Organic olive oil is fairly easily available mail order but until recently it was hard to find more unusual single variety organic olive oils to buy online. We met Christos Oikonomou, the founder & owner of Narrow Leaf Organic Olive Oil at a recent London Bloggers meeting.
Narrow Leaf Organic Olive Oil is cold pressed from a single variety of olive from the Patrinia tree which is found only in Achaia region in the northern Peloponnese, a small corner of the Greek mainland. It has been used in the past to blend with other varieties to add flavour but is now available on its own. A group of small olive oil farmers who are members of the Local Agricultural Cooperative of Aigio have joined forces to provide this sustainably farmed, single variety organic olive oil.
Tasting the Organic Olive Oil
The aroma is very fresh and grassy and the flavour quite subtle. It is a delicate taste that doesn’t overwhelm food. It has a very low acidity so none of those very strong peppery notes that you might associate with Greek olive oil.
After a few tasty samples Christos asked if we’d like a sample bottle to review for the blog. I happily agreed, thinking dreamily of the lovely salad days ahead
Organic Olive Oil by Post
Yesterday, a bottle of this interesting oil arrived through the post. It was carefully wrapped in bubble wrap inside a bottle tube. It felt a bit like Christmas but then I love getting organic treats through the mail!
Salad Days
I’m looking forward to using this delicious oil in lots of raw dishes but I think it will also be gorgeous drizzled over grilled fish or pasta. I’m sure we’ll be making lots of treats with Narrow Leaf Olive Oil over the coming weeks and I’ll blog about the results.
Of course Andy couldn’t resist making a simple cherry tomato salad with it straight away.
Organic Olive Oil Salad
The ingredients were just what we had to hand, some left from Friday’s organic vegetable box and some from a local shop. A good salad doesn’t need to be a fussy affair.
I think we can learn a lot from the classic Greek mezze salads. Attention to detail and careful chopping of good quality fresh ingredients makes all the difference to a raw salad.
The vinaigrette had a lovely fruity note from the cider vinegar which we are lucky enough to buy straight from the farmer at our local farmers market. Of course if you can add some really fresh herbs to the mix then that is even better. The fresh taste of the olive oil and the herbs combined with the fruity notes from the vinegar to really bring out the flavour of the little cherry tomatoes.
We made a simple meal of it with a bowl of potato salad made with home-made duck egg mayonnaise. (I must ask him to blog that recipe sometime It was divine!)
Anyway, the subtle taste of the organic olive oil in a mild vinaigrette was a perfect accompaniment to the fresh taste of the salad.
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