Chef Luca Montersino
Many of our customers, home chefs, olive oil aficionados and foodies go to great lengths to find a freshly-pressed, robust flavored olive oil with a spicy, intense finish. Many of these favored characteristics are often considered attributes to define a high quality olive oil. Many customers, however, also know of many high-quality, freshly-pressed olive oils and olive varietals that, when fully-ripened have sweet, delicate flavor. The Olive Tap’s current offerings of 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oils would include Taggiasca, Nocellara del Belice, Arbequina and Mia’s Blend.
Recently, chefs, pastry-chefs and ice cream makers in Italy have discovered these fruity, sweet olive oils and are now integrating such oils in some of their favorite treats including Luca Montersino and Pietro Maccelaro.
Luca Montersino, one of the first pastry-chefs to use extra virgin olive oil extensively, created a pastry line with attention to specific health factors and food tolerances. Using olive oil instead of butter to avoid lactose and animal fat, Luca was among the leaders to make Panettone, one of Italy’s favorite holiday delicacies. Of course, many chefs followed including Andrea Serravezza and Massimo Gaetani, launching Olivotto®, an olive-based cream. The cream is particularly suitable for pastry-making due to the balanced ratio of acids, fats and sugars.
Pietro Macellaro, a young pastry-chef who set-up is “pastry atelier” (chef’s artisanal kitchen or workshop) in the Cinento region, right on his family’s farm. In addition to fruity olives and olive oils, Peitro also uses his farm’s products to make delicious desserts and pralines using almonds, apricots, chestnuts, cherries, herbs, apples, peaches and raisins. Due to its high elevation, no chemical additives are pesticides are used to protect against the fruit fly, another added bonus.
On the health-front, it is easy to see why this new olive oil ingredient trend in desserts is occurring, newfound heart-healthy desserts! Through the substitution of olive oils for saturated and trans fats such as butter, hydrogenated oils, margarine and shortening, customers can finally find and create healthy desserts without sacrificing flavor. In addition to olive oil, there are also so many quality substitutions for dairy, eggs, wheat and more. Why not take your favorite traditional recipes and work to make a heart-healthy version today? Remember we have a convenient Butter to Olive Oil Conversion Chart on our website to get you started.
Truly the opportunities for integration of olives and olive oils in sweet desserts are endless, including cakes, cookies, ice cream, gelato, custards, pie crusts, cupcakes and so much more. We just recently added a delicious Lemon Almond Cake but also have a number of recipes listed under our Dessert Section of our website including Sweet Lime Olive Oil Yogurt Cakes, Sweet Potato Rolls and Persian Lime Cookies to name a few. You can also search the internet for olive oil dessert recipes to discover even more recipes. We would love to hear about your culinary olive oil dessert creations so please Contact Us today!
Bon Appétit!
Rick
