This post brought to you by Carapelli Olive Oil. All opinions are 100% mine.
When was the last time you did a taste test with olive oil? You haven’t? Really? Well, to be honest with you I hadn’t either until Carapelli Olive Oil sent me an Olive Oil tasting kit, complete with three Carapelli Olive Oil flavors… Premium 100% Italian, II Numerato and Organic Olive Oil.
The kit included instructions on how to conduct a proper Olive Oil Tasting. Apparently when you taste olive oil, you’ll find the most success when you utilize the four S’s… Swirl, Sniff, Slurp and Swallow. Sounds quite lady like, doesn’t it?
Putting my manners aside, I went on to taste testing the Carapelli Olive Oil. What I discovered was:
- The Organic oil went down smooth with a really light peppery undertone
- The Numerato was mild and smooth… reminded me of an oil based salad dressing. It didn’t have a lot of oomph to it, but was good.
- The regular Extra Virgin olive oil was the most robust of them all. I loved the peppery tones and the crisp flavor.
In order, I enjoyed the Extra Virgin Oil the best, Organic second and Numerato third. All in all, each olive oil had a quality, rich flavor. Try Carapelli Olive Oil yourself and discover which one is your favorite. Enjoy this $1.00 OFF coupon at www.CarapelliUSA.com.
If you aren’t into slurping olive oil, another way we enjoy the pure and smooth taste of olive oil is by dipping Foccacia Bread into it. This is our favorite recipe for Foccacia, made especially delicious with a side of Carapelli Olive Oil.
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Foccacia Bread
- 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons Carapelli Olive Oil
- Toppings of your choice (we like a simple Kosher salt / Cracked black pepper topping)
- In large bowl, stir together flour, salt, sugar, yeast, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and black pepper.
- Mix in vegetable oil and water.
- When dough has pulled together, turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
- Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl, and turn to coat with oil.
- Cover with damp cloth and let rise in warm place 25 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Punch dough down, place on greased baking sheet.
- Pat dough into 1/2-inch thick rectangle (doesn’t have to be perfect).
- Using your knuckle, make indentations in the dough about 1/2-inch apart, then prick dough with fork.
- Brush top with olive oil, then sprinkle with your choice of toppings.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown.
Ohhh that bread sounds wonderful!
Great focaccia recipe. Looking forward to trying it!
Love that focaccio! And nothing is better with focaccio than a good quality olive oil. My wife absolutely loves olive oil so it would be neat having her try this taste test!
It’s amazing what a difference a good tasting olive oil makes in a recipe!
I’m trying this out tomorrow! We have a local olive oil company called Temecula Olive Oil Co. and it is divine! I’ll be using the basil olive oil! Can hardly wait!
This looks amazing!
I’d love to make more breads, so I’ll definitely be keeping this recipe handy.
i have never been to a testing olive oil but sounds like a wine testing 🙂
I love a good olive oil to dip my freshly baked bread in and your foccacia sounds perfect for dipping.
I have never made focaccia, but now I simply must!
I’ve never made focaccia bread! thanks Kristen!!
There is nothing like a really good olive oil. My favorites are always the really fruity ones. And you just can’t go wrong with dipping a tender piece of focaccia bread in the oil.
I love dipping bread in olive oil, and that focaccia looks so great!
Focaccia plus a little evoo, yum! You have inspired me to make focaccia now! I have never done a olive oil taste testing but I bet it would be interesting to try the different varieties. I use Carapelli olive oil often, its good!
We’re olive oil tasting pros! This is somewhat similar to coffee tasting too. The best part is the slurp. How often can you slurp so obnoxiously and not get in trouble?
Slurping olive oil…I hope you had wine, too! 🙂 that was really helpful, thanks Kristen! And your focaccia looks so yummy!
My favorite way to taste olive oil is by dunking it with foccacia bread. Yum. I usually add a little balsamic to that mix too.
How much water did the recipe need?
You don’t say how much water to add….I had to guess cause I had already started making the bread! I guessed a cup
Thanks for the quick update on the water! I just pulled the batch I made out of the oven and it’s fantastic. I threw down some spices and olive oil to dip it in and I’m not sure I’ll even have room now for the dinner I made with it. Wonderful!
I have always wanted to try making foccacia, maybe this time I’ll actually get around to it! Looks amazing.
This is amazing! I topped it with Gorgonzola and cherry tomatoes and it was amazing!
I just made this bread for dinner tonight. I have to say – I loved it. When I took it out of the oven it was perfectly golden brown. It was so fantastically crunchy and crusty, but the inside was warm and soft. I ate it with some garlic/herb cream cheese. Thank you SO much for sharing this recipe! I love how quick and easy it was to make.
Made this today and it was delicious! We used black pepper and parmesan cheese as our toppings.
This was SO good! I loved the idea for the cracked pepper topping – I don’t know why I never thought of that before. We really loved this cut in half and toasted, served as a side for eggs at breakfast. YUMMY! Thank you! 🙂