Reference: Tessier A-J, Cortese M, Yuan C, et al. Consumption of olive oil and dietary quality and risk of dementia-related death. JAMA Network Open. 2024;7(5):e2410021. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.10021.
A recently published analysis of two large, long-term studies found that consuming half a tablespoon or more of olive oil per day lowered the risk of dying of dementia by up to 34% in both women and men. The protective effect of olive oil consumption was even greater in women.
More than 92,000 participants from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) were included in this analysis. The NHS started in 1976 and enrolled 121,700 female registered nurses (ages 30–55). The HPFS began in 1986 as a similar study in men, enrolling 51,525 male healthcare professionals (ages 40–75).
Study participants responded every other year to detailed food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) about their consumption of specific foods. Questions about olive oil were added in 1990. Total olive oil intake was determined by three responses: olive oil used for salad dressings, olive oil added to food or bread, and olive oil used for baking or frying at home.
Olive oil intake frequency was categorized as follows:
• Never, or less than once per month • Less than 4.5 grams (about one teaspoon) per day • Between 4.5 and 7 grams per day • More than 7 grams (about half a tablespoon) per day
About two-thirds of the study participants (65.6%) were women, about a third (34.4%) were men, and the average age at the start of the study was 56 years. Each participant’s FFQs from 1990 to 2014 (or for as long as the participant remained in the study) were totaled and averaged. Average olive oil intake was 1.3 grams per day in both studies.
Participants in the highest olive oil intake group—half a tablespoon or more of olive oil per day— reduced their risk of dying of dementia by 28% to 34%, compared to study participants who never or very rarely consumed olive oil. These results were regardless of other dietary habits and factored in socio-demographic and lifestyle differences.
Deaths due to dementia were confirmed by physician’s review of medical records, autopsy reports, or death certificates of study participants.
It has been proposed that consuming olive oil may lower the risk of dementia-related death by improving blood vessel health, yet the results of this analysis were not impacted by hypertension or high cholesterol in participants.
Limitations of this analysis include its predominantly non-Hispanic white population of healthcare professionals, which reduces the ability to generalize these results across more diverse populations. Also, the FFQs did not dis-tinguish among types of olive oil, which differ in their amounts of polyphenols and other bioactive compounds.
Horiatiki Salad Recipe and The MIND Diet for Brain Health: More Benefits of Olive Oil
I’m a huge fan of both Greek and Middle Eastern salads, the ingredients of which are not only delicious but also mainstays of the MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet, a way of eating designed for brain health. It’s an offshoot of the super-healthy Mediterranean diet and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet. Why the distinction? Because the latest research on the MIND diet shows it can slow aging as well as reduce dementia risk. Add this to the list of the benefits of olive oil—it’s one of the super foods that MIND suggests including every day.
Direct from Bella Italia Three Enchanting Extra Virgin Olive Oils That Will Elevate Every Meal and Seasonal Celebration
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Brimming with the polyphenols that confer many of extra virgin olive oil’s health benefits.
Certified 100 percent extra virgin olive oil by an independent lab and delivered to the US by jet for the ultimate freshness and flavor.
They say that all roads lead to Rome, but, more important, all roads from Rome lead to olives! You can even see olive trees growing in the shadow of the Colosseum along the Appian Way, the ancient thoroughfare that led south.
I’m always happy to be in the Eternal City and even more excited this year. Early intel was that central Italy was having an olive oil comeback—no weather or harvesting drama, just wonderful olives. Spring rains had led to bountiful blossoms and trees heavy with fruit.
This quintessential view of Toscana—Tuscany—embodies the romance of Italy: rustic houses, statuesque cypresses, bushy olive trees laden with fruit. We made a stately villa in the town of Castiglione D’Orcia our temporary home as we waited for the magic window for harvesting. It’s where we created this report’s recipes. They take inspiration from all the regions we visited and showcase ingredients integral to the Mediterranean diet—dark leafy greens, nuts, and, of course, fresh-pressed olive oil.
After a hot summer, the hoped-for autumn rains arrived on cue to help promote the right aromas and taste sensations. It’s not hyperbole to say that these were the most glorious looking olives I’ve seen in 10 years.
Sadly, that was not the scenario in southern regions like Calabria and Sicily. So, this trip found my Merry Band of Tasters and me crisscrossing a relatively narrow west-to-east swath of this glorious country. We visited favored-status farms in regions including Lazio, Umbria, and Abruzzo to sample superlative fresh-pressed oils for you, dear Club member, and decide on the best of the best—this season presented us with an embarrassment of riches!
After an amazing farm-to-table lunch at his sister Graziella’s home, Claudio Di Mercurio took me to the historic mountaintop village of Appignano, where he grew up. His sharing this very personal side of himself deepened the bond we’ve built over the years. Personal connection is how I’m able to provide Club members with the most exquisite oils—relationships like this don’t happen over the phone.
A Happy Surprise
As Club members know, I deeply appreciate having international olive oil authority Duccio Morozzo della Rocca on so many of my olive oil hunts. Duccio is skilled in every aspect of making olive oil, from tree cultivation to the extraction process and, most meaningful for the Club, serves as my right hand in creating specific flavor profiles. Each quarter, our goal is to perfect a trio of oils that will dazzle you—we know how much you appreciate having a mild, a medium, and a bold oil to pair with different foods. The band of central Italy where we traveled this quarter is home to a vast number of microclimates, which help create diverse flavors even within the same olive variety. Our attention was focused on crafting exquisite custom blends with the help of master millers.
Plus, Duccio and I had a surprise for you up our collective sleeve: the debut of an amazing olive oil from northern Puglia, on the Adriatic—specifically, Fratelli Ruggiero, the farm of Nicola Ruggiero and his brother, Mario. Duccio and I began brainstorming months ago for a new way to tantalize your tastebuds, and we decided on Fratelli Ruggiero for multiple reasons, notably, the opportunity to work with a colleague of Duccio’s, Nicolangelo Marsicani. A master miller and olive oil impresario who often advises Nicola, Nicolangelo was particularly thrilled by a very special olive variety, Favolosa—“fabulous” in Italian. The Fratelli Ruggiero oil, our mild selection, more than lived up to the moniker.
Creating our first Fratelli Ruggiero olive oil was a collaboration of many talented millers—an all-star team that included Duccio Morozzo della Rocca (far left) and Nicolangelo Marsicani (fourth from left), along with visiting millers from Brazil and other parts of Italy eager to learn the art of crafting olive oil from the masters. Tasting together and comparing impressions as the new oil flows—look at that vibrant color!—is always a special moment for me.
And there’s much more deliciousness that awaits you: a spicy medium oil from Claudio Di Mercurio’s Frantoio Mercurius, with an artichoke profile and hints of green almond, and a vibrant bold oil from Colli Etruschi, the collective led by Nicola Fazzi, with its more almond profile and hints of raw artichoke—two oils from the same “flavor family” but with very different personalities.
Passion You Can Taste
Each frantoio (mill) has its own unique approach to olive cultivation, harvesting, and milling. What these have in common is the passion of the three men at the helms. Ask what drew them to making olive oil, and each will answer that it’s in their blood, that their earliest memories are of the intoxicating aroma of olio nuovo, “new oil,” of the way it elevated even the simplest meals. They also share a determination to keep their farms thriving in the face of a changing climate and to constantly upgrade their processes to obtain the best olives and rush them to the mill—and then to you—as quickly as possible. This level of dedication results in olive oils you will adore and reach for again and again. Enjoy them on your own favorite foods and in the recipes found below, where you’ll find not only regional dishes but also some of the producers’ family favorites, and two from Duccio himself!
