Olive season underway in Sonoma

Wherever you find grapes in the Mediterranean - from Spain and Italy to Greece and Tunisia - you’ll also find oil made from the fleshy fruit of the olive tree, Olio europaea.

It’s no different in the Sonoma Valley, where the olive season is celebrated each year during the winter months following the late-fall olive harvest. The symbiosis between wine and olives in the Sonoma Valley is manifested by the number of wineries that press their own olive oil.

“We have quite a few olive growers,” said Carlo Cavallo, chef/owner of BV Whiskey Bar & Grille, formerly Burger & Vine, in Sonoma. “The Benzigers and Gloria Ferrer make olive oil, as well as The Olive Press, which is owned by the Clines of Cline Cellars.”

Cavallo will be one of 19 chefs highlighting the Sonoma Valley’s second-largest crop during the annual Feast of the Olive Dinner this Saturday at Ramekins Culinary School in Sonoma.

The decadent, five-course dinner, held at three long candlelit tables, includes three separate dinner menus comprising soups, salads and starters, plus meat and fish entrées, cheese courses and desserts. Each course will be paired with a local wine.

“Olive oil and olives complement wine,” Cavallo said, “Depending on the olive oil, it’s good with red, white or sparkling wine.”

Olives also pair well with other foods, from seafood dishes scented with saffron and fennel to hearty beef dishes braised in wine. In the kitchen, olive oil is not only used to sear foods, but can be used as a finishing touch as well, either on its own or as part of a simple but flavorful sauce.

Italian chefs, in particular, tend to finish their dishes with a drizzle of a fruity or grassy olive oil. Like salt, it brightens and deepens a dish.

“It ties together all the flavors,” Cavallo said. “I like playing around with it, and I’ll flavor the olive oil with parsley or chili, porcini or truffles.”

At Aventine in Glen Ellen, chef/owner Adolfe Veronese often features dishes with olives, such as the venerable Rabbit with Black Olive Sauce from Sicily. He also uses olive oil to finish all kinds fish and pasta.

“It really makes the dish pop a little more, and brings out the intense flavors,” said Veronese, who uses an organic olive oil from Italy’s Puglia region - Francesca De Pavola - at the restaurant.

For the Feast of the Olive, Veronese is planning to serve Braised Boneless Short Ribs on top of Red Cerignola Olive Risotto Cakes. To finish the dish, he will add some Parmesan Crisps, a drizzle of Ruby Red Port Wine Sauce and some olive oil “caviar” (tiny balls of olive oil that burst in your mouth), sourced from Spain.

“It’s my first time (at the feast), and I’m excited to do this,” said Veronese, who lives in Kenwood and opened his Glen Ellen restaurant seven months ago. “I planned a nice, hearty winter dish.”

Veronese braises the boneless, certified Angus beef short ribs in a broth of red wine and veal demi-glaze. Then he ereads and pan-fries the risotto cakes, made with cooked Carnaroli rice, Parmesan cheese, butter and the meaty and mild Red Cerignola olives.

“It’s like an arancini rice ball, only it’s nice little cakes,” he said.

Ari Weisswasser, the chef at the Glen Ellen Star just up the street from Aventine, will be serving a fish course this year at the feast. Weiswasser, who is married to Erinn Benziger-Weiswasser, uses Benziger extra virgin olive oil to finish dishes at the restaurant.

Although undecided whether he would serve octopus or black cod at the olive feast, Weiswasser was sure he would include his favorite olive: an oil-cured Moroccan black olive.

“It almost has a gummy-bear texture, and it has a wonderful aesthetic,” he said. “If you make an oil out of it, it’s super dark and jet black, but the flavor is not overwhelming.”

To make an olive-infused olive oil, Weiswasser dehydrates the black Moroccan olives for 24 hours in an oven or dehydrator. Then he adds equal parts (by weight) of the pitted olives and an organic, middle-range olive oil from Sonoma Harvest Foods. He puts the olives in a blender, adds in the oil, then blends until the mixture emulsifies. He’ll use it to finish a risotto or to poach fish.

“It lends itself well to saffron-tomato-fennel-shellfish cuisine,” he said. “You can also emulsify it into a vinaigrette.”

