The Passionate Olive (8 page)

HOW TO COOK

• Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a large pot
  
• Delicately place the ravioli in the water
  
• Cook for 5 to 8 minutes
  
• The cooked ravioli will rise to the top; however, the only real way to determine if they are cooked (to your satisfaction) is to taste them (the filling should be hot and the pasta cooked through)
  
• Using a slotted spoon, carefully put the ravioli on a plate and place tomato sauce (see recipe,
  this page
  ) on top
  
• Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese
  

Most wooden cutting boards in Italy are made from olive wood, and so it is natural to use olive oil to preserve
their beauty. The golden liquid can also preserve cutting boards made from other types of wood including oak or maple, and for any and all of your wooden kitchen utensils. Of course, it is important to make sure that the utensils and cutting boards are free from food particles and very clean prior to wiping them with olive oil.

Formula to Preserve Wooden Utensils

• Hand wash wooden utensils or cutting boards, then towel dry
  
• Put a small amount of olive oil on a paper or cloth towel
  
• Very lightly oil the wooden utensils or cutting boards
  
• You can wash the wooden utensils without worry after oiling, but do not let them soak
  
• Dry thoroughly after each washing
  

You can lightly rub a lemon wedge on the wood to help keep it free from bacteria, rancidity, and other germs. In addition, once a month or so (depending on use), you may wish to lightly sand the board with a fine-grade sandpaper to keep your wooden cutting board smooth.

11)
RESTORE ANTIQUE FURNITURE

I doubt if you will get a hundred-year-old rolling pin, made from an oar, from your great-grandfather, but you may find it useful to know how to preserve your great-grandmother’s precious dining room table. Or you may see a fabulous sideboard on
The Antiques Roadshow
and wonder how such pieces maintain their beautiful glow. Here is one
of the secrets … olive oil. It can remove stains and restore the shine and natural color of the furniture. When applied regularly, the wood will maintain a beautiful luster.

Restore Antique Furniture Formula

• Mix 1 cup of olive oil and ½ cup of lemon juice in a bowl
  
• Whisk ingredients together until emulsified and completely blended
  
• Pour solution into a spray bottle
  
• Spray onto wood and wipe with a clean, dry cloth
  

NOTE:
If you wish to make less—it’s 2 parts olive oil to 1 part lemon juice

12)
SAFEGUARD FRYING PANS

Our family life has always been centered around food and the kitchen. However, as I look back, the actual number of cooking utensils we had were few. Today, there are countless kitchen retail stores with voluminous numbers of designer cooking utensils and products. It almost seems that
what
you have to cook with is more important than the final result. If a product or tool doesn’t quite meet our culinary expectations, we tend to buy a different one. Not the case in my family. My mother’s favorite frying pan, the one that she still uses to sauté onion and zucchini for her famous frittata, is a well-oiled old cast-iron frying pan that was her father’s. She claims the frittata always tastes better using that pan. Why? For years, she has treated this pan with love, respect, and olive oil.

You can prevent rust and the loss of luster, as well as enhance a pan’s cooking life, by lightly oiling the inside of the pan after each cleaning. Of course, never put these frying pans in a dishwasher. Even though my mother has had a dishwasher for many years, she taught us to hand wash this pan, towel it dry, and then quickly wipe the inside with a small amount of olive oil on a paper towel.

Firenze’s Famous Frittata

1 chopped white onion

2 tablespoons extra virgin

olive oil

1 clove garlic

5 medium-sized green zucchini (slice zucchini lengthwise into quarters and then coarsely dice)

5 large eggs (ratio: 1 egg per zucchini)

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup seasoned bread

crumbs

Salt, pepper, Italian seasonings to taste

HOW TO PREPARE

• Sauté onion in olive oil; when onions become clear, add garlic and continue to sauté for a minute
  
• Add zucchini and sauté until zucchini are soft (cover for fast cooking)
  
• Remove from heat
  
• In another bowl, beat the eggs
  
• When zucchini mixture is cool, add to eggs
  
• Then add the grated Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs and mix
  
• In oiled frying pan, place zucchini mixture and cook over medium heat until the mixture becomes firm
  
• When the mixture reaches this stage, your frittata is half finished
  
• Place a dinner plate over the pan and carefully invert the frittata, letting it slide back into the pan to cook the other side
  
• When the frittata is golden brown and the egg mixture is congealed, slide onto a plate and serve warm or cold
  

NOTE:
If you do not wish to try to invert the frittata, you can put it under the broiler in the oven until it is firm and golden in color; or if you travel to Italy, you may find a
girafrittata—
“turn the frittata”—pan for easy flipping
.

13)
PRESERVE KNIVES

Also in the
cucina
, olive oil can be used to preserve knives and to enhance the knife-sharpening process. My mother rarely uses a knife sharpener but rather slides two knife blades together—holding one still and moving the other knife against the blade in a crisscross motion. I am sure she learned this sharpening technique from her mother or father.