Club members know how much I value the longstanding relationships I’ve developed with the top artisanal olive oil makers around the world. Yet I also delight in expanding our global community when the stars align and I find a new producer whose olive oil sends tingles down my spine and, more importantly, on my palate! It’s with great fanfare that I present the first ever Club selection from Fratelli Ruggiero. In fact, it represents a series of firsts: working with Nicola Ruggiero and his brother Mario, creating an Italian extra virgin olive oil made from Favolosa—“fabulous”—olives, and having it crafted to perfection by renowned master miller Nicolangelo Marsicani, who has been collaborating with Fratelli Ruggiero for many years.
A Modern-Day Renaissance Man
Over the course of his career, Nicola has been deeply involved in local politics and served as president of the first consortium of Italian olive growers—but don’t expect to find him sitting behind a desk. He’s as hands-on as any producer I’ve ever met, working alongside his team in the grove every day. Nicola, who grew up in the coastal city of Bari but whose parents were raised in the countryside near his main farm, is laser-focused on growing olives of the highest quality and is meticulous about every design detail: how far apart his trees are planted, the perfect symmetry of their rows, even edging sections of the field with herbs. And to protect the flavor of his beautiful olives, he makes sure they get from tree to mill in record time.
Nicola was prescient in his decision to plant hundreds of hectares of Favolosa olive trees. They’ve proven resistant to the Xylella bacteria that has now ravaged millions of other olive cultivars in Puglia. Favolosa was developed naturally as a drought- and disease-resistant variety in the 1980s by the late Giuseppe Fontanazza, scientist, director of the Institute of Research on Olive Growing of Perugia, and legend in the field of olive culture.
An Olive Oil Concerto
Once our amazing fruit arrived at the mill, it rested on Nicolangelo to turn it into amazing olive oil. With Nicolangelo, I’ve come full circle: he and I first met 10 years ago, at his farm in Cilento National Park in Campania. I had hoped to introduce his own oil to the Club in those early days—I loved the quality, but there just wasn’t enough of it. Also, he might have been a bit apprehensive back then about just who the “Olive Oil Hunter” was, but now he knows we share the same goal of creating the highest-quality olive oil and expanding the audience of people who appreciate it how superior it is to run-of-the-mill (pun intended) products.
Crafting an oil for the Club was a challenge Nicolangelo embraced. Favolosa was the hands-down varietal of choice, but he knew it had to satisfy our desire for a predominantly green-grass-and-tomato-leaf profile. One of his greatest skills is being able to tune Fratelli Ruggiero’s state-of-the-art milling machinery, just as a concert violinist tunes their instrument, to achieve just the right aromatic balance of bitterness, spiciness, and fruitiness.
Nicolangelo, whose appreciation for fresh olive oil was born as tantalizing aromas wafted up to his childhood bedroom above his family’s mill, has spent much of his career studying transformative ways of growing, harvesting, and milling olives to create as perfect an oil as possible. Like Nicola, he’s very specific about parameters: his own preference is to harvest olives early, when they’re green and have a 58% humidity content. That signals the right ratio of pulp, water, and oil inside the olive, essential to achieving the right aroma. Our Favolosa olives were harvested at that precise moment, and all their characteristics have been captured in the bottle you have before you.
Nicola orchestrated a lavish dinner at the famed Ai 2 Ghiottoni in Bari. We feasted on both raw and seared tuna, fish carpaccio, fried calamari, octopus salad, and the region’s signature dish, fave e cicoria (recipe below). To quote Bogart at the end of Casablanca, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Impressions and Recommended Food Pairings
This is a beautiful expression of the Favolosa olive, an exciting and complex mild olive oil. On the nose, it’s grassy, with notes of tomato leaf, celery leaf, kale, thyme, basil, oregano, wheatgrass, green banana, green apple, and cinnamon. A vegetable garden in a bottle and on the palate, we tasted fennel, green tomato, wheatgrass, sweet basil, baby spinach, celery, carrot tops, the sweetness of Asian pear, the bitterness of walnuts, and a hint of the spiciness of Szechuan peppercorns.
It will elevate insalata Torre a Cona and other greens; salads with fruit; Duccio’s pastina soup, tomato-based soups and pasta sauces; turkey involtini; filetto di pesce in crosta di patate and other delicate fish; spinach and squash lasagna; pizza; carrot, sweet potato, or squash dishes; Caprese salad and other mozzarella dishes; goat cheese; and crusty breads.
“When I get an email from America, I know it is from T. J.,” confided Claudio Di Mercurio. The gregarious leader of Frantoio Mercurius, Claudio not only received excited, inquiring emails from me throughout the growing season but also—for an unprecedented seventh year in a row—collaborated on another extraordinary ultra-premium EVOO for our Club.
How has this tiny, 60-acre family enterprise in central Italy’s Abruzzo region been able to sustain such an extended winning streak? I’d attribute it to a combination of artisanal vision, meticulous planning, geographical specificity, immeasurable sweat equity, and a rare Italian olive, native to Abruzzo, called Dritta.
Rhymes with Rita
I had never heard of Dritta when I first visited Claudio’s farm, in 2018. As the Olive Oil Hunter, it is part of my life’s mission to sample and savor as many of the earth’s hundreds of olive varieties as I can, at least 550 of which are indigenous to Italy. Dritta lives up to its name, which translates variously as “consistent, dependable, trustworthy.” Unlike most cultivars, which alternate between years of high production and low, Dritta bears fruit consistently each year. Claudio’s team grows Dritta on about 70% of the land, with the other 30% devoted to an array of Italian varietals. Frantoio Mercurius is nestled in a microclimate, protected from weather extremes by the Apennine mountains to its north and the Mediterranean to the east.
Delicioso! Graziella Di Mercurio graciously welcomed me and my Merry Band of Tasters into her wondrous cooking shed, an inner sanctum where I could have spent weeks, nibbling and emitting shouts of joy. To celebrate another brilliant collaboration between Frantoio Mercurius and the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, Graziella prepared a feast that featured a divine soup of pasta and borlotti beans in a light tomato broth and her signature pizza di scarola—try the recipe found below.
Heart of an Artisan, Mind of an Engineer
Claudio founded the operation in 2009 with the mission of creating ultra-premium EVOO. A systems engineer by trade, he consulted—before pressing a single drop—with the esteemed Italian olive mill manufacturer Giorgio Mori. It’s no surprise that Frantoio Mercurius operates a state-of-the-art Mori mill with a special knife crusher and a technologically advanced cooling system that keeps the olive paste at a low temperature, helping to preserve the aromas and polyphenols in the EVOO. Frantoio Mercurius brought Abruzzese olive oil into the 21st century, winning regional awards in its very first pressing season.
Claudio Di Mercurio proudly displays one of his farm’s many international awards. Frantoio Mercurius EVOOs consistently win top honors from prestigious olive oil guides Flos Olei and Gambero Rosso (Mill of the Year), among many others. Members of our Tasters’ Circle will recognize the traditional cobalt blue tasting glass.
The Embrace of Family and Food
When I and my Merry Band of Tasters arrived for the recent harvest, we were thrilled that Claudio and his sister Graziella extended an invitation for us to visit their family home, up in the mountains. In the late 1950s, Claudio explained, his father traveled to the US and worked in New York for a period, earning enough money to purchase land in Abruzzo upon his return. The Di Mercurios’ home took several years to build; they moved in when Claudio was six, in 1970.
What a joy it was to stroll the narrow, medieval-era streets of Appignano. And, oh mio Dio—the food! I knew Graziella was an outstanding cook, but witnessing her cooking shed, with gigantic pasta pots and wood ovens, and dining in her kitchen, surrounded by jars of fresh tomato passata, beauteous heirloom beans, a giant platter of foraged porcini mushrooms, and strings of dried pepperoncini—it was as though I had died and gone to heaven.
You may feel similarly transported when you taste this incredible exclusive Club selection. Initially, we had planned on a single-varietal Dritta, but when Claudio brought out samples of just-pressed Raggia, another rare local varietal, we discovered that a tiny amount of it fine-tuned the complexity and food-friendliness for a harmonious blend. From Abruzzo to your table, buon appetito!