In terms of olive oil, Cavallo prefers the ones that are fruit-forward rather than peppery or grassy. For his restaurant, he sources oils from The Olive Press, using the Italian Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil for finishing, and a canola-olive oil blend for cooking.

Cavallo, who will be serving a cheese course for the olive feast, often chops up olives into a versatile pesto that can be tossed into a sauce or a pasta, served as a side for a steak or used simply as a dip.

“It works on everything,” he said. “That’s a testament for what an olive is... I can’t think of anything that an olive or olive oil doesn’t pair well with, food-wise.”

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The following recipe is from Adolfo Veronese, chef/owner of Aventine Glen Ellen, who will be serving it at The Feast of the Olive Dinner this Saturday at Ramekins in Sonoma. Caviaroli Olive Oil Caviar from Spain is available at gordon-gourmet.com.

Braised Boneless Short Ribs, Red Cerignola Olive Risotto Cake, Parmesan Crisps, Ruby Red Port Sauce and Olive Oil Caviar

Serves 6

Braised Boneless Short Ribs:

3 pounds boneless short ribs

6 Roma tomatoes

2 yellow onions

1 clove garlic

3 ounces dry porcini mushrooms

1 bay leaf

5 sprigs fresh thyme

3 cups red wine

6 cups demi-glaze or beef stock

4 ounces soybean oil

- Salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat the oil. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper. Add them to the skillet and cook over high heat, turning once, until deep brown. Transfer the ribs to a shallow baking dish in a single layer.

Deglaze the skillet with the red wine. Then add the diced tomatoes, diced yellow onions, garlic, dried porcini, bay leaf, thyme, deglazed red wine and demi-glaze to the baking dish. Cover with foil.

Cook in 325 degrees oven for 3 hours. Then take the short rib out of the sauce. Blend the sauce then re-add the short back to the blended sauce.

Reserve braising liquid for the Ruby Red Port sauce.

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Red Cerignola Olive Risotto Cakes

Serves 6

3 cups salted water

2 large shallots, small diced

1 cup Carnaroli rice

¾ cup dry white wine

2½ cups warm chicken broth

½ cup Red Cerignola olives, rough chopped

1¼ cups freshly grated Parmesan

4 ounces butter

- Salt and black pepper, to taste

1 cup all-purpose flour, or dredging

2 eggs, beaten

1½ cups panko breadcrumbs

- Soybean oil, for frying

For the rice: In a medium saucepan, heat the salted water to a simmer. In a saucepan, warm olive oil over medium high heat.

Add the shallots, cooking until translucent. Add the Carnaroli rice and lightly toast. Add the white wine, continuing to cook while stirring until the wine is absorbed.

Using a ladle, add warm chicken broth tocover the rice, stirring constantly over medium heat until the broth is completely absorbed. Repeat the process 3 more times.

Remove from the heat and stir in the red Cerignola olives, Parmesan, butter and salt and pepper. Cool the risotto by spreading it evenly over a sheet tray.

Once the risotto is cooled, form the mixture into 5 ounce squares, about 1-inch thick. Set up a dredging station with flour, beaten eggs, and panko breadcrumbs. Dip the riso squares into the flour, then into the eggs and finally coat them in the panko breadcrumbs.

In a large skillet, heat 1/2-inch soybean oil over medium heat. Working in batches of 2 to 3, fry the riso cakes until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Transfer to a wire rack, which will help them stay crispy. Season with salt.

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Parmesan Crisps (Frico)

2 cups Parmesan cheese. grated

- butter spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet spray with butter spray. Spread cheese over baking sheet. Bake cheese until light brown and melted, 8 minutes. Take out of oven and let cool.

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Ruby Red Port Sauce

1 bottle (750 ml) Ruby Red Port

- Salt and peppr, to taste

6 cups braising sauce from the short ribs

In a sauce pot, add the port over medium heat. Reduce three-quarters of the port. Then add the braising liquid, salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble:

On a flat plate, add the rice cake in the center, then add the short rib on top of the rice cake. Drizzle the port reduction around the plate. Sprinkle the parmesan crisps on top of the short rib. Optional: Garnish with olive oil caviar.

You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com