The Passionate Olive (15 page)

Or you can go for another type of fully enjoyable and relaxing experience, either alone or with a partner. Make the mood extra romantic and luxurious by lighting several carefully selected candles and scenting the room with their sensual essential oils. Have your extra virgin olive oil close by.

For the
ultimate
“bathe in it” experience, you will need olive oil, lavender oil (or your favorite cologne), candles, sweetly scented flower petals, some favorite champagne, and very romantic music.

The Ultimate “Bathe in It” Experience

• Turn on your favorite music
  
• Pour ¼ to ½ cup (depending on tub size) of extra virgin olive oil into very warm bath water
  
• Fill the tub as high as you are able (considering that two of you will be in the bath)
  
• Add several drops of lavender oil or other aromatic oil (or you can use your favorite cologne or perfume)
  
• Light the candles
  
• Float fragrant flower petals
  
• Call your sweetie into the bath
  
• Luxuriate in the experience
  
• For many reasons, use care when stepping out of the bath
  

You may wish to take a brisk, cold shower for a tingling feeling of all-over vitality after your bath … or you may just wish that this relaxed feeling would go on and on and on.…

The Not-So-Gentle Olive Oil Salt Massage

• Mix ½ cup extra virgin olive oil with 1 tablespoon coarse-grained sea salt
  
• Add drops of lavender and/or the essential oil of geranium (optional)
  
• Massage the body
  
• Shower and proceed …
  

66)
DRIZZLE IT ON … THE BODY

The cooking chapter advises drizzling extra virgin olive oil over vegetables, salads, and meats. This drizzling of oil over great food provides texture and taste and ultimately adds to everyone’s optimum enjoyment of a beautifully and carefully prepared meal. So, if drizzling olive oil can work magic with wonderful food, just think of how drizzling olive oil onto the skin could add to the enjoyment of time spent with a romantic partner.

Let’s get back to our discussion of the sensual uses of olive oil. As we have previously read, using olive oil for sensual massage is a centuries-old delight. If one is going to “drizzle it on …” this practice is optimally done with a partner. Once again, extra virgin is the best type to use on skin. Use the amount necessary depending on body size, the actual part of the body being massaged, and degree of fun intended. Here are some ideas for massage, but by all means feel free to experiment.

The “Drizzle It On …” Experience

• Spread an old sheet across a bed or floor
  
• Turn on your favorite music
  
• Serve a light Italian wine in your most beautiful wine goblets
  
• Have a plate of finger foods at hand (see suggestions below)
  
• Light candles (even in daylight, they always enhance a romantic and pleasurable moment)
  
• Take out your warmed bottle of extra virgin olive oil and prepare to drizzle away on neck, shoulders, ears, and head
  
• Legs
  
• All four cheeks!
  
• Back
  
• Hands and feet and
  
• Time permitting, the whole body would benefit from this loving application of oil from the gods
  

This experience could prove to be most memorable, and one that you will want to replicate on a regular basis. Time spent with a dear loved one is sacred time, and studies have shown that it is good for your entire being. So don’t rush! Take your time and keep that bottle of olive oil always ready!

Prepare some easy finger food ahead of time—such as grapes, cheese, and focaccia. My
nonna
used to spend hours in the kitchen making her focaccia (we called it
fû-gassa
in our Genovese dialect) in her woodstove. Not to worry, though, I have found a much easier way to prepare it. (I doubt if my
nonna
would have used a prepared dough
or
put her recipe in the sensuality chapter of a book on the uses of olive oil.) But I thought many readers might turn to this chapter first, and I wanted to make sure that each of you learns this very easy recipe (it always receives rave reviews whenever I have served it at a dinner party or just as “finger food”).

The “Drizzle It On …” Experience Focaccia Finger Food

1 loaf of Bridgeford Bread Dough (they come 3 to a package)

Extra virgin olive oil

Sliced onion—use about ¼ of a medium-sized onion

Garlic salt or coarse sea salt

HOW TO PREPARE

• Place 1 frozen bread loaf on a well-oiled, large baking pan (or use the bottom of your oven baking pan)
  
• Drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top of the frozen loaf
  
• As the bread dough thaws, flatten the loaf out with your hands several times adding a bit more olive oil
  
• When the bread dough is completely thawed (about 3 hours), smooth it out to the edge of the pan and make fingerprint “wells” in the dough
  
• Place thinly sliced white onion on the top of the dough
  
• Sprinkle lightly with garlic salt or coarse sea salt
  
• Cook at 350° for about 20 minutes
  
• Remove from oven and immediately drizzle more extra virgin olive oil on the top and brush the oil over the entire surface
  
• Let it cool for a few minutes and cut into squares ENJOY!
  

Always taste the focaccia so that the salty side touches your tongue first; this activates your taste buds. Use the oil from this delicious finger food, which may linger on your hands, to continue massaging your own hands or your partner’s.