Impressions and Recommended Food Pairings
The unique union of Dritta and Raggia
olives joins two distinct personalities that
enhance each other. We inhaled artichoke,
dark leafy greens, radicchio, sweet hay, dark
chocolate, and the sweetness of hazelnuts
with a touch of pear and wild mint. On the
palate, we again noted artichoke as well as
spinach and dandelion greens, fresh walnuts
and hazelnuts, the spiciness of celery leaves
with hints of rosemary and nasturtium, and a
persistent bitterness reminiscent of cacao nibs.
Lavish this oil on salads with nuts, Graziella’s pizza di scarola and focaccia, ancient grains like farro and spelt, brown rice, fave e cicoria, borlotti and other deeply hued beans, braised dark greens, roasted artichokes, shellfish and squid, beef dishes, pasta in walnut cream, recipes with nutmeg, breakfast smoothies, and brownies and other chocolate desserts.
Enthusiastic early reports from my scouts made me excited about collaborating once again with Nicola Fazzi and the historic cooperative Colli Etruschi, in the central Italian town of Blera. Veteran Club members will recall that we featured glorious EVOOs from this award-winning co-op in 2022 and 2019. Yet, whenever I’d touch base with Nicola about how the season was going, he’d respond only with an affirmative but tempered, “Good.”
My own tendency is to reach for superlatives when they’re deserved, but I know why he was cautious. Earlier this season, Colli Etruschi invested in a brand-new, state-of-the-art olive mill—and, as when a professional musician switches instruments or a race-car driver changes cars, Nicola was hesitant to pronounce it a successful upgrade until he had the proof in hand.
Now, my lucky Club member, you have the proof in hand, this sensational single-varietal Canino—the first official pressing from Colli Etruschi’s beautiful new Haus mill (Haus is a forward-thinking Turkish manufacturer). As soon as my Merry Band of Tasters and I had a hint of this liquid gold on our tastebuds, the unanimous cry was, “We’ve gotta have this oil!” Immediately, Nicola became more animated—it was as though he had been holding his breath, waiting for our approval. His excitement bloomed, and he proudly proclaimed this one of the best oils in his three decades with the co-op.
I was thrilled to learn that Nicola Fazzi’s son, Alessandro, is following in his father’s footsteps at Colli Etruschi. With more than three decades of hands-on experience, Nicola is a font of wisdom and insight earned at Lazio’s most esteemed mill, at the intersection of community involvement and artisanal excellence.
Local Heroes
Colli Etruschi was founded in 1965 by 18
local olive farmers who recognized that, with a cooperative model and shared mill, they could combine their talents, labor, and fruit to support one another through both bumper crops and lean harvests. When Nicola entered its ranks, 33 years ago, fresh out of agronomy school, he saw an opportunity to intensify the focus on quality and market the co-op’s EVOO commercially. Now, Colli Etruschi involves hundreds of small-scale olive farmers and continues its multifaceted mission to produce excellent olive oil, pay its members a living wage, practice sustainable agriculture, and give back to the community.
A Community of Excellence
Today, Nicola’s daughter, Isabella, works for the co-op in communications and marketing, and his son, Alessandro, is dedicated to rehabilitating a local grove of abandoned olive trees. Nicola, born in Blera, looks forward to retiring “in
about 10 years.” Meanwhile, his innovations
never cease: with the new mill, Colli Etruschi
can prioritize early-harvest pressing of green
olives (my preference, as Club members know,
for optimizing flavors and polyphenols). I felt
like a kid in a candy shop in the late afternoon,
as farmers delivered bushels, baskets, and bins of
just-picked, perfectly shaped, light-green olives,
kilos and kilos of them, which would be rushed
to the mill, cold-washed, and pressed into the
golden-green elixir I have delivered to you.
Nicola prizes the herbaceous complexity of
this oil, a blend of several separate pressings of
Canino olives. This robust, gorgeously aromatic
blend radiates dimension and personality greater
than the sum of its parts.
Both small and large Canino variations yield excellent EVOO, but the larger fruit creates oils with a more vibrant flavor profile. Colli Etruschi reserves it for ultra-premium EVOO. “Most is for T. J.,” Nicola confides. At right: Alessandro and I consolidate the deliveries of this magnificent fruit to be transported, moments later, to the mill.
Impressions and Recommended Food Pairings
A vibrant, full-flavored crowd-pleaser, the
aroma of this Canino is beautifully grassy, with
notes of chopped culinary herbs, sweet almond,
fennel, mint, and whiffs of lemon, vanilla, and
arugula. We tasted the sweetness of almond
with the spiciness of arugula and white pepper,
the intense bitterness of radicchio, and hints of
green apple and microgreens, with a lingering
spicy finish.
This oil pairs beautifully with chicken cacciatore alla Romana, carpaccio, tuna and other meaty fish, octopus, risottos, beans, winter soups and braises, roasted root vegetables, wild mushrooms, roasted radicchio, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, celery leaf bruschetta and other bruschetta toppings, roasted radicchio, porchetta spread, aged cheeses, millefoglie two ways, vanilla ice cream, and yogurt parfaits.
*See the recipe section below for bolded dishes.
Olive Oil and Health
Kudos from Club Members
Instead of flowers, send oil! TJ, I just want to let you know I just received my bottle. I opened it and took a spoonful right away even though it’s only 8:30 in the morning, but I didn’t care, I had to taste it. And you are right, it is amazing! I will be sending your oils as gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving, and Christmas instead of flowers. Because your olive oil has the perfect bouquet! Thank you so much for caring enough to make perfection.
Laura H.St Louis, MO
So healthy and delicious You, and the Band Of Merry Tasters, have spoiled me on olive oil FOREVER! I can no longer stomach the bulk cans I used to buy. I take spoonfuls of straight oil as a treat! It is so healthy and delicious, I go through my order in a fraction of the time before the next installment. You have ruined me! While I prefer the stronger varieties, the milder ones are still better than anything I’ve had before. Like fresh maple syrup, fresh olive oil nourishes the whole being. Many thanks (you rascal!)
Tim F.Surry, ME
Fantastic oils! Fantastic oils! Just writing to say how much I’m learning and enjoying the recipes and tasting of all of the oils. The Italian oils are amazing! My husband and I look forward to buying fresh sourdough bread and tasting our oils when they come. I’m trying the Pumpkin Risotto…and I have a few others highlighted as well. We just love the stories about the people who produce the oils and the adventures that come from procuring these for your Club members. This has been a really fun club to belong to.
Julie D.Eagle, WI
I love you, Olive Oil Hunter! I can’t begin to describe how much I love being a member of the Olive Oil Hunter’s Club. My husband and I are vegetarians and salads are a staple part of our lives. These incredibly flavorful and delicious olive oils are a mainstay in our meals. My father had
an olive ranch in Northern California when I was a child, so the taste of real olive oil, tasting like real olives, is a part of my DNA. Over the years I have despaired because olive oils have become no more than the equivalent of barely digestible engine oil.
When the first batch of olive oil arrived, I seriously almost wept. No olive oil sold in stores these days anywhere—and I mean ANYWHERE—can compare in flavor or aroma as these small-ranch pure olive oils. We so look forward to when our oil shipment arrives. We set it up to taste-test, and then as I prepare dinner, my husband reads to me the description and background information the Olive Oil Hunter writes for each olive oil that he offers, so we know exactly what we’re getting, from where, and by whom. This olive oil subscription is the best thing I’ve discovered in a long, long time! I love you, Olive Oil Hunter!
Alexis H.Santa Fe, NM
Loyal members The Italian oils you recently sent us are our second delivery from you. We’ll be loyal members ever onward! I thank you especially for the Pressing Report: you write humanly and humanely. Rather than a corporate presentation, you bring us to the people, trees, and soil, with all of their ecological and life-continuing concerns. I truly thank you for this enthusiastic, informative, and multifaceted report.
