Different sauce, Different olive oil

Not only are there around 600 different pasta shapes in Italy (depending on who you ask and in what dialect), there are also over 600 different olive cultivars across the country, so it’s no surprise that certain oils are better suited to certain sauces than others.

 

Naturally, the best match for pesto is the native Ligurian Taggiasca cultivar which has a delicate, sweet almond and citrus minerality, allowing the basil and pinenuts to play a central role.  Using a more decisive oil from central Italy would overpower a pesto sauce.

 

The Casaliva cultivar, native to the banks of Lake Garda in the north of Italy makes a wonderful match for sauces with fresh water fish and the Bianchera cultivar from Friuli is great for a milder cheese based sauce or shellfish.

 

When it comes to robust meat, mushroom or cheese laden sauces however, you want something bolder, more peppery and so it’s absolutely the right call to go for Tuscany, Umbria, Le Marche or Romagna as a location. Here the oils suit richer sauces lifting the other ingredients to a new dimension.

 

If you have a sauce based on leafy greens or brassicas, I always look for a decisive southern oil and particularly well suited cultivars include Coratina or Nocellara del Belice.

 

For summer vegetable sauces with a base of tomatoes, zucchini or aubergines, again stay south where the oils are aromatic in character. Cultivars such as Nocellara Etnea, Nostrale del Felitto, Carolea, and Biancolilla work really well. And, of course anything with capers or anchovies loves a sicilian oil such a Tonda Iblea.