Dessert Alfredo: I scream about olive oil and ice cream
Climate change is bad, but olive oil on ice cream is good...if it's really olive oil.
A while back, I received a sample of beautiful Spanish and Italian olive oils from Durant Olive Mill in *checks notes*…Dayton, Oregon?
Huh?
An enterprising family out there has a winery, and over the years, they’ve also planted hazelnut, cherry, and olive groves. It turns out they’re pretty good at the olive oil part, at least, and they’ve been winning gold and silver classifications at olive oil competitions for years — even the really, really swanky one.
How is the Pacific Northwest cranking out olive oil that we think of as coming from the sunny Mediterranean? Climate change. There’s a great article on it from Epicurious here, but in short, the son of the original wine makers thinks the winery part is seeing the negative effects of shifting climes, but that also means it’s now possible to grow enough unbelievable, single-variety olives to mill for oil. (Climate change is causing widespread problems with fake olive oil — see the note at the end.) It’s still a bit chilly up there, though, and that means they harvest a tad early, maximizing the raw, green flavors that make certain olive oils truly exceptional. Any fat can heighten flavors of other foods, because a lot of volatile flavor compounds are fat-soluble, but an excellent cold-pressed oil like walnut, sesame, or olive can also add its own spin, and make you do a little dance like Remy in Ratatouille.
Real olive oil from America. Who knew? In the email telling me they’d like to send me some, the suggestion was to try those bright, grassy, herbal notes on…ice cream.
It sounded terrible. I couldn’t wait. No one knows better than I do that although things that sound terrible usually are, they also sometimes result in a transcendent experience.
Well friends, supposedly this is a thing in Italy, and I dug around on TikTok to see what people think. This one is funny, but please note the serving size is appropriate for a small herd of Svalbard reindeer.
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Another one made the great point that of all the toppings he puts on ice cream, this one is probably the healthiest! So, I tried it, and my fellow Americans, I’m sold.
I first tried the Spanish Arbequina variety on plain vanilla bean ice cream, and it was interesting, but adding that little sea salt sprinkle as suggested by TikTok was an enlightenment experience. It doesn’t hide the vanilla — it grabs it by the hands and takes it waltzing around the room. I definitely made all the faces in that TikTok up there.
But, while waltzing is fine, it’s also a bit tame. I want Flamenco! I want Tango! And for that, you need a partner.
I decided to try pairing the oil with other flavors. First was the black pepper and Arbequina on vanilla with blackberries shown at the top. I heated the oil just a bit with a 1/4 crank from the Pepper Cannon (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”), let it cool, and then poured it over. How is it possible that adding a fat to dairy fat works magic? Think of it as dessert Alfredo.
I wondered how it would fare on something that’s low fat, that might benefit from a little flavor-carrying: sorbet. This is Talenti’s mango Italian sorbetto, but what with the Spanish Arbequina, and my own Texas-based formative palate, I went with a Mexican seasoning — you can buy delicious Tajin and even ready-made Tajin mango sorbet, but I learned to just make my own sprinkle from friends’ moms, and that’s what I’ve done here: Mango sorbetto with Arbequina olive oil, and pinches of ancho, chipotle, sea salt, crystallized lime, and fresh lime zest.
Y’all. You must. You have to. The flavors…I like mango sorbet, but this? It’s like comparing Amor Verdadero by the Afro-Cuban All Stars to La Cucaracha by some idiot at happy hour.
I just put the cilantro garnish there to troll all you soap-tasters, though. Don’t feel obliged.
Next, I thought I would see whether it could bring a little zing to dairy free ice cream, which has made great strides but still has a way to go. One of my favorites is HEB’s Higher Harvest Intense Chocolate. It’s delicious but not very creamy, and maybe an oil is just the trick? Let’s try the Italian Frantoio, reportedly with a peppery finish.