Prior to sharpening, my mother hand washes the knives and thoroughly dries them. She then places a small amount of olive oil on a cloth towel and lightly oils the blade of the knives. She then sharpens the knives as described above. I do place my knives in a sharpener, after giving them a light coating of olive oil. This serves two purposes: It preserves the knife from rust or chemical reactions and it oils the sharpener.

While we are on the subject of knives, olive oil will preserve the handle as well as the blade. Put a small amount of
olive oil on a cloth towel and lightly oil the black plastic or wooden handle. Notice the shine and luster.

When I attended the Castello della Paneretta cooking school in Tuscany, I noticed that the instructor, Massimo, sharpened his knives in the same crisscross fashion as my mother. His sharp knives chopped, sliced, and diced to perfection while he created many culinary delights, including a fabulous potato and tomato dish. I want to share this great side dish with you:

Massimo’s Tomato and Potato Side Dish

4 medium new potatoes

6 vine-ripe medium small tomatoes

1 medium white onion

2 cloves chopped fresh garlic

1 sliced lemon

Extra virgin olive oil

Peperoncino macinato (crushed red pepper) to taste

Salt to taste

HOW TO PREPARE

• Peel and slice potatoes
  
• Cut each small tomato into four pieces
  
• Slice onion
  
• In a pan, layer the potatoes, tomatoes, and onion
  
• Add garlic
  
• Douse with extra virgin olive oil
  
• Add peperoncino
  
• Salt to taste
  
• Cook at high heat for 10 minutes
  
• Lower heat and cook for 25 minutes or until done
  

14)
PROTECT AND PRESERVE SMALL HAND TOOLS

You can protect metals from chemical reactions, which occur due to the elements in the air that cause rust and deterioration, very simply. A bit of that precious olive oil is all you need to treat clippers, pliers, screwdrivers, scissors, and so on. After using the hand tools, and before putting them away, make sure you clean off any dirt or grime. Put a small amount of olive oil on a cloth towel and lightly oil the tool. You will really notice the difference.

This use of olive oil is centuries old. In fact, the handsaw that my grandfather
Nonno
Vincenzo used to cut the wood material with which he built his home is still in lovely condition. Once a week he would apply a small amount of olive oil to the saw, both the handle and the blade. To this day, my mother has his saw in her garage, and it looks as beautiful now as it did in 1914.

15)
LUBRICATE GEARS

Nonno
Vincenzo was also an avid deep-sea fisherman. He would often use olive oil to lubricate the gears on his reel knobs and the swivels on his fishing lure. He probably also used it to lubricate the hooks and even his fishing line, in order to keep it from becoming stiff. He always caught numerous lingcod, a delicious white fish that he prepared beautifully.

Nonno’s Baked Lingcod

1 whole cleaned lingcod (head and tail still on, or off if you prefer)—probably about 20 inches in length (but you know fishermen)

1 sliced lemon

1 sliced white or yellow onion

Extra virgin olive oil

FOR THE SAUCE

One 15-ounce can of Italian stewed tomatoes (or make your own with

4 large vine-ripe

tomatoes, 1 onion,

1 green or red bell pepper, and 2 cloves of sliced garlic)

HOW TO PREPARE

• Open the pocket of the cleaned lingcod
  
• Insert lemon and onion slices
  
• Rub the exterior of the fish with extra virgin olive oil
  
• Place fish in a shallow baking pan
  
• Spread the tomato sauce on top of fish
  
• Add ½ cup water
  
• Bake in preheated oven at 350° for approximately 30 minutes or until done
  

NOTE:
You can substitute halibut or salmon or another type offish
.

Olive oil can be used to lubricate many items that have mechanical gears and/or moving parts: the locks on gates, the rolling parts of toys, sliding tracks for doors, antique clock pendulums, mouse trap mechanisms, gears on a rotisserie
barbecue, blades of a snowblower, car antennas, go-cart gears, well crank handles, gears on an exercise bike, and so forth. When
Nonno
Vincenzo was ninety-six, we even used olive oil for his wheelchair axles.

To keep the precious oil aimed at the exact spot, pour the olive oil into a dispenser with a long spout. Put several drops of the olive oil into the gear mechanisms or the movable parts. Wipe off the excess oil with a piece of cotton or paper cloth.

16)
POLISH GUNS

My other grandfather,
Nonno
Luigi, was not only a fisherman but a hunter as well. One thing he was very proud of was his gun collection, which he proudly kept polished. He used Nonna’s pewter cleaning formula (see
this page
) on his guns.

Looking back, I doubt if he ever really shot anything, as he was a very gentle man who loved all types of birds and animals. However, his guns were shiny, and I do recall the culinary delicacy of polenta and quail being served on special occasions. So I guess this gentle man did, from time to time, bring home the quail. And while he was hunting, my
nonna
was making the tomato sauce for the polenta.