Cynthia W.Milton-Freewater, OR
Sip it straight from the bottle! I just want to let you know how awesome the olive oil is that I received! One taste and I literally felt like I could just stand there and sip it straight from the bottle! I put it over my fresh cantaloupe sprinkled with a little sea salt and WOW! That might not seem like it would taste very good but it is delicious. It tastes delicious on anything! I’m so glad to be a club member and I’m looking forward to the next bottle!
Cherilyn B.Findlay, OH
The Best Oils The best oils I’ve found. Been a member for years. They are SO FRESH, I haven’t found any that can compare.
Red B.Sebrig, FL
Quality! Even if you buy the most expensive olive oils in the best stores in Manhattan, you can’t get your hands on olive oil of this quality!
Ken McCarthyTivoli, NY
My wife melted My wife was super skeptical when our first shipment arrived … and then we dipped some fresh Italian bread into one of the oils and OMG she melted. TOTALLY sold. Love the club and really enjoy the “newspaper” too. Thank you.
David P.Hollis Center, ME
Better than wine! WOW. Just got my introductory bottle – Cladium. I have already joined the club and am looking forward to trying the trio that will be sent, but I am unable to imagine an olive oil as good as the Cladium. Can additional bottles be ordered? All my meals are centered around this oil. Never, never knew olive oil could be this good. Better than wine!!!! Really.
A silken purée of fava beans served alongside braised wild chicory is another Pugliese classic, one we enjoyed at Ai 2 Ghiottoni in Bari with the folks from Fratelli Ruggiero. While it’s possible to find fava beans (dried or frozen) in the US, wild chicory is elusive—dandelion greens are a great stand-in and available at many greengrocers. Note: This recipe includes directions for soaking and peeling the skin from dried favas, but some purveyors sell them already peeled—you might see them labeled as broad beans. If you love chickpeas, they make a tasty substitute.
Ingredients
12 ounces dried fava beans
6 garlic cloves, divided use
1 bay leaf
1 pound chicory or dandelion greens
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt, divided use
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use, plus more for drizzling
1 teaspoon pepperoncini (crushed red pepper flakes), or to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Step 1
Soak the fava beans in a large bowl of cold water overnight. They will triple in size. Drain and rinse them, then peel off their skins with your fingernails (some beans will have a crack, which makes the job easier; for those that don’t, use the tip of a paring knife to make a slit to start you off).
Step 2
Place the peeled favas in a large pot with enough cold water to cover them by 2 inches. Smash 3 garlic cloves with the side of a heavy knife and add to the pot along with the bay leaf. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until tender, about an hour.
Step 3
While the beans are cooking, make the greens. Trim the stems as needed, rinse the leaves, and boil them in a large pot of water with 1 teaspoon salt until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain.
Step 4
Mince the remaining 3 garlic cloves. Heat a frying pan. When hot, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, the pepperoncini, and smashed garlic, cook for 2 minutes, then add the greens and cook through; keep warm on the stove.
Step 5
When the beans are done, drain them well and transfer to a food processor or high-powered blender. Add in 4 tablespoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon each salt and black pepper and process until smooth and velvety. If the purée is too thin, transfer to a saucepan and place over medium heat to thicken.
Step 6
For each serving, plate a large spoonful of fava purée alongside some of the greens and drizzle both liberally with olive oil.
This is the second family recipe Duccio shared with the Club. Considered a “white” cacciatore because it doesn’t have tomatoes, this one-pot prep was traditionally used for making rabbit. It is succulent and flavorful. Taggiasca olives are available in some gourmet food shops and online; you can also substitute your favorite fruity brined olives.
Ingredients
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
One 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 to 10 pieces
6 garlic cloves, smashed
12 ounces white wine, such as a dry pinot grigio (unoaked)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup Taggiasca olives, drained
4 large rosemary sprigs, or to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
4 sage leaves, chopped
Directions
Step 1
Heat a Dutch oven large enough to hold the chicken pieces. When quite hot, add the olive oil and chicken pieces, skin side down, and sear until well browned, about 8 minutes. Flip the pieces with tongs and sear for 3 minutes, adding the garlic after 1 minute. Add the wine and cook it down at a high boil for about 5 minutes. Add 10 grinds of a pepper mill and the salt. Lower heat to a simmer, cover the pan, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Step 2
With the lid off, add the water and olives; simmer for 2 minutes. Add the herbs and toss, cook for 2 minutes, then add vinegar and simmer until sauce thickens, about 5 more minutes.
This recipe was inspired by a pasta dish my Merry Band of Tasters and I enjoyed at Dal Sor Francesco, a restaurant in Vetralla near the Colli Etruschi mill that we try to visit every year. We arrived at the height of fresh walnut season and saw the nuts everywhere. Walnut sauce is actually a specialty of Liguria, a region in northern Italy, where it’s prepared in a pesto style. My version is a bit creamier but still takes only a few minutes to make.
Ingredients
8 ounces fusilli or other spiral-shaped pasta
1 cup shelled walnuts
1 garlic clove
1 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Optional garnish: freshly grated nutmeg
Directions
Step 1
Cook the pasta according to package directions. While it’s boiling, heat a large frying pan. When the pan is hot, add the walnuts and toast until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Reserve and coarsely chop 1/4 cup of the toasted walnuts. Add the rest of the walnuts and the garlic to a food processor and process until finely chopped, about 30 seconds. Add in the half-and-half, olive oil, and cheese, and pulse until you get a sauce. Transfer the sauce to the frying pan and heat to a simmer.
Step 2
Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and drain the rest. Add the pasta, salt, and pepper to the frying pan, and toss well. If the sauce is too thick, add pasta water, 1 tablespoon at a time (it shouldn’t be runny). Garnish with the reserved walnuts and a sprinkle of nutmeg, if desired.
Millefoglie, the Italian version of the French millefeuille, is extremely popular throughout the country. For chocolate lovers, I’m including a variation made with thin layers of chocolate in place of the puff pastry. Both get filled with a rich and creamy sweet cheese filling. The filling ingredients yield enough for either 8 pastry or 8 chocolate millefoglie; if you’re making both, double the quantities of the filling ingredients.
Ingredients
For the puff pastry layers:
All-purpose flour
1 package frozen puff pastry, about 14 ounces, thawed as directed on the label
For the chocolate layers:
12 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
For the cream filling:
12 ounces mascarpone, room temperature
8 ounces whole milk ricotta
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Optional garnish: fresh berries
Directions
Step 1
For the puff pastry layers: Heat the oven to 425°F. Lightly flour a 18×15 piece of parchment paper and a rolling pin. Unfold the thawed dough on the parchment. Roll out the dough to a 16×12 rectangle. Cut the dough into 24 equal rectangles, about 2×4 each. Slip a cookie sheet under the parchment. Add a little space between the rectangles and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Remove from the fridge and bake until the pastries puff and turn golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool to room temperature before assembling.
Step 2
For the chocolate layers: Draw a 16×12 rectangle on a long piece of parchment, flip it over, and place on a cookie sheet; set aside. Place the chocolate pieces and olive oil in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 40 percent power for 3 minutes; repeat if not fully melted, checking every minute. Stir until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate on the parchment and, using a long offset spatula, spread it out to the edges of the drawn border. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to slightly firm it, then use a very sharp chef’s knife to cut it into 24 equal rectangles, about 2×4 each.
Step 3
For the cream filling: Whip all the ingredients in a mixer or food processor until smooth and thick. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a 1-inch round tip, or simply fill a quart-size freezer bag and snip off one of the corners to pipe.
Step 4
To assemble, pipe two rows of dots of cream on each of 8 pieces of chocolate or puff pastry, top each with another piece of chocolate or puff pastry, pipe again, then top with a third piece of chocolate or puff pastry. Use a small strainer to dust the tops with confectioner’s sugar. Garnish with berries if desired.