67)
USE IT TO ENHANCE SEXUAL PLEASURE

I am endeavoring to maintain a “respectable” presence in the olive oil industry, so I shall rely on your creative imagination to “fill in the blanks” in this particular section. My historical research indicates that throughout the ages olive oil has been deemed an excellent sexual lubricant. There are, however, a couple of caveats associated with this particular use of the oil: First, do not use olive oil as a contraceptive or put it on condoms. Oil causes latex to break down, resulting in holes and tears. Second, people may experience irritation. According to all the doctors I have contacted, olive oil is completely natural, and, if it doesn’t cause any problems for you or for your partner, go ahead and use it with pleasure. Also, compared to other oils and lubricants, olive oil has a very appealing flavor, which can further enhance a sensual encounter.

A closing thought—olive oil can stain. If it does get on fabrics, take the items to your dry cleaner. Using the tips on
this page
, you will often be able to wash oil out of bed linens.

And one more closing thought—if you happen to be in a hotel and have forgotten to pack your travel-sized bottle of olive oil … just call room service and order a salad with double extra virgin olive oil
on the side
. It will work splendidly, you won’t have to leave the room, and no one will be the wiser.

What better chapter to follow this one than Pregnancy and Baby Care. A couple will often be able to recall that their baby was conceived after a wonderfully romantic night spent together. Naturally, my big Italian family is always
overjoyed at the news of an impending birth, and members immediately begin to offer all of their individual advice and old family remedies for anything and everything that a new mother and father might encounter. So, let’s see how we can use olive oil for the family.

CHAPTER SEVEN
Pregnancy and Baby Care with Olive Oil

ONE OF THE MOST
exciting and busiest times in a family is the arrival of a new baby. Part of the prearrival preparation in my family was passing down information regarding the care of both new mother and infant. Naturally, many of my family’s historical solutions to the problems of pregnancy and infancy centered on that most magical of potions—what else!—olive oil.

Many pregnant women and new mothers consider olive oil an absolute mainstay to help them in the care of their babies. Extra virgin olive oil is healthful and has a natural composition that is particularly good for pregnant women, infants, and young children.

Good nutrition is key to having a problem-free pregnancy and a healthy baby. There are many different schools of thought regarding the special nutritional requirements of a pregnant and/or nursing mother. However, a good starting point, and one about which there is
little dispute, is that extra virgin olive oil is good for pregnant women, especially with its high content of vitamin E.

In addition to vitamins and other minor components, olive oil is composed mainly of fatty acids, including approximately 73 percent oleic acid, 9 percent linoleic acid, and 0.3 percent linolenic acid. Remember (from the
health chapter
), linoleic acid is that fatty acid that must be replenished constantly. It is a polyunsaturated fatty acid (from the omega-6 series) that produces the substance that is found in every cell and is needed for the body’s overall maintenance of good health. Oleic acid is the fat that is mainly present in a human being’s body, as opposed to the fat found in the bodies of other mammals. Most amazingly, extra virgin olive oil has a similar composition to the fats found in maternal milk.

So convinced are they of olive oil’s innate health properties, people from the Mediterranean area for centuries have spoon-fed it to children (starting at around five months old); they consider it a good growth supplement for infants. Olive oil contains vitamin A and, along with its high percentage of oleic acid, is reported to stimulate bone growth and encourage the absorption of calcium and minerals. It also helps with gastritis, a problem that plagues many infants and young children. Nature’s natural remedy, extra virgin olive oil, to the rescue! It acts to coat the delicate stomach lining of the baby or young child. Of course, always check with your pediatrician for answers to questions or advice on your baby’s health.

Externally, olive oil is so mild that it is often recommended to keep a baby’s sensitive skin soft and moisturized. It protects the skin from drying and, because it is a
natural substance, there is no fear of chemical reactions. Olive oil is also good for a baby’s hair. A friend told me this “old wives tale”: When he was quite young, his Italian grandmother shaved his head and massaged it with olive oil. She promised that this practice ensured a lifetime of good and healthy hair. He is now a seventy-six-year-old bambino with a beautiful head of hair.

Another friend, Eileen, shared with me her home-birthing experience, in which olive oil played a major role. Her midwife told her to massage (actually, to have her husband massage) her perineum with olive oil during her pregnancy and to make sure that she had a bottle of unopened olive oil with her birth supplies (unopened so that it was free of contamination). During the birthing process, the midwife generously applied olive oil to the perineum in order for the area to stretch and become more pliable and, I guess, for the baby to “slide out.” Eileen delivered her ten-pound daughter, Rachel, without requiring any stitches—no tears! She did tell me that Rachel came out “smelling like a sumptuous salad” and that, to this day, her daughter “loves Italian food.” After hearing this story, I researched the practice and discovered the ancient method of using olive oil in birthing is key in home-birth deliveries today.