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The Olive Oil Hunter News #126

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Walnut-Crusted Fish Recipe, Spotlight on Walnuts, The Kitchen Essential Cast Iron, The Benefits of a Good Work-Life Balance, and Beyond Diet and Exercise to Protect Heart Health

Heart disease is our greatest health threat, and the important topic of protecting the heart weaves its way throughout this issue of the newsletter. While a total lifestyle refresh can seem overwhelming, taking smaller steps, including enjoying more extra virgin olive oil and walnuts and finding a better balance between work and your personal life, add up to better health. The more positive choices you make, the more you can reduce your risk from health issues that can really impact the way you want to live.

Walnut-Crusted Fish

  • Walnut-crusted fish Walnut-Crusted Fish

    This delicious and heart-healthy topping is the perfect upgrade from breadcrumbs, and a cast iron pan makes quick work of cooking the fish.

    Ingredients

    • 1 cup shelled walnut halves or pieces
    • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling
    • 1 tablespoon creamy Dijon mustard
    • 1 tablespoon fresh, chopped flat-leaf parsley 
    • 1 clove garlic, minced
    • 1-1/2 pounds thick white fish fillet, like cod, halibut, or bass, wild caught if available
    • Optional garnishes: lemon slices, fresh dill

    Directions

    Step 1

    Preheat your oven to 375°F. Put the walnuts in a food processor or coffee bean grinder and pulse until they take on the texture of meal—go slowly because you don’t want the contents to turn to nut butter. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the mustard, parsley, and minced garlic, and pulse just until blended.

    Step 2

    Heat a 10″ cast iron skillet until hot. While you’re waiting for it to heat up, pat both sides of the fish dry with paper towels and then press the walnut mixture evenly across the top surfaces. 

    Step 3

    When the skillet is hot, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. As soon as it shimmers, use a long spatula to transfer the fish to the skillet. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the bottom browns.

    Step 4

    Transfer the skillet to the top third of your oven and cook for 8-12 minutes, until the fish feels firm (you can test on the side); this will depend on the thickness of your fish. 

    Step 5

    Turn your oven to broil to quickly toast the crust. Don’t walk away—this should only take 2 or 3 minutes. 

    Step 6

    Turn off the oven and, using high-heat-resistant oven mitts, carefully transfer the skillet to a heat-resistant pad on your counter. Drizzle the fish with more olive oil and garnish as desired.

    Yields 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Walnuts’ Wallop of Nutrients

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Walnuts’ Wallop of Nutrients

There’s good reason—many good reasons, in fact—that walnuts consistently make the list of the healthiest foods. A great source of anti-inflammatory omega-3 alpha-linolenic acids, walnuts also deliver protein, fiber, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and numerous vitamins and minerals. Their unique nutrient profile is likely what makes them so good for heart health. Now, using a newly developed technology that can quantify gene expression levels in the gut and monitor how these levels shift in response to various dietary changes, a team of scientists may have found out more specifically how walnuts help the heart. 

“Research has shown that walnuts may have heart-healthy benefits like lowering cholesterol levels and blood pressure,” said Mansi Chandra, a researcher at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. “This motivated us to look at how walnuts benefited the gut microbiome and whether those effects led to the potential beneficial effects. Our findings represent a new mechanism through which walnuts may lower cardiovascular disease risk.”

Chandra and her colleagues discovered that introducing walnuts into a person’s diet led to higher levels of Gordonibacter bacteria. This bacterium converts the plant polyphenols ellagitannins and ellagic acid into metabolites that allow them to be absorbed by the body. Study participants who ate a walnut-rich diet also showed higher levels of expression for several genes that are involved in important metabolic and biosynthetic pathways, including ones that increase the body’s production of the amino acid L-homoarginine—a deficiency has been linked to higher risk for cardiovascular disease.

Quick Kitchen Nugget: Get Cookin’ with Cast Iron

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Get Cookin’ with Cast Iron

Many chefs swear by their cast iron skillet because the metal holds heat so well and so uniformly that cooking is a breeze, especially when you need high heat. It’s also the ultimate stovetop-to-oven pan—just be sure you have excellent oven mitts to protect your hands from a hot handle. 

