[attach id=235691 size="large"]Olives being pressed in a traditional hydraulic
oil press in Gozo.[/attach]

If I am cooking, you can be sure that there will be at least a couple of bottles of olive oil at hand in winter as in summer.

At the moment in my London kitchen I have three varieties of Greek olive oil on the go, one from Lesvos, one from Crete and one from the Halkidiki peninsula. Britain might not be an olive-growing country, but we have access to almost all the world’s olive oil; almost all, because I cannot yet buy Maltese and Gozitan extra virgin olive oil.

This is a treat that awaits me each time I cook in my Gozo kitchen. Indeed, why should I expect to buy Maltese olive oil in London? Production is still so small that it does not meet local demand. But it is increasing.

I wrote in these pages 10 years ago, almost to the day, about the early initiatives taken by Sammy Cremona, the inspiration and driving force behind the Malta Olive Oil Producers Association, and Wardija Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the first olive oil for a very long time to be produced in Malta from olives grown in Malta.

People like Ino Attard have been trying to reintroduce olive groves, with the aim of making the islands green again, with a million olive trees.

Perhaps the million mark has not yet been reached, but the islands look so different today, compared to when I first came in the early 1980s. Extensive and healthy olive groves are flourishing, providing not only handsome ground cover in many parts of Malta and Gozo, helping reverse the effects of soil erosion, but also good extra virgin olive oil with fine potential.

As with vines, the age of the tree is one of the factors which influences the quality and character of the oil. The best demonstration of this is to taste the two extra virgin olive oils served at Ta’ Frenċ Restaurant in Gozo. One is from the young olive grove in the Marsalforn valley and the other is the oil from Attard’s centennial olive trees in Sicily.

These gnarled and twisted trees are probably 400 years old, and the oil they produce is thick, rich and complex in flavour.

The Marsalforn olive oil is delightfully fresh, bold and grassy, light in texture and without the depth of flavour of oil which is harvested from ancient trees. I was fortunate enough to watch this oil being pressed last winter in a traditional hydraulic oil press in Gozo.

I admire those who plant olive trees. They are in it for the long haul. They plant not for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren, and for generations into the distant future.

There is not the same quick return to be had from olive trees as from grape vines. Although anyone who plants, whether olive trees or grape vines, is worthy of our respect for what they are doing to preserve and enhance the land, soil and landscape.

Recognising the similarity between winemaking and olive oil production, more Gozitan friends, dentist Joseph Xuereb and his wife Elsie, are also involved in the production of extra virgin olive oil, this time from La Poiana estate in Umbria, which he came to know as a result of the professional visits he regularly makes to Terni.

The Xuerebs take time off from their busy lives in Gozo to help with the olive harvest, and a few weeks ago I was given some of the new oil, punchy and fresh from the press, before it had been ‘officially’ bottled.

La Poiana bottles single varietals, Frantoio, Moraiolo and Leccino, forte, medio forte and leggero, if you like, each with its own characteristic. I love the Leccino on raw fish and salads and liberally splashed onto a split sesame seed ftira from David’s Bakery before filling it with cured ham, salad, capers, etc.

You can find new season’s La Poiana extra virgin olive oil at Abraham’s supplies in Gozo and Philippe Martinet Fine Wines in Malta. These, with the Ta’ Frenċ olive oils are the oils I am using in my Gozo kitchen, supplemented by whatever nice bottles I find in La Bottega del Sole e della Luna in St George’s Square, Gozo, where Ori is a fount of knowledge about her producers, sources and winemakers.

Apart from light Ligurian olive oil and the Leccino, I find olive oil just too rich and overpowering when combined with the egg yolk in mayonnaise. For mayonnaise I use mostly grape seed oil or sunflower oil, and then add some extra virgin olive oil at the end.

On the other hand, olive oil is delicious as a sauce on its own, stirred into pasta with a little chopped garlic and some black pepper or peperoncini, floated on top of a thick minestrone or mixed with hot vegetables instead of melted butter. Try using extra virgin olive oil to replace butter when mashing potatoes or scrambling eggs and you will realise how indispensable it is.

Although olive oil, like most oils for cooking, is stable at high temperatures, not enough is known about the chemical reactions which take place when oil is re-used. For this reason I do not recommend that you use olive oil more than once for deep-frying.

Extra virgin olive oil is perfect for shallow frying, such as starting off vegetables for a soup. Never think it is a waste of extra virgin olive oil to use it for frying; the results are incomparable. Most of all I like to use the oil to season food as in today’s recipes.

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