Most recipes use olive oil as a supporting act. It softens the onions, coats the potatoes, and then disappears into the dish. That is fine. But a few dishes are built the other way round: the oil is the main ingredient, and everything else is there to carry it.
These are the dishes that tell you most about the oil you have. Each one uses five ingredients or fewer. Make one with a bottle you like and you will taste why it matters.
1. Bread, oil and salt
The plainest test there is. Good bread, warmed through, a shallow plate of oil and a pinch of salt.
- Half a loaf of sourdough, ciabatta or focaccia
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Flaky sea salt
- Warm the bread in a 180°C oven for 5 minutes, then tear it into pieces.
- Pour the oil onto a wide, shallow plate.
- Scatter salt over the oil, not into the bowl beforehand, so it stays crunchy.
2. Tomatoes with oil and salt
In summer, with ripe tomatoes, this is close to perfect. The salt pulls out the juices, which mix with the oil into something you will want to mop up.
- 4 ripe tomatoes, at room temperature
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Flaky sea salt and black pepper
- Slice the tomatoes into thick rounds and lay them on a plate.
- Salt them and leave for 10 minutes.
- Pour over the oil, grind over pepper, and serve with bread for the juices.
3. Warm white beans on toast
A tin of beans becomes dinner when you are generous with the oil. Half goes in the pan, half goes on at the end.
- 1 tin (400 g) cannellini or butter beans, drained
- 1 garlic clove, sliced, plus 1 halved for the toast
- 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 sprig rosemary or the zest of half a lemon
- 2 thick slices of bread, toasted
- Warm 2 tbsp of the oil in a small pan over low heat with the sliced garlic and rosemary until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
- Add the beans and a splash of water. Warm through for 5 minutes, crushing a few with a fork. Season with salt.
- Rub the toast with the cut garlic, pile on the beans, and pour over the remaining 3 tbsp of oil.
4. Spaghetti aglio e olio
Garlic, oil, chilli and pasta water. The oil is the sauce, so there is no hiding a flat one.
- 200 g spaghetti
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- Half a tsp chilli flakes
- A handful of parsley, chopped
- Cook the spaghetti in well-salted water. Keep a mugful of the water before draining.
- Meanwhile, warm 5 tbsp of the oil with the garlic in a large pan over medium-low heat until the garlic is pale gold. Add the chilli.
- Add the drained pasta and a splash of pasta water. Toss hard over the heat for a minute until glossy.
- Stir in the parsley and finish with the last spoonful of oil.
5. Vanilla ice cream with olive oil and salt
It sounds odd and it works. The oil makes the ice cream taste richer and rounder, and a few flakes of salt make the sweetness sharper.
- 2 scoops good vanilla ice cream
- 1 to 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- A pinch of flaky sea salt
- Scoop the ice cream into a cold bowl.
- Pour over the oil and scatter the salt. Eat straight away.
Why these work
Each dish has almost nothing else going on, so the oil carries the flavour. That means the qualities you want in a good extra virgin olive oil show up clearly: a fresh, green smell, some fruitiness, perhaps a little bitterness, perhaps a peppery catch at the back of the throat. A tired oil shows up just as clearly. It tastes flat, greasy, or faintly of crayons or old nuts.
Before you make any of these, pour a little oil onto a spoon and taste it on its own. If you would happily eat that spoonful, you are ready to cook.
A note on amounts
Every quantity above is a starting point. Bread, beans and tomatoes all soak up more oil than you expect, and the right amount is the amount that leaves a little on the plate for mopping. If your plate is dry, add more.
Dishes like these are the ones that empty a bottle fastest. If that is how it goes in your kitchen, a subscription brings our oil from Dukat to your door as you go, and you can skip a delivery or cancel online.