Either a 10″ or 12″ size is very versatile. Most cast iron skillets from companies like Field, Lodge, and Victoria come pre-seasoned and ready to go, so prepping them doesn’t present the issue it once did.

As I always suggest with any pan, heat your cast iron skillet before adding any food, including olive oil. In a hot pan, it will take mere moments for your EVOO to take on the distinctive shimmer of readiness, and then just a few minutes to cook your food. 

One fear home cooks have is about cast iron is caring for it. It’s not complicated, but it is necessary to wash and dry it well before storing in order to avoid a rusty surprise the next time you reach for it. Wash it in hot water and use a stiff brush—not a scouring pad—if there’s any stuck-on food that needs to be removed. You can also use coarse salt as a safe abrasive. Rinse and dry it completely with a soft towel. Then rub in a few drops of olive oil and use a clean paper towel to buff it dry. 

While I love skillet brownies, avoid using the same cast iron skillet for sweet and savory dishes, especially fish—have one dedicated for each.

For Your Best Health: The Benefits of a Good Work-Life Balance 

For Your Best Health

The Benefits of a Good Work-Life Balance 

Work-life balance may not guarantee success, but without it, failure is almost inevitable, according to J. Gerald Suarez, PhD, and other experts from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Finding the right balance between work demands and a satisfying personal life may seem overwhelming, but it helps to think of balance as those elements that contribute to your stability and steadiness. “It’s in the process of mindful reflection and discovery that we find inspiration to execute our decisions and bring our priorities to life,” says Dr. Suarez, professor of practice in systems thinking and design. 

Successful work-life balance is about moving forward steadily, he suggests. Think of the tightrope walkers who set the goal of making it to the other end, focusing on their next steps and compartmentalizing all other potential distractions—they recognize that there are no shortcuts. You can work to identify the small and achievable steps that will bring consistency of action each day, week, and month, he explains, adding that unexpected events, conflicts, crises, requests, and scheduling shifts will challenge that consistency and require mindful choices to maintain your course. “Is it possible to balance a conflict between an important work presentation that can contribute to a promotion or attending the first recital of our kids? By the time we find ourselves in this predicament, we can only justify our decision,” said Dr. Suarez. “But no matter the choice we make, there will be a residual emotional effect and an impact on ourselves and others.”

Here are Dr. Suarez’s tips for achieving a better work-life balance:

Be honest with yourself. Be genuine and articulate what truly matters most to you. Share your intent with your loved ones and heighten their awareness regarding your priorities and the context behind them.

Keep a calendar. Schedule and honor personal activities and time with friends and family much like you do with important work-related events. It’s easy to embrace the “always on” attitude at work and neglect the relationships and experiences that bring stability to our lives.

Set the right tone. For supervisors, be an example to others in the workplace by modeling adequate behaviors for work-life balance. Sending emails in the middle of the night or during weekends may signal there are no demarcations or boundaries.

Create safeguards. Empower and develop team members at work to become an extension of your leadership. If they feel trusted, empowered, and capable, they will amplify your presence and create pockets of freedom in your schedule. Developing your team will allow you to mitigate the discomfort of taking time off, booking your next vacation, or having a moment to unplug.

Fitness Flash: Beyond Diet and Exercise to Protect Heart Health

Fitness Flash

Beyond Diet and Exercise to Protect Heart Health

A new study from researchers at The Ohio State University analyzed data from over 20,000 U.S. adults and linked a healthier diet and increased exercise to weight loss that reduces heart disease risk. But even people who lost weight still fell short on the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Essential 8,” the 8-part checklist promoting heart disease risk reduction by meeting goals for body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, smoking, physical activity, diet, and sleep. This means that weight loss alone isn’t enough for optimal heart health. The researchers found that, overall, Americans have an average score of 60 out of 100 on the eight measures, suggesting there is plenty of room for improvement even among those whose diet and exercise behaviors helped move the needle on some metrics. 