This dish is a celebration showstopper with ingredients that reflect the colors of the Italian flag. The key is to have your butcher debone and butterfly a large, fresh turkey breast, leaving the skin on, and then to pound it to an even thickness for easier rolling.
Ingredients
1 small yellow onion, about 4 ounces
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup pine nuts
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use
12 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed, patted dry, and coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon each coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, divided use
1 whole boneless, skin-on turkey breast, butterflied and pounded to about 1/2-inch thickness
8 ounces sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped
12 ounces fontina cheese, coarsely grated
Directions
Step 1
Finely chop the onions and garlic in a food processor or by hand; set aside briefly. Heat a large frying pan. When hot, dry-toast the pine nuts for 2 minutes until they turn golden, then transfer to a small bowl and set aside. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the hot frying pan, then add the onions and garlic and sauté until soft but not brown, about 3 minutes. Start adding spinach to the pan by the handful, adding more as each batch cooks down. Add 1/3 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and keep cooking until the liquid from the spinach evaporates, about 8 minutes (press the spinach against the sides of the pan with a large wooden spoon to release more liquid). Take the pan off the stove and let the spinach cool slightly, then roll it up in a clean kitchen towel to squeeze out any add remaining liquid.
Step 2
Heat the oven to 350°F. Drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil across a rimmed sheet pan. Prep a countertop surface with a large piece of parchment paper. Place the turkey, skin side down, on the parchment and sprinkle with another 1/3 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, then top with an even layer of the sun-dried tomatoes, leaving a 1-inch border. Sprinkle the cheese over the tomatoes, then spread the spinach mixture over the cheese. Top with the pine nuts.
Step 3
Starting on the long side nearest to you, roll up the turkey, tucking in the filling as you roll. Use cotton kitchen twine to tie up the roll at 2-inch intervals to help it hold its shape. If needed, use bamboo skewers to hold the ends closed. Carefully transfer the turkey roll to the sheet pan, seam side down. Rub the final 1/3 teaspoon of salt and pepper over the skin, then drizzle the roll with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and place in the oven to roast.
Step 4
The turkey is done when an instant-read thermometer registers 160°F and the skin has browned; start checking after 60 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes, then snip and discard the twine and any skewers. To serve, cut into generous slices.
This is a flavorful meatless take on traditional lasagna. Many markets now sell fresh lasagna sheets or boxes of “no-boil” dry lasagna sheets that soften while cooking, thanks to the moisture from other ingredients.
Ingredients
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use, plus more for drizzling
2 pounds whole squash or 1 3/4 pounds precut chunks
Freshly ground black pepper
Fine sea salt
3/4 pound fresh or 1 pound dry regular or no-boil lasagna sheets
16 ounces whole milk ricotta
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, divided use
Pinch of pepperoncini (crushed red pepper flakes), plus more to taste
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, or to taste
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage, about 3 large leaves
2 garlic cloves, grated on a microplane
1 pound fresh spinach, rinsed, patted dry, and coarsely chopped
6 ounces fontina, grated, about 1 3/4 cups
Directions
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 9×13 baking dish and spread it over the bottom and sides with a pastry brush or clean fingers; set aside.
Step 2
Peel the squash as needed and cut into a small dice, about 1/4 inch in thickness. Toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 10 grinds of a pepper mill, and 1 teaspoon salt. Roast in a rimmed sheet pan for 20 minutes, just until a sharp knife pierces a few pieces with barely any resistance. Cool slightly and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Step 3
Complete the following steps while the squash is roasting. If using regular dried lasagna sheets, cook them according to package directions for al dente, drain, rinse with cool water to stop the cooking process and make them easier to handle, and set aside.
Step 4
In a large bowl, mix the ricotta, eggs, 1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, pepperoncini, nutmeg, and sage; set aside.
Step 5
Heat a large frying pan. When hot, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and the garlic, then start adding spinach to the pan by the handful, adding more as each batch cooks down. Keep cooking until the liquid from the spinach evaporates, about 8 minutes (press the spinach against the sides of the pan with a large wooden spoon to release more liquid). Take the pan off the stove and let the spinach cool slightly, then roll it up in a clean kitchen towel to squeeze out any add remaining liquid. Add to the bowl with the squash and combine.
Step 6
Lower the oven temperature to 350°F. Place a layer of lasagna sheets in the prepared baking dish, spread on 1/3 of the cheese mixture, then 1/3 of the squash mixture; sprinkle on 1/2 cup fontina and 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano. Repeat that sequence twice more, then top with the rest of the fontina and a drizzle of olive oil.
Step 7
Bake for 45 minutes until the cheese is bubbly (if you’d like it more browned, place under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes). Let it cool slightly before cutting into squares, dressing each one with a drizzle of olive oil.
This escarole-stuffed pizza is one of the many delicious dishes that Graziella Di Mercurio cooked for us after our visit to the family mill, Frantoio Mercurius. I’ve included her dough recipe, but the results are just as flavorful when prepared with refrigerated store-bought pizza dough—you’ll need about 2 pounds.
Ingredients
For homemade dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water, about 110°F
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use
4 cups 00 pizza flour or bread flour
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
For the filling:
1 1/2 pounds escarole, about two heads
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons pine nuts
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use
4 shallots, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 anchovies or 2 teaspoons anchovy paste
4 ounces black olives, halved
1 tablespoon capers
1 teaspoon pepperoncini (crushed red pepper flakes)
Directions
Step 1
To make homemade dough, place the water, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the kneading attachment and wait for the yeast to bloom (become foamy), about 5 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil, the flour, and salt, and turn the mixer on low to combine the ingredients and form a ball. If the dough looks shaggy, add water, just 1/2 tablespoon at a time to avoid its getting too wet. Once a ball forms, raise the speed one notch and knead for 5 minutes.
Step 2
Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil in a clean bowl, add the dough ball, and roll it to coat it with the oil. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and place in a draft-free spot to rise until double in volume, between 60 and 75 minutes.
Step 3
While the dough is rising, prepare the escarole filling. Trim the heads and rinse the leaves. Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add 1 teaspoon salt and the escarole and boil for 5 minutes. Transfer the escarole to a colander, drain, and squeeze out any excess moisture with your hands or in a kitchen cloth.
Step 4
Heat a large sauté pan. When hot, dry-toast the pine nuts for 2 minutes until they turn golden, then transfer to a small bowl and set aside. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil to the pan along with the shallots and garlic, and sauté for 2 minutes. Whisk in the anchovies, then add the escarole, and slow-cook over medium high heat for 10 minutes to extract more liquid. When the greens stop releasing liquid, fold in the pine nuts, olives, capers, and pepperoncini, then remove from the heat.
Step 5
When the dough has risen, pour 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 9×13 or 12-inch round baking pan and spread it over the bottom and sides with a pastry brush or clean fingers. Use a pastry cutter or sharp knife to cut the dough in two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Use your hands to stretch out the larger half to a size slightly larger than your baking pan—the thinner the better (make two fists and use your knuckles on the underside of the dough). Press the dough into the bottom of the pan and about 1 inch up the sides. Add the escarole mixture, leaving a 1-inch border. Stretch out the rest of the dough and place it over the escarole to form the top crust. Press together the edges of the two dough sheets to seal them. Note: If any holes form in the dough, just pinch them together with your fingers.
Step 6
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is crusty and golden or an instant-read thermometer registers between 200° and 210°F. Serve warm or at room temperature.
While we waited for the magic window for harvesting, My Merry Band of Tasters and I rented a house in Toscana where we could create recipes for this Pressing Report. Duccio shared two of his favorites, including this comforting broth enriched with cheese and olive oil.
Ingredients
2 medium carrots, trimmed, peeled, and cut into large chunks
1 large celery stalk, trimmed and cut into chunks
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1 medium tomato, quartered
4 fresh flat-leaf parsley springs
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt, plus more to taste
20 black peppercorns
8 ounces pastina, stars, orzo, or other tiny pasta
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated, plus more to taste
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Directions
Step 1
Place the carrots, celery, onions, tomato, and parsley in a stockpot with the water, salt, and peppercorns. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. With the lid ajar, continue to cook at a low boil for 45 minutes.
