EVOO question?

I am trying to reduce my cholesterol (recent chest pain and a heart cath. was my wake-up call) and would like to substitude a high quality EVOO for butter in parts of my diet like garlic bread,etc. I understand that most/all EVOO bought in the U.S. is inferior quality and would never be consumed by most Italians. Can anyone recommend some brand names or web sites where I can aquire such? What we are using now is EVOO that comes from 5 different counteries including Argentina but is "cold pressed" if that makes any difference. I need some EVOO education!

For everyday use including cooking we use Partanna Sicilian EVOO. We buy it by the liter even tho we use it daily, but the larger containers have to be rebottled to avoid racidness. This would be true for any EVOO.

Actually, our "everyday" olive oil for salad dressings and cooking is California Olive Ranch EVOO. We get some great local (Texas) small batch olive oils that we use in smaller quantities for special things like drizzling. If we're feeling especially flush, or someone gifts us with it, we really love Laudemio consortium olive oil from Italy.

Oh, a note about our salads: we have one every night, either arugula or mixed spring greens, and *always* have ciabatta garlic toast with it. Stuart makes it using the CA Olive Ranch oil and it is always absolutely delicious. (I make our ciabatta every other day.)

Good luck with making the dietary changes you feel are necessary! It's possible, even if initially difficult.

Carl, we have something else in common! Len and I have a distinct preference for Sicilian olive oil. We have tried numerous brands. The one we are using right now, we actually brought back from Sicily when we were there in September.
Recently we had dinner in a great Italian restaurant in Vegas and they served us some olive oil with the bread. It was SO good. We both looked at each other and said, "Bet it's from Sicily." We were right. This thread reminded me to look for it online. Took a photo of the label with my iphone. It's called Academia Barilla - and I just found it at Sur La Table.

[Jenise]

I am also a fan of Sicilians, California Olive Ranch and would add another recco: the EVOO Tuscan that Costco sells by the liter for around $11. Very fresh, fruity, peppery but not bitter. Outstanding value. All EVOO is cold pressed, btw. Or at least is assumed to be. Do you have a Trader Joe's near you? When butter flavor is neccessary (like conventional breakfast toast), we use a trans fat free "spread" that Trader Joe's sells. We tested it against the other national supermarket brands and liked it the best.

There is a lot of fraud in the olive oil business. Carefully read the labels. Best bets are those labels that specify exactly where the olives were grown, pressed and bottled. Oils can come in tanker ships from anywhere in the world, cut with inferior oils or otherwise adulterated and packed for market in Italy or Spain or Greece and then be sold as " Italian" etc.
Even better is the label that specifies the date of harvest of the olives. Less adequate is the "best used by " date because there can be a long lag between harvest and bottling and the "best used by" date can apply to the bottle date, not the harvest date.
Absolutely the best olive oil is one that is grown, picked by hand and processed immediately and used within 2 year, at most.
Oils made from a single variety of olive will have more character than the ones blended of different types of olives.

I can say much more but learn how to taste and taste and taste. You will soon develop a palate that will permit nothing other than very good oil and you will use the best olive oils as a condiment.

I might add that some of my Italian relatives are in the olive oil business and the most exquisite oil I've ever had is that pressed from the family trees and reserved exclusively for the family. Not a drop of this stuff ever reaches the commercial market.
Some of the California olive oils get close especially the closer to harvest date they are used.

We buy Kirkland, Corto (when we can find it) and Bariani. The Bariani is routinely available here and is quite good. I'd bet you could order from them. The website is at http://www.barianioliveoil.com/