Blog #6

This week I tried an Aperol Spritz for the first time. It was bitter with an orange flavor. I did not like it that much. I know it is the staple of Italian aperitivo but I honestly prefer a simple glass of white wine or sometimes a red wine. I think that it is the type of drink that you either hate it or you love it. I also had one of my favorite Italian dishes ever, Penne all’ Arrabbiata at a restaurant in Trastevere. I love this dish because it is like regular penne with tomato sauce with a spicy twist.

This week in class we harvested olive oil. It was extremely hard, manual labor. Since I am short, I had difficulty reaching the olives on the top branches of the trees which was extremely irritating because there were a lot of good olives up there. I learned that green olives are better for making olive oil than the darker olives. This was interesting because apparently, the ancient Romans used to use the darker olives oil for lamps and to give to slaves for consumption. We also met an olive oil sommelier who taught us how to taste olive oil. He also informed us that the olives we harvested were not good olives but he said that the olive oil harvested from last years olives was not that bad.

Personally, I eat a lot of olive oil because it is really good for your heart and I cook a lot of my vegetables in it. I grew up with my Italian family and I was taught that you never mix parmesan cheese with olive oil in restaurants. When I go out with friends and they mix the two it makes me cringe. It was really interesting to learn about the olive oil industry and how some people are trying to forge some oils. It is kind of scary to think about how you do not know what is in the oil that you are consuming, especially if you have serious allergies.