Grilled Pear Salad with Greens and Port Vinaigrette and Peruvian Purple Potato Salad Recipes, Spotlight on Pear Balsamic Vinegar and Pairing with Extra Virgin Olive Oils

Vinegar Essentials, Part I: Pear Balsamic Vinegar

I’m so excited to once again share the magic of vinegar with you. The right vinegar can raise the taste profile of a dish in a unique way, adding deep and complex flavors. Traveling across Europe and tasting new and delightful offerings from renowned master crafters to put together my second curated collection was an amazing experience. Let me start by introducing you to pear balsamic, a fruity vinegar with the richness reminiscent of a traditional balsamic. I’ll also explain how to pair various vinegars with Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club offerings so you can get all the benefits of olive oil in even more delicious ways.

Grilled Pear Salad with Greens and Port Vinaigrette

• Grilled Pear Salad with Greens and Port Vinaigrette

  Peaches or apricots are delicious alternatives to the pears. 

  Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons Pear Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon port wine (or more vinegar)
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste 
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
  • 8 cups mixed greens, such as romaine lettuce, endive, radicchio, and arugula, torn, chopped, or sliced 
  • 3 ripe pears, such as Bosc, Bartlett, or d’Anjou 
  • 3 tablespoons mascarpone or another soft, creamy cheese 
  • 1/2 cup toasted macadamia nuts, chopped 
  • 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds for garnish (optional) 

  Directions

  Step 1

  Make the vinaigrette: In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the olive oil, vinegar, port, honey, and the ¼ teaspoons of salt and black pepper, and shake vigorously until emulsified. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt if needed. Pour 3 tablespoons of the vinaigrette onto a shallow plate and reserve the remainder. 

  Step 2

  Divide the salad greens among six plates. Cut each pear in half and remove the core. Dip the cut sides in the plated vinaigrette. Set up your grill for direct grilling. Grill the pears, cut sides down, until light grill marks appear, about 5 minutes. 

  Step 3

  While the pears are still warm, arrange a pear half on each salad plate, cut side up, and put a dollop of mascarpone in each cavity. Drizzle with the reserved vinaigrette (shake the jar if necessary), and top with the toasted macadamia nuts and pomegranate seeds, if using. 

  Yields 6 servings 

Peruvian Purple Potato Salad

• Peruvian Purple Potato Salad

  The beauty of these potatoes is more than skin deep—they’re rich in antioxidants. Leave on the skins for maximum nutritional benefits. 

  Ingredients

  • 2 pounds Peruvian purple potatoes, scrubbed 
  • 3 tablespoons Pear Balsamic Vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste 
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, plus more to taste
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup red onion, peeled and diced
  • 1 jalapeño pepper, stemmed, seeded, and finely diced (optional) 
  • 1/2 yellow or orange bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and diced
  • 3 tablespoons each chopped fresh cilantro, parsley, and chives 

  Directions

  Step 1

  Boil the potatoes in salted water until just tender—20 minutes or so, depending on their size, but don’t overcook. Drain, let cool slightly, and quarter them. Transfer to a large bowl. 

  Step 2

  In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, mustard, salt, and black pepper. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until the mixture emulsifies. Pour the vinaigrette evenly over the potatoes while they’re still warm. Gently fold in the olives, onion, jalapeño (if using), bell pepper, and herbs. Season to taste with more salt and black pepper. 

  Yields 4 to 6 servings

Spotlight on Pear Balsamic Vinegar

A modern-day creation from vintage fruit

If you’ve ever sampled flavored vinegars, prepare to be blown away by the taste difference in a vinegar crafted from real fruit with time-honored traditions. Alois Gölles Jr., whose father started their orchards in Riegersburg, Austria in the late 1950s, initially began creating fruit wines, juices, and spirits. A trip to Modena, Italy, in the early ’80s inspired him to create a balsamic vinegar from apples rather than grapes. Within a few years, word spread about this unique vinegar, and Alois then set his sights on making a pear balsamic. Interestingly, to preserve the wonderful pear notes, the Pear Balsamic Vinegar is not aged as long as the Apple Balsamic Vinegar in last year’s collection, yet it has the same depth of flavor. 

