What We're Making This Holiday🎄 & Xmas Shipping Cutoff 🎁
Last Chance For 2020 Lina
Grab your bottles of Lina while you still can, the Christmas recommended order cutoff is tomorrow, Wed, Dec.8 and we’re down to the last 100ish bottles. We highly suggest ordering now for a stress-free holiday : )
A few ideas for gifting EXAU this holiday season:
bring a bottle of Lina for the host(s) of a holiday party
gift a bottle (or 2) to your parents/in-laws/siblings
carry over a bottle to your favorite neighbor(s)
provide the most delicious secret Santa for work
replace wine/alcohol with EVOO
As a rule of thumb, when it’s appropriate to bring wine/alcohol, it’s almost always appropriate to bring a nice bottle of oil (especially since a lot of people ditched alcohol during the pandemic). Or you can do the most and bring both! Your friends and family will certainly appreciate your taste for the finer things in life. 2020 Lina will ship out immediately.
Meet The No.9 [Pre-Order]
We have a new product, the No.9! At 3L (that’s x6 bottles) this tin is perfect for home cooks, chefs, bakers, and all sorts of jarring/potiony kitchen projects. Produced with organic olives grown in the low hills of Calabria, we created the No.9 with the intention of providing you (and your family) with an XL-sized product without sacrificing the integrity or potency of high-quality Calabrian extra virgin olive oil.
This oil is meant to be guzzled, heavily spooned, and layered. Think preserved lemons, tomato confit, frittelle. Olive oil cakes, brownies, and waffles are also on the table! We have limited inventory since this is our first go with the 3L tins so pre-order this XL baby today! Shipping is included for all 2021 pre-orders.
How To Cook With Olive Oil
Over the past few months, there have been quite a few problematic videos circulating about on the interweb stating ‘it’s toxic to cook with extra virgin olive oil’. And well… if that were true then Italy would be in a world of trouble.
Thankfully, university researchers and private labs have been studying olives in all its shapes and forms extensively for the past 40+ years. But who needs a PhD when you have an opinion, amiright? (THAT IS A JOKE, stay in school kids).
Well, you know we like to go on a dig. We recently reached out to our friends at the North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA) who were kind enough to send over some very valuable resources and studies backed by actual research and facts! It turns out there are actual humans that have dedicated their studies and careers to understanding the olive plant and its byproducts. What a time to be alive.
Sarcasm aside, we put together a comprehensive post titled ‘How To Cook With Olive Oil’ where we review the dos and don’ts of cooking with olive oil. We answer the following and more:
Can I cook with olive oil?
Can I cook with extra virgin olive oil?
Should I be worried about the Smoke Point?
What’s the max temperature for cooking with olive oil?
Can I replace butter with olive oil?
If you’ve been worried about cooking with olive oil in the past (or present) we hope this offers you some peace and resources especially considering we're in the midst of holiday season. Forward it to a friend or family : )
Lastly, some folks are looking to replace butter with olive oil, which almost always turns out great! However, there are some foods that don’t quite end up the same, i.e. pancakes. Don’t ask Giuseppe how many brunches I’ve ruined... For baking with olive oil visit this post, for swapping butter for olive oil use this conversion cheat sheet.
Christmas Eve + Day Foods
For seven years I’ve been asking Giuseppe about the Feast of the Seven Fishes…. And for seven years he’s been telling me he never heard of until he got to the US. I’ll admit, I was disappointed… until we showed up at his aunt’s house and guess what we were eating? Fish, about 10 different ways.
While our Christmas plans are still tentative we know what we’ll be eating. On Christmas eve we’ll have linguine ai frutti di mare, baccalà (1. fried 2. in a sauce), seppie fritte, and frittelle. Seppie fritte is cuttlefish, not to be confused with calamari, that’s lightly breaded and fried making the perfect appetizer and/or side. Cuttlefish are often 2.5x more expensive than calamari because they’re harder to capture and have a more delicate texture and taste. If you do fry some up be sure not to overcook them. We’ll be frying over the fireplace so ‘the smell can escape up the chimney’.
On Christmas day we’re thinking ragù alla bolognese, however, traditionally we eat pasta al forno. Essentially rigatoni with salsiccia, mini meatballs, provola, the kitchen sink, and more all baked in the oven. It’s a Calabrian specialty and carrying a single tray to the car is an arm workout in and of itself.
What else is there to say about ragù alla bolognese except it’s cold weather food and the scent has become synonymous with Christmas in our home. I was recently reflecting on why the smell is so nostalgic when it dawned on me that intoxicating smell reminds me of the empanada filling my Panamanian-Jamaican grandmother used to make every single Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sometimes I’m convinced I’m going to round a corner and end up in her neon yellow kitchen in dreary Ocean Beach, San Francisco. I can still feel the texture of the sticky leather booth seat and the refrigerator door clink. Isn't food funny?
Lastly, you can make frittelle! But instead of using zucchini use winter squash (butternut works well). Grate the squash in the food processor (if possible) or by hand and skip the salting. You can swap parsley for sage if desired. If you make frittelle and seppie fritte for the same meal you can use the same oil. However, cook the frittelle first as you don’t want them coming out tasting like fish : )
Happy meal planning!
Holiday Shipping Timelines
Christmas recommended order cutoff is Wednesday, December 8, 2021. Orders are currently being fulfilled and shipped within 24 to 72 hours. We’re currently only shipping via FedEx ground with the option to upgrade to Expedited 2 day for smaller orders. Ground shipping is currently taking approximately 6 business days to states located along the East and West coasts (especially NY, NJ, MA, CT, ME, CA, OR, WA). However, a delay of approximately 2 days may occur. We recommend placing orders 14 days ahead to avoid any delays as things only get more congested closer to Christmas.
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A presto,
-Skyler & Giuseppe
www.EXAUoliveoil.com