3 Ways To Make The Most Of Your Bottle Of Olive Oil
Olive oil is a versatile ingredient, bringing a subtly fruity taste and fine aroma to a wide range of dishes. If you’re enrolled in online cooking courses, you likely have a bottle or two in your pantry. Here are three ideas for how you can put that delicious oil to work in various dishes:
1. Make a flatbread
Olive oil provides an excellent base for the flavors topping a flatbread. Smitten Kitchen’s version begins with forming the dough by combining flour, salt and baking powder, creating a well to pour in the oil and some water. Knead the oily dough and then place it on parchment paper.
Set the dough and parchment paper on a baking sheet that has been heated in an oven set to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the dough for five minutes before adding some grated cheese, and then bake for another four minutes. Once the flatbread is browned along the edges, take it out of the oven and top with thyme, honey and sea salt.
2. Quick and easy pasta sauce
Sometimes you don’t have time to make a classic marinara or meat sauce. That’s when olive oil can come in handy, as Giada de Laurentiis demonstrated with a simple recipe for spaghetti.
After cooking the pasta, drain all but two tablespoons of the cooking water. Heat a half cup of extra-virgin olive oil on a burner set to medium and saute three cloves of garlic. Remove the garlic before adding red pepper flakes. After about a minute, pour in the starchy pasta water and stir to finish off the sauce.
3. Tasty mashed potatoes
For another great pairing of starch and oil, try using extra-virgin olive oil in your mashed potatoes. According to The New York Times, you should first simmer chunks of peeled potatoes with eight cloves of garlic and some salt. When the potatoes are sufficiently tender, which should take around 15 minutes, drain. Again, hold onto some of the cooking water.
Mash the garlic and potatoes and pour in a quarter cup of olive oil, along with the water. When you’re happy with the consistency, the dish is ready to serve.
Olive oil has countless uses in both the professional and home kitchen. Culinary academy will provide you with the skills you need to take full advantage of this flavorful ingredient.