This enchanting vinegar starts with one of the local cultivars, the Hirschbirne pear. At the time Alois first started using it, the Hirschbirne had almost disappeared from markets because of its astringent taste, but ironically, that’s exactly what makes it perfect for making top-notch vinegar. 

It’s not surprising that this Pear Balsamic Vinegar has the sweet taste of a traditional balsamic as well as its richness: It’s made according to the traditional balsamic vinegar method. First, the fruit is sorted and washed, then it’s crushed and pressed. The resulting pear juice is carefully reduced over low heat until it is quite concentrated before being naturally fermented, first through alcoholic fermentation to produce wine, and then through vinegar fermentation to turn the wine into vinegar. What follows is four years of barrel aging to reduce the vinegar in a very slow fashion—that accounts for the thickness not seen in regular vinegars, the sweetness, the golden-brown color, and the mild taste. 

Food Pairings

Enjoying Pear Balsamic Vinegar

This vinegar brings an element of sweetness to bitter greens, to salads with fruits and/or nuts, and to the classic caprese salad. It adds depth of flavor to any dish that includes fresh or poached pears (add it to the poaching liquid!). Include it in your favorite pork recipes. Just a few drops brighten savory dishes, especially winter vegetables, like sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, fennel, acorn squash, and hearty beans. Drizzle it on blue cheeses and on Brie and other white rind cheeses; yogurt and granola parfaits; carpaccio, terrines, eggplant caponata, and bruschetta; grilled fish; and panna cotta-type puddings and vanilla ice cream. It’s perfect for deglazing and making a quick reduction—whisk it into pan-melted butter and you’ll have an amazing sauce. 

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Pairing vinegar varieties with extra virgin olive oils 

While I don’t believe in any hard-and-fast rules, I do like to pair milder vinegars with milder oils so that one doesn’t overwhelm the other. If you’re using a bold selection from the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, go with a bold red wine vinegar. If you’re using a fruitier, milder olive oil, pair it with a fruit-based vinegar. Think about the foods on your plate, too. If you’re making a salad with bitter greens, add sweetness with a sweeter vinegar like a classic balsamic. If you’re making a chopped salad with provolone and salami, a tangy vinegar will balance the richness of the meat and cheese. 

I also like to combine vinegars. For a vinaigrette with great complexity, use half balsamic for sweetness and half red wine vinegar for tartness along with your extra virgin olive oil. The beauty of having a collection of flavorful vinegars is that you can have fun discovering the pairings you like best. 

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Debunking Common Myths About Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) Once and for All

The expression “truth in advertising” seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle lately, especially when it comes to extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO. You’re likely to see buzzwords on labels and in ads without any way for you to know if a claim is true. There are also some persistent and confusing myths about EVOO that need to be corrected once and for all! 

As your Olive Oil Hunter, I’d like to set the record straight so that you not only will enjoy the marvelous taste of true extra virgin olive oil but also get all of the healthful benefits from its high level of antioxidants, notably the polyphenols.

Myth: The best olive oil comes from Italy.

Fact: I love Italian olive oil—and I’m in Italy once a year at the optimal harvest time to work with master millers on their best oils. But I spend the other months circling the globe to source the best, just-pressed olive oils—and for half the year, that’s in the southern hemisphere. I can tell you that there are a number of countries that have conditions—like soil and climate—that are just as conducive to growing the right olives as Italy and other countries around the Mediterranean. Farms in Chile and Australia, for instance, grow a diverse variety of olives and produce phenomenal oils. The reason I source different oils each season is because freshness counts—in our summer months, I want you to have the taste of just-pressed olive oil from Chile, which is going to exceed the flavor of an Italian oil that was pressed and bottled six or more months earlier. 

Myth: If it’s bottled in Italy, it’s a quality oil.