Step 2
Strain the broth to remove the vegetables, parsley, and peppercorns. Return the broth to the pot and bring it back to a boil. Add the pastina and cook until tender, about 5 minutes, stirring often; don’t overcook the pasta. Taste and season with more salt and pepper as desired.
Step 3
To serve, ladle into four bowls and top with equal amounts of cheese, stirring it into the broth. Drizzle liberally with olive oil.
Vietnamese-Style Cucumber Salad Recipe, Spotlight on Cucumbers, Keeping Diabetes in Check, Plus Exercise to Curb Appetite
With the year-round availability of cucumbers, it’s always time for cucumber salad! Fresh-pressed olive oil is a wonderful addition to Asian ingredients, as you’ll taste with this bountiful veggie bowl—it’s a great way to get healthier-eating plans off the ground. Need help curbing appetite? A study I’m sharing suggests exercise intensity can help. Plus here’s what you need to know about the negative effects of ultra-processed foods on blood sugar control.
Vietnamese-Style Cucumber Salad
Healthy Ingredient Spotlight
Cukes!
Whether you choose the ubiquitous American garden cucumber or opt for a thinner variety, like short Persian or long English cucumbers, cukes are extremely versatile, often taking on the flavors of the other ingredients in a recipe. Very low in calories, cucumbers can fill you up and help you stayed hydrated, thanks to their high water content. They also make perfect dippers for salsa, guac, and more. Keep on the peel to get maximum nutrients, notably vitamin K, along with small amounts of vitamin C, potassium, calcium, and fiber.
Commercially grown garden cucumbers are typically treated with an edible wax to keep them from drying out. It’s possible to scrub some of it off with a food brush, but if it keeps you from eating the nutrient-rich peel, buy unwaxed cukes at farmers’ markets or opt for one of the thin varieties, typically sold unwaxed but often shrink-wrapped to protect them.
Quick Kitchen Nugget
Cucumber Prep
Cucumber seeds are rich in nutrients, so they should be eaten. But the larger the cucumber, the more bitter the seeds can taste. If you want to remove them for a recipe, the simplest tool to use is a spoon, preferably a grapefruit spoon. Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise, then run the tip of the spoon from one end to the other to remove the seeds in long strips. Rather than discard them, you can save them, refrigerated, to add to your next smoothie.
For Your Best Health
Keeping Diabetes in Check
There’s no end to the warnings about the perils of a diet high in ultra-processed foods, from sodas and packaged snacks to even certain types of sugar-sweetened yogurt. Recent studies have found links to higher rates of cardiovascular disease, obesity, sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, and even early death. New research n ultra-pprocessed foods done at the University of Texas (UT) and published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics should be of particular concern to the millions of Americans managing type 2 diabetes.
The study used baseline data from an ongoing clinical trial called Texas Strength Through Resilience in Diabetes Education (TX STRIDE), led by Mary Steinhardt in UT’s College of Education. Participants included 273 African American adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and recruited through Austin-area churches. Each participant provided two 24-hour diet recalls and a blood sample to measure HbA1C, a snapshot of blood sugar control over the past three months
“There are a lot of ways to look at and measure healthy eating,” said Marissa Burgermaster, PhD, assistant professor of nutritional sciences and senior author of the paper. “We set out to see which measurement was associated with blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes. We found that the more ultra-processed foods by weight in a person’s diet, the worse their blood sugar control was, and the more minimally processed or unprocessed foods in a person’s diet, the better their control was.” Also, eating more ultra-processed correleated to higher HbA1C levels while eating fewer ultra-processed correleated to lower HbA1C levels. Having an HbA1C below 7 is considered ideal for people with type 2 diabetes, and people who consumed, on average, 18% or fewer of their grams of food from ultra-processed foods were more likely to meet this mark.
Ultra-processed foods are typically higher in added sugars and sodium, but the researchers concluded that the HbA1C increases they saw were not about merely added sugar and sodium, or they would have correlated with the typical tools that measure overall nutritional quality in the diet. Synthetic flavors, added colors, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners, and other artificial ingredients may be in part to blame, hypothesized Erin Hudson, a graduate student and co-author of the paper, and this would suggest that dietary guidelines may need to begin placing more emphasis on ultra-processed foods and its additives.
Fitness Flash
Exercise to Curb Appetite
A vigorous workout does more to suppress hunger levels in healthy adults than does moderate exercise, and women in particular may benefit from this response, according to a small study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society that examined the effects of exercise intensity on ghrelin levels and appetite in men and women. Ghrelin is nicknamed “the hunger hormone” because it’s associated with perceptions of hunger. It’s also been shown to have wide-ranging biological effects in areas including energy balance, glucose homeostasis, immune function, sleep, and memory.
“We found that high-intensity exercise suppressed ghrelin levels more than moderate-intensity exercise,” said lead author Kara Anderson, PhD, of the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville. “In addition, we found that individuals felt ‘less hungry’ after high-intensity exercise compared to moderate-intensity exercise.”
Ghrelin circulates in acylated (AG) and deacylated (DAG) forms, which are known to affect appetite. Data on the impact of exercise intensity on AG and DAG levels, and their effects on appetite, is sparse and primarily limited to men, the study noted. To address this shortfall, the study examined eight men and six women. Participants fasted overnight, completed exercises of varying intensity levels that were determined by measurements of blood lactate, and then self-reported measurements of appetite.
The women had higher levels of total ghrelin at baseline compared with the men, yet demonstrated “significantly reduced AG” following the intense exercise, according to the findings. The researchers found that “moderate intensity either did not change ghrelin levels or led to a net increase.” This suggests that exercise above the lactate threshold “may be necessary to elicit a suppression in ghrelin.”
“Exercise should be thought of as a ‘drug,’ where the ‘dose’ should be customized based on an individual’s personal goals,” Dr. Anderson said. “Our research suggests that high-intensity exercise may be important for appetite suppression, which can be particularly useful as part of a weight loss program.” The researchers also acknowledged that more work is needed to determine the extent to which the effects of exercise differ by gender.
The MIND Diet for Brain Health: More Benefits of Olive Oil
According to a new study from researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and The Robert Butler Columbia Aging Center, a very specific brain-boosting diet has been linked to reduced dementia risk and a slower pace of aging. The study, “Diet, Pace of Biological Aging, and Risk of Dementia in the Framingham Heart Study,” published in the Annals of Neurology, also explains how the diet helps slow down the processes of biological aging.
“Much attention to nutrition in dementia research focuses on the way specific nutrients affect the brain,” said Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology and a senior author of the study. “We tested the hypothesis that healthy diet protects against dementia by slowing down the body’s overall pace of biological aging.”
The researchers used data from the second generation of the Framingham Heart Study, the Offspring Cohort. Participants were 60 years of age or older and free of dementia and had available dietary, epigenetic, and follow-up data. Follow-up was done at nine examinations, approximately every 4 to 7 years, which included a physical exam, lifestyle-related questionnaires, blood sampling, and, starting in 1991, neurocognitive testing. Of 1,644 participants included in the analyses, 140 developed dementia.
To measure the pace of aging, the researchers used an epigenetic clock called DunedinPACE developed by Dr. Belsky and colleagues at Duke University and the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. The clock measures how fast a person’s body is deteriorating as they grow older, “like a speedometer for the biological processes of aging,” explained Dr. Belsky.
“We have some strong evidence that a healthy diet can protect against dementia,” said Yian Gu, PhD, associate professor of neurological sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the other senior author of the study, “but the mechanism of this protection is not well understood.” Past research linked both diet and dementia risk to an accelerated pace of biological aging. “Testing the hypothesis that multi-system biological aging is a mechanism of underlying diet-dementia associations was the logical next step,” explained Dr. Belsky.