 “Clinically significant weight loss results in improvements in some health indices,” says senior study author Colleen Spees, PhD, MEd, RDN, associate professor of medical dietetics in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Ohio State. “People should feel hopeful in knowing that losing just 5% of their body weight is meaningful in terms of clinical improvements.” Adults with weight loss reported higher diet quality, more moderate and vigorous physical activity, and lower LDL cholesterol than the group without clinically significant weight loss. Yet as a group, they also had a higher average BMI and HbA1c blood sugar measure and fewer hours of sleep, things that bring down their composite Life’s Essential 8 score.

Among adults who did not have success at weight loss, many reported skipping meals or using prescription diet pills, following low-carb and liquid diets, taking laxatives or vomiting, and smoking—all of which are not winning weight-loss strategies. “We saw that people are still gravitating to non-evidence-based approaches for weight loss, which are not sustainable. What is sustainable is changing behaviors and eating patterns,” Dr. Spees says.

“We have a lot of work to do as a country,” she adds. “Even though there were significant differences on several parameters between the groups, the fact remains that, as a whole, adults in this country are not adopting the Life’s Essential 8 behaviors that are directly correlated with heart health…We absolutely need to be moving toward prevention of disease versus waiting until people are diagnosed with a disease. This becomes quite overwhelming, and individuals may feel it’s too late at that point,” she said.

One idea to consider, she suggests, would be prescriptions for regular visits with registered dietitians trained in behavior change, complete with insurance reimbursement, similar to physical therapy. “We have fantastic research, we have incredible educators,” she says. “What we don’t have is policy that promotes optimal health across the lifespan, from pregnancy through older adulthood.”

The study, “Differences in Adherence to American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, Diet Quality, and Weight Loss Strategies Between Those With and Without Recent Clinically Significant Weight Loss in a Nationally Representative Sample of US Adults,” was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #125

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

No-Muss, No-Fuss Chocolate Donut Recipe, Spotlight on Cocoa Powder, The Kitchen Essential Donut Pan, Benefits of Spectating Sports, and the Best Time to Burn Fat

One of the aspects of the Mediterranean diet I love the most is that it’s very forgiving. Stick with the healthful basics most of the time, and you can indulge every now and then, guilt free. Donuts are a weak spot for many of us, but commercial ones are loaded with additives, and even freshly made ones can taste greasy if they’ve soaked up too much oil. These baked donuts are not only delicious, but also simple to make, no artificial ingredients added.

Another thing I love about the Mediterranean diet is that it’s a lifestyle that embraces social activities, which are important for your mental and overall health. A new study found that being part of the convivial atmosphere at sporting events is a great social activity for boosting well-being. Finally, if one of the reasons you exercise is to burn fat, you’ll be interested in experimental research that found morning exercise might do it more efficiently than working out at other times of the day.

No-Muss, No-Fuss Chocolate Donuts

  • Chocolate donuts No-Muss, No-Fuss Chocolate Donuts

    Forget deep frying and waiting for a yeasted dough to rise—these chocolate treats are ready in just a few minutes. Enjoy as is, with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar, or with this simple yet rich chocolate glaze.

    Ingredients

    • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
    • 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 
    • 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
    • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
    • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1 1/4 cups sugar
    • 6 tablespoons Greek yogurt
    • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    • 1/2 cup milk
    • 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

    Optional glaze:

    • 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil

    Directions

    Step 1

    Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly coat two 6-cavity donut pans with olive oil. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

    Step 2

    In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until frothy, then add the sugar and whisk until incorporated. Whisk in the yogurt, olive oil, milk, and vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients. 

    Step 3

    Use a large spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip to fill the donut pans. Bake for 10 minutes or until springy to the touch. Allow to cool in the pans, and then glaze if desired.

    Step 4

    For the glaze, place 5 ounces of the chocolate in a small, microwave-safe glass bowl and melt at 50 percent power for 3 minutes; repeat if needed until the chocolate is almost fully melted. Add the last ounce of chocolate and let sit on the counter for 2 minutes to cool down; then stir until smooth. Stir in the olive oil until fully blended. Dip the top of each donut into the chocolate and then place on a cookie sheet to firm up.

