Tag: oil

Extremely creamy spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Extremely creamy spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli



Garlic is stripped of its soul and left to sizzle together with the chili pepper; the parsley is finely chopped to give color and freshness to the entire dish. The spaghetti with garlic, oil and hot peppers they are the most famous and traditional dish of Italian cuisine; a first course as simple as it is elaborate to prepare. Yes, because the secret for one good garlic and oil lies in cooking the garlic, which must release its aroma without ever burning.

Depending on your taste, the chili pepper can be more or less pronounced, reduced to powder or cut into larger, more spectacular rounds.

The cream, then, is a whole programme: not simple oil to season the pasta, but a thicker sauce with an enveloping flavour.

Spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli pepper is a very quick first course, the classic Italian dinner saver that is impossible not to love.

The secret to a tasty thick cream lies in the cooking of the pasta: risotto in the pan, with the seasoning, will allow the thickening process thanks to the release of the starch from the pasta.

Cook the spaghetti in boiling, salted water.

Pour plenty of oil into a pan and add the cored garlic cloves and the chilli pepper cut into thin slices.

Add a little cooking water (be careful, the oil must not be hot) and risotto the spaghetti for a few minutes.

Stir in the finely chopped parsley and extra virgin olive oil off the heat.

Serve the spaghetti with the emulsion created during cooking.

Now we can make extra virgin olive oil ourselves: here’s how – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

La Cucina Italiana


You warm each glass with your hands, smell it and that’s where we begin. And the first step, which serves to identify the olfactory scents of the oil: whether it is “green fruity”, typical of olives pressed at the beginning of maturation, or “ripe”. Then we move on to the actual tasting, to understand if the oil is “bitter”as often happens with young olives rich in polyphenols, or “spicy” when it gives a pungent sensation behind the long one (as happens with crushed olives when they are green). Then the oil is swallowed or expelled (as professional tasters more often do, who carry out hundreds of tastings a year), and finally is reflected in the aftertaste, which can be sweet, herbaceous, but also taste like apples, almonds, or tomatoes (this happens with spicy oils). Color? It is not a relevant factor and by participating in the experience you will also discover why.

The 5 cultivars

The operation is repeated five times, because There are five cultivars that Fratelli Carli grows directly or purchases from its trusted producers: the Taggiascatypical Ligurian, sweet and delicate, the Coratinavery rich in polyphenols and very intense in flavor which is instead typical of Puglia, the Sicilian one Biancolilla which is among the finest in Italy and loved for its balance. Finally the Greek Athinolia which is an ancient cultivar that gives very fresh and fruity oils rediscovered by the company, and the Spanish Arbequinawith a velvety and harmonious flavour.

Why try

Discovering them in a guided tasting will not only teach you to better understand the great world that revolves around one of the cornerstone foods of the Mediterranean diet, but it will even make you learn something more about your tastes, because you will have to think before choosing. In fact, your personalized bottle will contain a blend of your favorite cultivars. At the end of the tasting you will also return home with a certificate of participation, and above all much more awareness.

How to participate

«This project was born from the desire to share, in a simple way, the peculiarities and richness of the work of Fratelli Carli who, every day, creates oils with a unique and characteristic organoleptic profile, signing them with his own name and certifying every drop, writes Fratelli Carli in presenting it. There are 18 stages of the “L’Origine sei tu” event, between different cities in Northern Italy, each session lasts an hour and each date includes 4 sessions with these times: 10:00, 11:30, 15:00, 5pm.
The cost of the experience is 15 euros, and to participate you must book. All the details on www.oliocarli.it/lorigineseitu together with the dates and other useful information to participate.

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Is drinking extra virgin olive oil bad for you? The expert answers – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

La Cucina Italiana


After water and turmeric, water and lemon and apple cider vinegar, the new trend, among people who are attentive to their health, seems to be that of drink extra virgin olive oil in the morning and on an empty stomach. A special elixir which, as videos and testimonials on social media assure, would be able to bring countless benefits to the body and even help us lose weight. But is it really like that? We asked the nutritional biologist Concetta Montagnese, researcher at the CNR Institute of Food Sciences.

The properties of extra virgin olive oil

The expert confirms that extra virgin olive oil is truly a very precious, indispensable food with multiple beneficial effects. Let’s understand together if drinking extra virgin olive oil actually has benefits. «It is a powerful anti-inflammatory, which helps us fight cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Rich in important monounsaturated fatty acids, including oleic acid, and polyphenols, in particular oleocanthal, it also contains lots of vitamin Ebeneficial for the immune system and the skin. Thanks to its antioxidant compounds, it helps cells stay younger”, explains the nutritionist. «Some studies have also associated a high consumption of extra virgin olive oil with the prevention of tumors.

The right quantities

To benefit from this anti-tumor effect, a consumption of more than 20 grams per day is recommended, which is equivalent to more than two tablespoons. And the protective effect seems stronger as the amount of consumption increases. However, we know that extra virgin olive oil is a very caloric food (100 grams contain around 900 calories): doesn’t it make you fat? «The Italian guidelines suggest taking some between 20 and 40 grams per day, two to four tablespoons“, says Montagnese, “because when we talk about a balanced diet we must not only refer to the number of calories, but also to the nutritional values ​​and composition of the food. Extra virgin olive oil contains 99% fats, but mostly the good ones, which help keep the body healthy and are also essential for the correct functioning of the metabolism. This precious food it is therefore also indicated in cases of obesity and metabolic syndrome. If anything, it is its deficiency that is harmful: extra virgin olive oil is one of the cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet and cannot be replaced with any other type of food or condiment.”

In the morning on an empty stomach

However, it is not necessary to drink extra virgin olive oil in the morning and on an empty stomach, a practice that we see more and more often on social media. «To date, no study has shown that drinking oil in the morning is more effective than using it as a condiment in main meals. Its consumption, during the day, is certainly good for you and keeps the body healthy, but, more than taking it alone, combining it with some foods can help improve the absorption of important bioactive compounds (for example, antioxidants in tomatoes), with beneficial effects. It is somewhat fashionable to look for a magic potion for health, and therefore prepare elixirs to be consumed in the morning or on an empty stomach, but it is enough to consolidate the healthy habits of the Mediterranean diet – and use oil as a condiment, preferably raw, and in sautéed – to derive all the possible benefits”.

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