Olive Oil

An olive oil snob I am not. I believe passionately in the equality, by which I do not mean interchangeability, of all good ingredients. There is no more room for intolerance in cooking than in anything else, and I am dismayed by the misguided attitude of those who champion olive oil over butter as though it were a cause. How do they make the sauces for their homemade pasta, I’d like to know, or the bases for most risottos? How do they gratinée anything? There is a place of honor for butter in Italian cooking and there is a large and significant one for olive oil. When it comes to buying butter, our choices are few and the differences negligible. In selecting an olive oil, however, the choices that we face are infinite, the information on which we base them regrettably inadequate, the differences crucial.