    Yields 12 donuts

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Go bold with your olive oil

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Cocoa Powder

Unsweetened cocoa powder is a food lover’s dream: intense chocolate taste—cocoa gives baked goods deeper flavor than chocolate itself—with few calories. Also, ounce for ounce, natural cocoa is the food with the highest flavanol content. 

The cocoa process starts with roasted cocoa bean particles, or nibs. The nibs are turned into chocolate liquor. That liquor is pressed to remove much of the cocoa butter and then ground into powder. This is where most of chocolate’s flavor comes from and explains why white chocolate, made of cocoa butter and sugar, is rather bland. 

Cocoa powder is available in two main forms: natural, with a deeper taste yet lighter color, and Dutch-processed, with a milder taste and darker color (an alkaline ingredient is added to counter natural cocoa’s acidity). It’s often possible to use the two forms interchangeably with only slight differences in taste in the finished dish. However, to account for the acidity of natural cocoa when baking with it, baking soda (with or without baking powder) is typically called for as a leavening agent. If you don’t see it listed in the ingredients in a recipe, add 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda for every 3 tablespoons of natural cocoa powder. Tip: Always sift cocoa into a recipe’s other dry ingredients to get rid of any lumps. 

Quick Kitchen Nugget: Choosing the right flour

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Kitchen Essential: The Donut Pan

Nonstick donut pans produce perfect rounds. Inexpensive and easy to clean, a set of two pans will let you cook up a dozen in no time. Find them at housewares stores like Williams-Sonoma or online at Amazon.

For Your Best Health: The tops in healthy vegetables

For Your Best Health

“Take me out to the ball game…”

We know about the health benefits of participating in sports, but there’s value in being a spectator, too, according to research done at the Anglia Ruskin University School of Psychology and Sport Science in the UK and published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health. Researchers found that attending live sporting events results in higher scores of two important measurements of well-being—life satisfaction and a sense of “life being worthwhile”—as well as lower levels of loneliness. (We already know from separate studies that having a high life satisfaction score is linked to better physical health and successful aging.)

Lead author and head of the school Helen Keyes, PhD, said, “Previous research has focused on specific sports or small population samples, such as college students in the United States. Ours is the first study to look at the benefits of attending any sporting event across an adult population…[F]urther research needs to be carried out to see if these benefits are more pronounced for elite level sport or are more closely linked to supporting a specific team. However, we do know that watching live sport of all types provides many opportunities for social interaction and this helps to forge group identity and belonging, which in turn mitigates loneliness and boosts levels of well-being.”

Fitness Flash: The missing link to losing weight?

Fitness Flash

A Better Time for Fat Burning?

If one of your exercise goals is to burn off fat, a lab study done at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), might lead you to try morning workouts to see if this helps get the results you want. 

Physical activity at different times of the day can affect the body in different ways, since the biological processes depend on the circadian rhythms of cells. To ascertain how the time of day at which exercise is done affects the burning of fat, the researchers studied the adipose tissue (fat) of mice after a session of high-intensity exercise performed at two points of their daily cycle, an early active phase and an early rest phase (corresponding to a late morning and late evening session, respectively, in people). The researchers studied various markers for fat metabolism and analyzed which genes were active in adipose tissue after exercise.

They found that physical activity at an early active phase increased the expression of genes involved in the breakdown of adipose tissue, thermogenesis (heat production), and mitochondria in the adipose tissue, indicating a higher metabolic rate. These effects were observed only in mice that exercised in the early active phase and were independent of food intake.

“Our results suggest that late morning exercise could be more effective than late evening exercise in terms of boosting the metabolism and the burning of fat, and if this is the case, they could prove of value to people who are overweight,” said Professor Juleen R. Zierath, PhD, of the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery and the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet.