The research determined that higher adherence to the MIND diet slowed the pace of aging as measured by DunedinPACE and reduced risks for dementia and mortality. Furthermore, slower DunedinPACE accounted for 27% of the diet-dementia association and 57% of the diet-mortality association.
“Our findings suggest that slower pace of aging mediates part of the relationship of healthy diet with reduced dementia risk, and therefore, monitoring pace of aging may inform dementia prevention,” said first author Aline Thomas, PhD, of the Columbia Department of Neurology and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain. “However, a portion of the diet-dementia association remains unexplained, therefore we believe that continued investigation of brain-specific mechanisms in well-designed mediation studies is warranted.”
“We suggest that additional observational studies be conducted to investigate direct associations of nutrients with brain aging, and if our observations are also confirmed in more diverse populations, monitoring biological aging may indeed inform dementia prevention,” noted Dr. Belsky.
Exactly What Is the MIND Diet?
MIND is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, tailored to reflect key findings from nutrition and dementia research. It details serving sizes of specific foods to focus on and which to limit, primarily those high in saturated fat, which is known to negatively affect brain health.
Foods and portions to eat every day: 1/2 to 1 cup green leafy vegetables, 1/2 cup other vegetables, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, and three 1-ounce servings of whole grains.
Foods and portions to eat over the course of each week: 5 ounces nuts, 2-1/2 cups berries, 1-1/2 cups legumes, two 3-to-5-ounce servings of skinless poultry, and 3-to-5 ounces fish.
Foods to limit to these weekly totals: three or fewer 3-to-5-ounce servings of red and processed meats, 1 ounce whole-fat cheese, 1 fried or fast food, and 4 sweet servings. If desired, no more than 1 teaspoon of butter or stick of margarine a day.
Mini Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies Recipe, For Your Best Health: The Mediterranean Diet (Still No. 1)
Among the most important news items I share in this newsletter are results of scientific studies on the benefits of olive oil and, in a larger context, the Mediterranean diet. I love to report on research that shows how this way of eating—and living—has positive impacts on heart and brain health and can help ward off serious chronic diseases including diabetes and dementia.
It’s also rewarding to see how the diet has been adopted here in the US and how many of our esteemed institutions, such as the American Heart Association and the Cleveland Clinic, recommend it. An annual survey that so many people appreciate reading is the U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of dietary plans or “Best Diets.” And for the seventh year in a row the Mediterranean diet triumphs in the top spot. I’ll detail the highlights of the magazine’s reasoning right after this delicious recipe for cookies you can enjoy guilt-free—in moderation, of course.
With a minimal amount of sugar, these cookies pack all the heart-healthy benefits of nuts, a key food—along with extra virgin olive oil—of the Mediterranean diet. Though sweets are the smallest food group on the Mediterranean diet food pyramid, we know that an occasional treat can help us stay on track with this healthful way of eating. This recipe shows that you don’t have to make huge sacrifices to enjoy it.
Ingredients
1 cup shelled pistachios
1-1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
1/4 cup raspberry or apricot all-fruit (no sugar added) preserves, such as Polaner or St. Dalfour
Directions
Step 1
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper. Use a spice or coffee bean grinder to pulverize the pistachios (you may need to do this is batches). Transfer to a large bowl along with the almond flour and sugar, and mix thoroughly.
Step 2
In a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites and salt at a low speed until frothy, then increase the speed and beat until you get soft peaks. Briefly whip in the olive oil and the extracts. Fold the whites into the nut mixture with a large spatula until fully combined. The dough will be very firm.
Step 3
Using a 1-inch ice cream scoop or melon baller, make dough balls and evenly space them on the parchment-lined pans. Use your thumb to make an indentation in the top of each cookie, flattening the centers and then filling each with a half-teaspoon or so of preserves.
Step 4
Bake just until set, about 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Wait 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a rack to cool. When completely cooled, store in an airtight tin.
Yields about 44 cookies
For Your Best Health
The Mediterranean Diet: Still No. 1
According to the U.S. News & World Report 2024 rankings, created in partnership with The Harris Poll and with input from a panel of leading health experts, the Mediterranean diet has once again taken the No. 1 spot in the Best Diets Overall category, thanks to its focus on diet quality and primarily plant-based foods. The Mediterranean diet also claimed the top spot in the categories Best Diets for Diabetes, Best Heart-Healthy Diets, Easiest Diets to Follow, Best Diets for Bone and Joint Health, Best Family-Friendly Diets, and Best Diets for Healthy Eating, and the No. 2 spot in the Best Weight Loss Diets and the Best Plant-Based Diets categories.
One of the reasons it’s both adoptable and adaptable is that there are so many cuisines to choose from when looking for recipes. Dishes that are popular in Turkey and Greece will offer different tastes than those from Italy, France, or Spain or from Morocco and other North African countries. But the unifying elements are the same: the emphasis on vegetables, fruits, extra virgin olive oil, nuts, whole grains, legumes, herbs, spices, and other plant-based foods that leave you feeling satisfied; minimal food processing; and a convivial atmosphere in the kitchen and at the table.
The Mediterranean diet also ranks high for what it leaves out:saturated fat, added sugars, and excess salt—all so prevalent in the typical American diet and so likely to leave you wanting more because foods with a low-nutrient profile are not truly satisfying. Eating them regularly also poses health risks. Eating a Mediterranean-style diet, on the other hand, translates to a longer life, a higher quality of life, and a lower risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, dementia, and heart disease.
The Mediterranean diet food pyramid is a great way to visualize the foods to focus on and how often to eat them. Whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit, and olive oil make up most of your daily intake. Seafood can be enjoyed a few times a week; animal proteins like poultry, eggs, cheese, and yogurt less often; and red meat less often still. But you also have a lot of leeway, so you don’t need to feel guilty about eating foods not on the pyramid. Nothing is totally eliminated, though you’re advised to eat foods like sugary desserts, butter, heavily processed foods like frozen meals, candy, and refined grains and oils sparingly.
Mediterranean Food Pyramid
To get started on the Mediterranean diet, or to more closely follow it, U.S. News & World Report suggests these tips:
Think of meat as your side dish and whole grains or vegetables as your main dish.
Look beyond Greek and Italian cuisines for inspiration—in all, 22 countries border the Mediterranean Sea!
As with any diet, do some advance meal planning so you won’t be tempted by convenience foods after a long day at work. For instance, cook up a batch of grains or lentils on the weekend to use for meals throughout the following week.
Make water your main source of hydration. Wine is considered optional and then only in moderation—one to two glasses per day for men and one glass per day for women.
Composed Roasted Beet Salad Recipe with Balsamic Vinegar, Spotlight on Whisks, Speaking More than One Language to Fight Alzheimer’s, and Protecting Against Falls at Every Age
Roasting brings out the flavors of autumn vegetables, making them exceptionally delicious—and the only thing better than drizzling them with extra virgin olive oil is also adding a few drops of rich balsamic vinegar from Modena, Italy. That’s why I’m so excited to announce my third collection of artisanal vinegars from the T. J. Robinson Curated Culinary Selections and the following recipe so that so well highlights my balsamic vinegar, Condimento Exclusivi Barili.
Also in this issue…If you’re looking for new pastimes as the weather changes, consider learning another language—a study review found that the brain reserves you’ll create could delay the arrival of dementia symptoms. And to protect physical health at every age, get to know simple steps to help prevent falls.
This is a great time of year to sample the savory sweetness of yellow beets. Roasting beets intensifies their surprising sweetness, a palate-pleasing contrast to the greens in this recipe. The bold flavors in this salad need just olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress it, but you’ll need to bypass imposters and source true aceto balsamico from Italy—see the Healthy Ingredient Spotlight in my newsletter.