Fact: Many store-bought oils state “bottled in Italy” on the label, but that doesn’t mean the oil was pressed there or when it was pressed. A number of independent consumer investigations over the years have found that many off-the-shelf olive oils contained oils from other countries—they were just put in bottles in Italy—or, worse, that the olive oil was diluted with a lesser oil, like canola. Because none of this has to be disclosed on the label, buyer beware! Not only do these low-quality oils taste unappealing, but you’re also not getting the nutrients you thought you were. 

There’s also an important distinction to be made between an oil mixed from a variety of producers/countries, as described above, and an oil that’s a masterful blend of a few different varietals, all of which were fresh-pressed from the same harvest and shipped quickly to you. The same way that a chef combines herbs and spices for the perfect dish, I bring together different olive varieties to create flavor profiles using the best of what my artisanal growers harvest each season. I might choose just one variety or use up to, say, three to create the oils for each of my collections. 

You’re most likely to find the word “blend” tucked away in a corner of the label on a store-bought brand with no explanation, whereas in the Pressing Report, which I include with every Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club shipment, I write in great detail about the olives I chose.

Myth: You can’t use high-heat cooking methods with olive oil.

Fact: Olive oil is wonderful for so much more than drizzling on salads and other cold dishes. Premium EVOO has a smoke point of over 400°F. The antioxidants in high-quality extra virgin olive oil help it stay fresh and also help keep it from oxidizing during sautéing and frying, so cook up a storm! What’s more, raw vegetables cooked in EVOO with either of those methods tend to have more antioxidants as a result, according to research published in the journal Food Chemistry. 

Myth: Olive oil should taste neutral, not bitter.

Fact: Bitterness is a desirable attribute of an olive oil, alongside pungency and fruitiness. It’s actually a sign of freshness. Great olive oil is often measured by whether it makes you cough when you sip it. The cough reaction tells you the oil is high in healthful polyphenols. A premium EVOO may be described as a one-, two-, or three-cough oil—the more the better! 

There’s a reason store-bought oils taste bland. The highest-quality, best-tasting olive oil comes from olives harvested and pressed when they’re still green and contain only 10% oil—low yield but maximum flavor. Fully ripe olives that have turned black produce three times as much oil but have nowhere near the same taste. This is what many mass producers will use to get more product and why their oils have a lackluster taste. For the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, I always include a mild EVOO, along with a medium and a bold selection, but it’s chockful of nutrients, and the taste is never bland.

Myth: Olive oil should keep for more than a year.

Fact: That’s pushing the limits of freshness. Time, temperature, and light all conspire to affect olive oil. In terms of time, look for a harvest date on the label, not just an expiration date. You want to buy oil within six to 12 months of harvest. The expiration date doesn’t tell you when that was. In terms of guarding against light, olive oil should be bottled in dark glass, which helps shield it. In terms of heat, never keep your bottles out on the counter, near a window, in a cabinet above the stove, or any area that’s warm. The bottom shelf of a pantry cabinet is best. 

Do take out your olive oil at meals and use it—don’t save it for special occasions. In our house, when we set the table, we put a bottle alongside the salt and pepper—it’s a “sauce” that Mother Nature has made for you, so enjoy it.

Myth: If it’s sold at my gourmet food store, it must be the real thing. 

Fact: When you see the words “extra virgin,” know that they can have a very broad meaning. Extra virgin means that the oil was made from the first pressing of the olives, which is a good thing. But if that olive oil wasn’t made by mechanical means only—without heat or chemicals—and if it wasn’t bottled and shipped right away, it won’t taste much better than a lesser grade. Nor will it have the high levels of polyphenols that give extra virgin olive oil its superfood status and unmistakable taste. 

Myth: The color of the EVOO is a good indicator of quality.

Fact: Many fresh-pressed olive oils are green in color, and that can range from a grassy green to a gold-green. But color isn’t the be-all and end-all indicator of quality. There should be a strong and bright aroma when you bring it to your nose—the bouquet should transport you to the olive grove! And, of course, the flavor should really excite your taste buds. Remember that olive oil is a fruit juice, so there should be a bright fruitiness to it.

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