Nope. It’s disgusting. This is a coconut-based ice cream analogue (fun fact, they can’t legally call plant-based frozen treats “ice cream” because it puts the dairy industry in a tizzy), and maybe one based on oat or almond would work, but something about this combo is a real Mr. Hyde. The olive oil turns harsh, the chocolate is surly, and also, nothing makes me appreciate a real food photographer’s expertise like trying to photograph brown food. Ugh.
But, I’m showing you so you can see how much salt you’re going for. It’s just a smidge, but don’t skip it.
This truly horrendous effect is not the fault of the Frantoio — I made a single serving of a recipe from Durant’s website, feta with olives and za'atar, and I inhaled it. It really does have a peppery finish. So interesting to see how different varietals can produce different flavors, even grown in the same area.
This brings us to what might be my favorite of everything I’ve tried. In general, I like to use fresh herbs where possible, and usually I would make something like bruschetta with a plain olive oil and basil leaves, but Durant sent me a bottle of basil-flavored oil, and I had a little bit of a crazy idea:
I once attended a wedding shower where I was served strawberry-basil lemonade. The engagement didn’t last long enough to make it to the altar, alas, but my affair with basil and strawberry has been lifelong. This pairing is no exception.
This is not the kind of treat you should just snarf like a coyote eating a stolen breakfast taco. Take a minute. Notice the scent — aroma is really important here. Notice how the flavors play out…what do you taste first? And then next, as the oils warm from the heat of your own body? This really is a dance, between you and the natural byproducts of the universe. Savor it!
Just serve yourself enough for one Svalbard reindeer.
RD notes: Nothing shown or mentioned here is an ad — I received the olive oil samples from Durant with no guarantee of coverage, or other type of deal. Their olive oil is comparatively pricey, but it has an excellent flavor and an uncommonly nice, user-friendly bottle. I liked it so much that I bought some for gifts. Looks like the basil is out of stock at the moment, but I’ll bet the herb infused ones come and go since it’s a small producer — here’s hoping they come back around so I can make their Rosemary Snickerdoodles. It’s made in the US, by a grower whose olive groves you know for certain exist, and that’s actually worth something. Due to the aforementioned changes in climate and problems with pest control, olive oil production is down, so independent lab tests show illegal, unlabeled adulteration with seed oils like soy and canola is up, and rising rapidly. Even name-brands sometimes show the presence of those other oils in independent tests, and they’re probably caught unawares by their suppliers. Just keep it in mind…the cheapest bottle you can buy is probably not as helpful in terms of heart health if it’s not all olive oil. There’s a list of almost 80 certified all-olive name brands here, from the North American Olive Oil Association.
People often ask about seed oils, olive oil, etc. and their relative health aspects. It’s a little bit complicated and still getting figured out, but here’s some extra stuff in case you have such questions. In general, a little less saturated fat is probably good, especially the kind that comes from red meats, and coconut and palm oils appear to negatively affect heart health as well, despite what all those influencers told you for so long. A little butter looks okay! I like this summary from Harvard, because it puts it in a moderation framework. But your mileage may vary…talk to your doctor and get your labs checked regularly.
The main problem with seed oils is that they are high in omega-6 fatty acids, and if those aren’t balanced by a lot of omega-3s like fish oils, they can contribute to inflammation via the COX-2 pathway. That doesn’t mean you need to avoid them totally, but getting some omega-3s from somewhere, way more than the average American does, is likely a good idea. You’ve probably heard of the Mediterranean Diet, but other diets high in fish, like the traditional Japanese and Nordic diets, also look great. There’s a new vegan kind of omega 3s, algal oil, looks good on the research so far.
You absolutely can cook with olive oil — I often do. But when it’s extra virgin, it retains some delicious compounds that will burn at just under 400 degrees, so I usually use it for finishing, or cook quickly with it in the air fryer or skillet, or use it in things that will steam or boil rather than roast over 400 degrees.
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Olive you guys.
Wow, great stack. And that Mango ice cream!