Mice and humans share many basic physiological functions, and mice are a well-established model for human physiology and metabolism. However, there are also important differences, such as the fact that mice are nocturnal. “The right timing seems to be important to the body’s energy balance and to improving the health benefits of exercise, but more studies are needed to draw any reliable conclusions about the relevance of our findings to humans,” said Dr. Zierath.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #124

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Chicken with Cashew-Cilantro Sauce Recipe, How to Choose Foster Well-being with Healthy Fatty Acids—Another Contributor to the Benefits of Olive Oil

When it comes to most studies on the benefits of olive oil, polyphenols get all the attention, yet these micronutrients add up to just a fraction of the oil’s content. Extra virgin olive oil is primarily made up of a monounsaturated fatty acid called oleic acid, which contributes to the healthful benefits of olive oil as well, according to a study done in Spain, which I’m sharing. The following chicken recipe is a delicious way to get these benefits!

Chicken with Cashew-Cilantro Sauce

  • Cashew and Cilantro Pesto Chicken with Cashew-Cilantro Sauce

    This recipe brings together many strong flavors that meld beautifully—the sweetness of the cashews, the citrusy zest of the lime, the spiciness of the pepper and the garlic. You can make the sauce and marinate the chicken a day ahead; cover both and refrigerate until needed (allow the sauce to come to room temperature before serving). Although you can grill the chicken, it bakes up quickly in the oven. If you can’t find the sweet soy sauce known as kecap manis at your local supermarket or Asian market, substitute 2 tablespoons regular soy sauce and 1 tablespoon sugar. 

    Ingredients

    • 2 cups raw or low-sodium roasted cashews
    • 1 cup cilantro with stems, loosely packed
    • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1/3 cup water
    • 8 garlic cloves, peeled
    • 3 tablespoons sweet soy (kecap manis)
    • 1 fresh jalapeño pepper, stemmed (remove the seeds for a milder taste)
    • Zest of a large lime 
    • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 
    • 4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs 

    Directions

    Step 1

    If using raw cashews, toast them in the oven at 350°F for 10 minutes to bring out their flavor. Place all the ingredients except the chicken in your food processor and pulse until you get a thick and chunky sauce. Transfer all but ¾ cup to a serving bowl and reserve. Place the chicken in a large bowl and add the ¾ cup of the sauce. Use your hands to coat the chicken thoroughly. 

    Step 2

    Preheat your oven to 385°F. Transfer the chicken to two rimmed sheet pans that have been lined with parchment paper. Bake for 35 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Turn on the broiler and place each pan under it, one at a time, for 3 minutes for a nice crisp.

    Step 3

    To serve, top each thigh with a dollop of the reserved cashew-cilantro sauce and pass the rest on the side.

    Yields 6-8 servings

Fitness Flash: Fostering Well-being with Healthy Fatty Acids

Fostering Well-being with Healthy Fatty Acids

Another contributor to the benefits of olive oil 

The Study

“Update on Anti-Inflammatory Molecular Mechanisms Induced by Oleic Acid,” Nutrients, 2023

The Findings

“Oleic acid, the principal component of olive oil, has properties that help to prevent cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and to lower cholesterol.”

A Summary of the Study from the University of Seville

“The health benefits of olive oil, which are commonly attributed to its minor components such as polyphenols, are now well recognized by science. But little attention has been paid to oleic acid, which represents 70 to 80 percent of the oil’s composition. That is why a group of professors from the Faculties of Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of Seville, in conjunction with professionals from the Seville North and Aljarafe Health District and the Costa del Sol Hospital, have produced a study on oleic acid’s main contributions to health. This fatty acid is the main constituent of olive oil and is responsible for many health-promoting properties. Oleic acid is produced by the diet and synthesis in the body itself, and is the most abundant monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) in the human diet.

“The Mediterranean diet is the most widely recognized diet for preventing disease and slowing the effects of aging. The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is abundant in the Mediterranean basin, and olive oil, which is extracted from its fruit, is the most characteristic item and the main fat in this diet, which is also marked by a high vegetable intake, moderate fish consumption, low-to-moderate dairy consumption, low red meat intake and moderate wine consumption.

“Oleic acid is the principal MUFA in the human circulatory system. In the brain, it is a major component of membrane phospholipids and abounds in the neuronal myelin sheaths. A significantly decreased level of oleic acid has been observed in the brains of patients suffering from major depressive disorders and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Like all free fatty acids, oleic acid’s main function is that of an energy molecule and a component of cell membranes. One of its most characteristic qualities is its antioxidant properties, since it can directly regulate both the synthesis and the activity of antioxidant enzymes. Another beneficial property is its hypocholesterolemic effect: It inhibits the expression of proteins associated with cholesterol transport, reducing cholesterol absorption and thus preventing atherosclerosis.

