la.foodblogging

Our local Italian trattoria, Mezzomondo (Studio City), has a jovial owner/chef named Elio who occasionally treats us to a sample of his special bottle of extra virgin Italian olive oil.

Well, pretty soon we couldn’t do without the stuff, so we asked him to hook us up.

That entailed becoming a member of the Italian Olive Oil Club, as advertised in Italian Cooking and Living magazine.

I signed up late last August and this month we received our first 500 ml bottle of olive oil.

Gentle Readers, it was well worth the wait. Hand delivered via UPS, Olevano first cold press extra virgin olive oil is a viscous and dreamy dark green hue.

A small label around the neck promised “fruttato intenso�. Intriguing. I thought that meant ‘intense fruity flavor’, but in fact it means cold pressed from unripe fruit, lending the oil its full, decisive and fruity flavour. So, I suppose I was right.

This oil is made in the hills of Olevano Sul Tusciano, high above the Mediterranean in Southern Italy.

The flavor was superb. Not too ‘olive-y’ at all. Simply perfect.

Paired with an exceptional aged balsamic vinegar from Surfas – the Fattoria Estense Balsamic Vinegar from Modena, Italy, $29.75 – here was an appetizer straight from heaven to our stomachs.

When you sign up for the Italian Olive Oil Club, you can choose every month or every two months. They say the bottles will cost somewhere between $18.00 and $27.00, plus shipping.

Cost for October was $31.00, including shipping charges.

http://www.italiancookingandliving.com/olive_oil/olive_oil_club.html

By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past thirteen years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She completed a family cookbook and has also written novels for 8-12 year olds. She is the creator and host of ArtsBeatLA.