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.
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