Olive Oil

Olive oil is expensive and intricate in its definition. For ease we will focus only on Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which is what I use for everything except deep frying (boiling point is too low and, if you try to fry with EVOO, it will splatter in your face).

Olive oil containers can say 'Product of Italy,' but could essentially have little to no Italian-grown olives. Most olive oil containers will tell you on the back or side label where the olives come from.

Olive oil, especially from Italy, can be really expensive. I compare olive oils by comparing their dollar/oz (Dollar per US fluid ounce). Most, if not all, olive oils are packaged in metric volume (Liters, mL, etc...). It is good to remember that 1 Liter = 33.81 (or rounding, 34) US Fluid Ounces.

Some of the cheapest, OK-quality extra virgin olive oils are around 0.17 dollars (17 cents) per US fluid ounce. These can be found at COSTCO (Filippo Berio brand) and Wegmans (Store Brand).

The most expensive and most delicious extra virgin olive oil runs at 1.17 dollars per US fluid ounce. This is the 'Carapelli: il Numerato' from Florence. Unfortunately, this price is simply unreasonable.

I ran across the brand Colavita, which offers two reasonably priced and delicious extra virgin olive oils.

The first of which is priced at 0.37 dollars (37 cents) per US fluid ounce and is a blend of olives from around the Mediterranean, but is still pleasant in flavor. This is sold in 3 Liter containers on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Colavita-Extra-Virgin-Olive-101-Ounce/dp/B001DTIIY2/ref=sr_1_3?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1311734998&sr=1-3

The second is priced at 0.53 dollars (53 cents) per US fluid ounce and is made from 100% Italian olives. This is sold in 1 Liter containers on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Colavita-Extra-Virgin-Olive-34-Ounce/dp/B001ELLB16/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1311734998&sr=1-1

Choose wisely, my friends...

Pine Nuts

Believe it or not, it can be really difficult to find reasonably priced 'Mediterranean' pine nuts. The typical pine nuts you can find are of the Chinese variety, which are known to leave a bad aftertaste. I came across a producer in Arizona who provides the sweeter and tastier 'Mediterranean' variety and sells them for roughly $12.00/lb on Ebay. With shipping it comes to around $20.00, which is still a good value considering the variety of pine nuts you are purchasing.

I'm sure if you contact the producer he/she might be able to give you a combined shipping rate for multiple lbs purchased.

Here is his/her eBay personal page, which shows links to his auctions:

http://myworld.ebay.com/hassen55/

See my previous post on pesto sauce for a good use of pine nuts: http://massiferrucci.blogspot.com/2010/05/pesto_29.html

Enjoy!