“Oleic acid is also recognized as an anti-cancer molecule because of its inhibitory effects on the overexpression of oncogenes and their effects on programmed cell death. Moreover, oleic acid is generally considered an anti-inflammatory molecule, although this quality is still under debate among scientists.

Furthermore, “oleoylethanolamide, a derivative of oleic acid, has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of its own and has now been proposed as a potent therapeutic agent to treat obesity. This underlines the benefits of oleic acid for health. Emerging research suggests that it may influence epigenetic mechanisms (direct modifications of DNA and DNA-associated proteins) and may help modulate the immune system, specifically by regulating cells involved in developing inflammation.”

The authors of this study do point out that research on olive oil has been done with animals and that there’s a need for further research to confirm the significant properties shown by oleic acid and its derivatives in people.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #123

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Cheese-Stuffed Focaccia Recipe with Bold Olive Oil, How to Choose the Right Flour, Tops in Healthy Vegetables and The Missing Link to Losing Weight

Flatbreads like focaccia are very forgiving—you don’t need to be an expert baker to create this crispy-on-the-outside, spongy-on-the-inside Italian classic. In fact, you don’t have to have ever baked a bread before. It’s the perfect beginner recipe that takes the mystery out of dough-making. Plus, you can also customize the toppings to your taste—onions are at the top of the list for many. That’s a smart choice as well as a delicious one: New research on the levels of health-giving sulfur compounds puts onions on the top of that list as well. Read on to see what other veggies rank high…and to learn about a missing link in the battle to lose weight.

Cheese-Stuffed Focaccia

  • Focaccia Bread with Rosemary and Onions Cheese-Stuffed Focaccia

    This recipe shows off the versatility of focaccia dough. Yes, you can top it with cherry tomatoes, onions, red pepper, and more, but you can also stuff it! If you’d like to use this dough for a more traditional focaccia, simply divided in half as directed, then bake in a single layer in two 13-inch-by-9-inch pans and starting checking after 25 minutes.

    Ingredients

    • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast 
    • 2 cups warm water, between 105°F-115°F
    • 1 tablespoon honey
    • 7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use, plus more for dipping
    • 5 cups all-purpose, bread, or 00 flour, plus more for kneading
    • 1 teaspoon sea salt
    • 16 ounces mozzarella
    • Optional toppings: slivers of onion, fresh rosemary needles, very coarse sea salt

    Directions

    Step 1

    In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the yeast, water, and honey for a few seconds. Allow the yeast to bloom (get foamy), about 5-8 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and flour, and mix until a sticky dough forms. Switch to the dough hook and knead until smooth and elastic; it will be sticky, but should pull away from the sides of the bowl as you lift it. Only if it is too sticky to handle, add more flour, one tablespoon at a time. 

    Step 2

    Note: If you don’t have a stand mixer with a dough hook, bloom the yeast, water, and honey in a large bowl. Add the olive oil and salt and then the flour, mixing with a large spatula and then with your hands. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured countertop, flour your hands, and knead until smooth, about 7 minutes. 

    Step 3

    Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a clean, large bowl. With lightly floured hands, form the dough into a ball and roll it in the olive oil. Place the bowl in a warm spot in your kitchen and cover with a clean dish towel. Let rise until doubled in volume, about an hour. (If you poke it with a fingertip, it should spring back right away.)

    Step 4

    Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a 13-inch-by-9-inch metal cake pan, and coat the pan well. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured countertop, punch it down lightly, and cut it in half. Place half the dough in the pan, and use your fingertips to press it out to the edges and into the corners of the pan. Liberally dot the dough with dollops of the cheese. Using your hands, stretch the rest of the dough into a rectangle about the size of the pan and then place it on top of the cheese layer, stretching it further out to the corners of the pan and pressing it around the edges to seal it to the bottom layer. Use your fingertips or knuckles to make a pattern of indentations on the top of the dough. Cover the pan with a clean towel and let it rest for 20 minutes while you heat your oven to 450°F.  