Ingredients
4 large yellow beets
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use, plus more for drizzling
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar from Modena, plus more for drizzling
4 cups assorted salad greens
2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano shavings
1 ounce chopped hazelnuts
Directions
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper. Trim the beets but don’t peel them, and cut into quarters. Transfer to the sheet pan and toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Roast until tender, up to one hour. Out of the oven, roll up the beets in the parchment paper and allow them to sit for 10 minutes; this makes it easy to now take off the peels. Toss them with the rest of the olive oil and the tablespoon of vinegar. Divide the greens among four plates and top with equal amounts of beets, cheese shavings, and hazelnuts. Drizzle with more olive oil and vinegar.
Yields 4 servings
Healthy Ingredient Spotlight
Authentic Balsamic Vinegar
As those of you who have already been enjoying the vinegars of the T. J. Robinson Curated Culinary Selections know, after years of requests from members of the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club, I made it my mission to source the best artisanal vinegars on the planet. That meant distinguishing true aceto balsamico or balsamic vinegar from its many pretenders.
With so many bottles on store shelves labeled “balsamic,” it’s important to know how to choose correctly. First and foremost, the vinegar must be completely crafted in Modena, a city within the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, according to exacting, centuries-old standards enforced by the local consortiums. Anything else is, quite simply, not balsamic vinegar. Beyond this, the ultimate quality of a Modena balsamic depends on the skill of the producer, including knowing what wood to pick for each period of aging.
When in Italy, I always look forward to walking through the pristine olive groves at Acetomodena, the producer of my collection’s balsamic vinegar.
A few different types of balsamic vinegars are available within the strict guidelines. There is Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta or Protected Origin Denomination), which can take generations to make and is wildly expensive. That’s because it’s crafted exclusively from cooked grape must—all parts of the grapes are used—and aged for a minimum of 12 years and sometimes 25 years or even longer. A few ounces cost well over a hundred dollars, so it’s not used for cooking or making vinaigrettes but for drizzling sparingly on foods as a finishing touch.
The next is Aceto Balsamico di Modena IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta or protected geographical indication). It must be made from grape must and wine vinegar only and aged in wooden barrels for at least two months, but can be aged for as long as three years, which allows it to get sweeter and more harmonious as it achieves the perfect ratio of density to acidity. Many companies take the industrial route, rapidly boiling down the grape must, which often imparts the taste of burnt toast, and aging for the bare minimum.
Choosing the best vinegars for you can be as complex as choosing the best fresh-pressed olive oil. I love working with Gary Paton of Società Agricola Acetomodena in Modena and tasting just how nuanced “balsamic vinegar” can be, depending on the aging process.
The Acetomodena balsamic in my collection is a special IGP vinegar called Condimento Barili Exclusivi. The “condiment” designation allows producers more freedom to craft a vinegar that goes beyond strict IGP requirements with a taste akin to that of the Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale—it has the perfect balance of acidity, sweetness from grape must, and woodiness from the barrel aging.
Why you should have this vinegar in your kitchen: A pure balsamic vinegar, sweet and thick, is a culinary essential. It adds the perfect finish to cheeses, salads, grilled foods from vegetables to meat, and even desserts, like strawberries and figs.
Quick Kitchen Nugget
Whisks Aplenty
Having a few well-made whisks makes important cooking prep steps nearly effortless. But with so many sizes—and shapes—available, how do you know which ones you really need?
Start with a French whisk, long and narrow with numerous loops of wire, or tines, great for beating eggs and making egg-based sauces, custards, and curds. Add a balloon whisk, an overall large whisk that balloons to more of a ball shape at the end, for combining large volumes of dry or wet ingredients and whipping cream and egg whites if you don’t have a stand or hand mixer. Balloon whisks typically have fewer loops than smaller whisks so that ingredients don’t get caught in them. A very small mini-whisk is ideal for beating small quantities of vinaigrette, a single egg, or cocoa and milk for a cup of hot chocolate. There are more exotic shapes you can buy, like a flat whisk for reaching all around a saucepan and a coiled whisk (with a small oval of coiled wire at the end), if you’re an equipment lover.
Most important is whisk construction. Cheaply made whisks fail early on—the wires pop out of the handle or they just don’t have enough loops to be effective. Look for whisks made of high-quality, dishwasher-safe stainless steel. To avoid scratching nonstick saucepans, you’ll also want whisks made of silicone—just keep in mind that they’re more fragile and tend to require more arm work on your part.
For Your Best Health
Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Or Italian, French, or Spanish? Today may be a great day to start! A new review conducted at UCLA and published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease examined the numerous and often conflicting studies on whether regularly speaking two or more languages can help fight Alzheimer’s.
According to the review’s results, being bi- or multi-lingual does increase the brain’s cognitive reserve, a protective effect thought to stem from the executive control involved in managing multiple languages. The review acknowledged that findings in the various studies reviewed were not consistent when it came to factors like the age at which people should start learning another language, how proficient they need to be in it, or how often they need to use it. There also isn’t hard evidence that it can prevent Alzheimer’s, but most did find that the increased cognitive capacity and resilience of the brain’s frontal lobe from learning languages can delay the emergence of dementia symptoms by about 4 to 5 years. And that delay has a potentially significant impact on the course of the disease for those who get it. Another positive is that learning a new language can be fun in the here and now, especially with easy-to-access programs like Duolingo and Babbel, which have apps for your smartphone and free trials.
Fitness Flash
Protecting Against Falls At Every Age
We face not only mental but also physical perils as we age, and one of the most devastating can be a fall that breaks a bone, especially a hip. UNLV assistant professor, physical therapist, and board-certified neurological clinical specialist Jennifer Nash, DPT, CNS, explains it’s hard to recover from a hip fracture, and afterward, many people are unable to live on their own. More than 95% of hip fractures are caused by falling, usually by falling sideways. Women account for three-quarters of all hip fractures, often because of osteoporosis, which weakens bones and makes them more likely to break. Recovery from a broken hip can be grueling. It can land you in the hospital for a week and possibly a care facility afterward to continue healing.
During recovery, every activity of daily living, including any exercise, can be painful. That pain can create a vicious cycle when it comes to physical inactivity: The less you do, the less you will be able to do. Decreased activity leads to decreased strength and function, which leads to deconditioning, increased fear of activity, and decreased quality of life. This can all lead to even greater inactivity, Dr. Nash points out.
The answer is to do your best to prevent a fall in the first place with a plan based on guidelines from the National Council on Aging:
Participate in a good balance and exercise program. Try a community exercise program or get started on an individualized program with the help of a physical therapist.
Check in with your healthcare provider. Review any medications you’re taking for side effects that include dizziness. In fact, if different specialists have prescribed different medications for you, ask your primary care doctor or pharmacist to review them all for negative interactions. Have your blood pressure checked—some people experience dizziness from a blood pressure drop when they stand up from seated exercises or just from being in a chair.
Have your vision and hearing checked annually. Three components make up the body’s balance system: vision, proprioception (the ability to sense where you are with your feet), and the vestibular system (the inner ear). Dr. Nash says hearing is important for your balance. If you can’t hear someone coming up behind you, you might get startled and trip. Or maybe you can’t hear someone warning you about an uneven surface, which could lead to a fall. At a certain age, she says that, compared to single-focus lenses, bi-focal or tri-focal lenses can be problematic because they can lead you to look through the reading lens to climb stairs or uneven surfaces, and that can create depth-perception issues.
Create a safe home environment. Remove any and all tripping hazards like loose cords and clutter along the floor, even throw rugs. Improve your lighting, especially on stairs, which should have at least one railing. Add grab bars in key areas like the shower and near the toilet. Make sure there’s a night light on the path to the bathroom to lessen the chance of falling if you wake up in the middle of the night to go.
And if you ever do experience a fall and hit your head, call your doctor right away and ask about getting evaluated for a traumatic brain injury or TBI. Don’t wait for symptoms to appear.
