envelops us with its intense, fruity flavor, precious for the benefits it offers us.

With the heat, there is a need for freshness and light foods that are at the same time rich in substances that restore what is lost through sweating which, especially when there is a high level of humidity, is more accentuated.

One of my favorite dishes this season is dip: it is a feast for the eyes and with its colors it brings joy to the table, it is prepared quickly, it is delicious and tasty and above all… it does not require turning on the stove! (which in the heat we try to use as little as possible). And then – a prodigy among prodigies – in addition to being an excellent food from a nutritional point of view (I would say almost therapeutic) it is also a food for our beauty.

In ancient times, the dip served as a “corollary” to important courses, thus reducing it to a purely decorative fact. With the passage of time it has taken on a new look. Today it is highly valued as an appetizer and, in some Italian regions, also as an end to a meal. And rightly so: dip is good and good for you.

PINZIMONIO,  is made from extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, sometimes with the addition of lemon. This simple mixture is used to dip raw vegetables: carrots, celery, fennel, pepper, tomatoes…

Raw vegetables in dip are a true explosion of taste and health: they delight and refresh the palate and are good for the inside and outside of our body.

We know well that extra virgin olive oil is a source of monounsaturated fatty acids, with a predominance of oleic acid. It promotes the maintenance of normal blood fluidity, reduces the amount of cholesterol associated with low-density lipoproteins (LDL or bad cholesterol) and contributes to the formation of important biological structures, such as cell membranes and lipoproteins.

Furthermore, the content of vitamin E, polyphenols and other unsaponifiables gives olive oil antioxidant, anti-free radical, biostimulant, hepatoprotective and slightly analgesic properties, properties which, together with the laxative and anti-gastric ulcer properties, make it a medicine “light”.

The nutrients in olive oil are essential for keeping skin healthy, young and elastic “from the inside”, as well as from the outside.

If the properties of olive oil are associated with those of raw vegetables, we understand why dip is a healthy food in all respects and exceptional for the skin.

First of all, the content of water and mineral salts make raw vegetables indispensable to counteract the heat and the effects of sweating: they hydrate us “from the inside”, and the effects are also clearly visible on the outside, with healthier and firmer skin .

Vegetable fibres, soluble or insoluble, are essential for accelerating gastric transit, giving a sense of satiety (to the benefit of the figure), nourishing the intestinal flora, reducing contact time with any unwanted “waste”, strengthening the walls of the intestine. Even in this case, the benefits for the body are many, and also affect our skin.

And then raw vegetables are rich in vitamins, trace elements (iron, zinc, selenium,…), antioxidants and other substances typical of each vegetable, which make them precious allies of health and beauty.

Celery and fennel, for example, are excellent diuretics, digestive and antihypertensive, so they have beneficial effects on the cardiovascular, digestive and renal systems. They intervene in the metabolism of fats and counteract water retention, with beneficial effects also on the skin.

Cucumber is refreshing, purifying, eliminates toxins and improves the activity of the liver, kidneys and pancreas. It has emollient, anti-inflammatory and anti-itching properties, all of which are very useful if you have excessively exposed yourself to the sun: and these properties are valid both if the cucumber is used as a food or as a soothing topical remedy.

Pepper is very rich in vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant and literally indispensable for many physiological functions, as well as to counteract the negative effects of solar radiation. Among the many functions that vitamin C has, I focus on its fundamental role in the synthesis of collagen, which makes blood vessels stronger and keeps the skin vital, firm and elastic, also effectively counteracting the effects of free radicals.

We continue with the tomato, rich in lycopene, an antioxidant substance that has many positive effects which also occur at a dermal level: it combats rashes and premature aging.

“A GOOD OIL IS ALWAYS THE RIGHT CHOICE “