    Step 5

    Just before baking, go over the indentations if needed. Then drizzle the final tablespoon of oil over the top and sprinkle on the onions, rosemary needles, and coarse salt, as desired. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden, rotating the pan halfway through. Let cool for 5 minutes, then cut and serve with olive oil for dipping. 

    Yields 10 generous servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Go bold with your olive oil

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Go Bold with Your Olive Oil

In addition to playing a prominent role in the dough itself, extra virgin olive oil gives focaccia its distinctive crispy finish on the bottom as well as the top. I like to use a bold oil for depth of flavor—so good, you’ll want to eat it right out of the pan. 

Quick Kitchen Nugget: Choosing the right flour

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Choosing the Right Flour

There’s much debate over the best flour to use for focaccia—all-purpose, bread, or the exotic-sounding 00 flour—and each one has its fans. 00 flour, also called double zero or doppio zero, is de rigueur in Italy to make thin-crust Neapolitan pizza. It’s the most finely ground flour available, and it creates a dough that’s very flexible and easy to work with. (There’s one 00 variety made for pizza and focaccia and another for pasta, and they’re not interchangeable.) Not too long ago, 00 flour was only available as an Italian import at specialty shops or online, but recently the American companies Bob’s Red Mill, King Arthur, and Shepherd’s Grain began milling their own versions right here in the US. With 00 flour costing just a few dollars for a 3- or 5-pound bag, you can have fun experimenting to see which one bakes up best for you.

For Your Best Health: The tops in healthy vegetables

For Your Best Health

The Tops in Healthy Vegetables

Vegetables in the Allium genus—onions, leeks, and garlic, to name a few—are among the most widely studied for their healthful sulfur compounds; they are good for the heart and immune system, among other benefits. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and other cruciferous vegetables of the Brassica family have these compounds, too. 

Among the most important sulfur compounds are polysulfides, because of their broad range of benefits—they have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, and cardioprotective effects. But which vegetables are the richest in polysulfides hasn’t been clear…until now. A research team from the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Science in Japan developed a method to quantify the total reactive polysulfide content of 22 popular vegetables. Their findings, published in the journal Food Chemistry, ranked onions #1, followed by broccoli, Chinese chive, and garlic—more reason to make them a part of your diet.

Fitness Flash: The missing link to losing weight?

Fitness Flash

The Missing Link to Losing Weight?

People who reported getting regular, uninterrupted sleep did a better job sticking to their exercise and diet plans while trying to lose weight, according to preliminary results of a study involving 125 participants who were given various lifestyle modifications as part of a 12-month weight loss program. The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023. 

“Focusing on obtaining good sleep—seven to nine hours at night with a regular wake time along with waking refreshed and being alert throughout the day—may be an important behavior that helps people stick with their physical activity and dietary modification goals,” said lead author Christopher E. Kline, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Development at the University of Pittsburgh. 

“There are over 100 studies linking sleep to weight gain and obesity, but this was a great example showing how sleep isn’t just tied to weight itself; it’s tied to the things we’re doing to help manage our own weight,” commented Michael A. Grandner, PhD, director of the Sleep and Heath Research Program at the University of Arizona, director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the Banner-University Medical Center in Tucson, and a co-creator of the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 health metrics. “This could be because sleep impacts the things that drive hunger and cravings, your metabolism and your ability to regulate metabolism and the ability to make healthy choices in general. Studies like this really go to show that all of these things are connected, and sometimes sleep is the thing that we can start taking control of that can help open doors to other avenues of health.”

Improving sleep health is something everyone can do to improve their cardiovascular health, and in 2022 sleep became the eighth metric of Life’s Essential 8—eight building blocks for optimal cardiovascular health that also include eating healthy food; being physically active; not smoking; getting enough sleep; maintaining a healthy weight; and controlling cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure. Why are Life’s Essential 8 so important? Because cardiovascular disease claims more lives each year in the US than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined, according to the 2023 Statistical Update from the American Heart Association.

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