With the local food movement continuing forward, I think it’s sometimes easy to forget about the items you can’t necessarily pick-up from the local market (unless you live in certain areas.) This could be anything from avocados to coffee to olive oil.
I use olive oil everyday and that’s no exaggeration. It’s used for cooking, baking, salad making and serves as a nice finish to soup and appetizer recipes. I go through more olive oil than anything else in my kitchen.
And yet, had you asked me a few years ago about where the olive oil came from that I was using- I’d probably look baffled for a minute and then say, “Italy?” I like to believe in the products I buy at the store are what they say they are. But, the more we demand knowledge about our food supply, the more we realize everything is not as it seems. It seems that every few months a news story comes about about companies hiding ingredients or misrepresenting their product- it’s easy to be confused. Earlier this year The New York Times shed a bit of light about the olive oil we import and the general gist of the story: it may not be all what you think.
As a consumer, it can feel completely overwhelming to know the story of your food and so I thought I’d share a story of California Olive Oil today. California Olive Ranch invited me on a tour for their harvest and bottling process. And just know, if I hadn’t been throughly impressed, I wouldn’t be sharing any of this with you today. Talking with the employees of the company and walking through the process made me realize that while they are the largest olive oil producer in California, they deeply care about the product they put out.
So let’s start with the olives. All the olives are grown in Northern California- half by the company and the other half by local family farmers. The olives are grown in a similar style to grapes (for wine-making) which means less irrigation and instead of hand picking, the olives can be harvested with a modified grape-picker (an older version of this machine is in the pictures above.) After harvest (as soon as they can), the olives are trucked from the farm to the processing plant where they assess the crop and make sure the olives didn’t over heat (It’s serious business.)
The olives then go through the processing, starting with cleaning and separating out the debris. Then the entire olive (pit and all) is crushed into a paste like mixture. This paste mixture then processed into the liquid (which is part oil and part water.) The water is removed and what you’re left with is fresh olive oil. This olive oil is then placed in well-sealed containers that keep the olive oil at a cool temperature to preserve the freshness. The only difference between the oil tasted on the day of and the oil tasted a year down the round (coming from these storage containers) is the flavor might be a bit more mellow. The olive oil is bottled only when orders are received which keeps the oil fresh (the enemies of olive oil are light, air, and temperature). Also, I’m guilty of this, don’t store you olive oil by the oven- just exposes it to heat!
One import thing to note (and something I asked about) is that on a bottle of olive oil you might see terms like ‘cold-pressed’ and/or ‘first pressing.’ This means that the olive oil never got above 86˚ F during the processing of the olive oil (and to officially be certified ‘extra-virgin’ the oil must be cold pressed) and then pressing number (ie: first) just means the olives were only passed through the process once (whereas some companies might send the leftovers back through the process to extract a second or more rounds of (not as high quality) olive oil.) Also, don't be fooled by the color- olive oil can come in many flavors and colors (all of which can be good.)
On top of the oil, California Olive Ranch is a zero-waste facility. The leftover pulp from the processing goes to feed cattle, the trimmings from trees goes back to the land as mulch, the water extracted from the process goes back to water the trees, and the oil is what you buy at the store.
So that’s olive oil in a nutshell through my eyes. It’s such a fascinating ] process and the quality difference is amazing. We think about quality in so many other aspects of the kitchen, I think our oils deserve the same respect. Northern California has quite a few small batch olive oil producers as well and I highly recommend that if you get the chance, look up an olive oil tasting if you’re ever visiting (I know a couple of wineries in the Napa/Sonoma area offer this). And if you want to try some California Olive Ranch Olive Oil, look for their distinct green bottle in a grocery store near you (I could purchase it in rural Illinois, so chances are good that you can find it!)
And now that I feel like I’ve just finished a ‘the more you know’ PSA, we’re on to this recipe: Pistachio Olive Oil Cake. It actually is slightly adapted from The Homemade Flour Cookbook. The recipe from the book is actually a grain-free version made only from pistachio flour but I only had enough pistachios to make this as the version below. Meg from Beard and Bonnet shared the original recipe from the book if you’d like to see the grain-free version! I also, however, changed the oil used in the original recipe to olive oil which created an extra layer of flavor (and I think of a bit of butteriness without using butter!)
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To make pistachio flour, take shelled, unsalted, roasted pistachios (buy them unshelled and save yourself some time) and pulse in 1/4 of the pistachios in the food processor just until beginning to break down. Pass through a sieve to get the flour and return the pistachio pieces back to the food processor. Repeat until a good amount of the pistachios are flour (you will have meal left over, use it to top the cake.) Just be careful not to over pulse the nuts and turn them into butter- patience is key. If you try to make the cake with pistachio meal, the texture won't be the same!
[Disclosure: California Olive Ranch invited me on this tour for which I was given hotel accommodations and meals. All opinions are my own and I would not be sharing this if I didn't believe in the product.]
I use olive oil every day too! Since moving to Palermo, we've been buying our oil from local vendors and love it! In Montreal this is just not a possibility. Thanks for making such a neat cake too 🙂 We also have an abundance of pistachios!
Ah goodness, I feel the same way! I feel like I should know more of where my food comes from, but just don't! I'll eat a slice of this cake and ponder that for a while : )
I loved hearing about the olive oil process! I've toured breweries and vineyards and would love to see olive oil too. Also, this cake sounds fabulous.
What an interesting trip that must've been! I've never even seen an olive tree. Very cool! The cake you made looks wonderful as well. 🙂
This is beautiful and sounds amazing Erin!
I've been meaning to make an olive oil cake since I saw this grapefruit one http://thelittlestbakehouse.com/2013/03/grapefruit-rosemary-olive-oil-cake/ but pistachio is much more up my street 😉 Love your photos of the oil!
I'm going to have to make this for my mom someday. She loves pistachios.
Thank you for the updates!
Thanks for sharing your "olive oil" tour. Lots of interesting information! I'll be trying your cake recipe soon instead of just imagining how good and green it must taste.
This recipe looks wonderful. I have what may be a stupid question re: the note about pistachios. I understand "unshelled" to mean "with the shells on". Do you intend to mean the nuts AND shells go into the processor?
--Thanks!
Ah, no! Fixed!
I am SO down for this cake! Oh my gosh, it looks so light and perfect.
i love the idea of pistachio and olive oil together..i need to bake this during thanksgiving.
So fascinating to read about and see the process of olive oil in the making. I grew up in olive country in Northern California, but I still had no idea how olive oil was actually made. I'm sitting on a few bags of pistachios right now and I'm inspired to make this cake just as soon as I find time!
I love all of the olive oil info!! So interesting! I know nothing about it. (knew)
Love the cake stand.
This is my kind of cake. Love the simplicity that really lets the pistachio and olive oil flavors shine through.
where is a good place in sonoma to visit some olives? i am going in march
I have been wanting to make an olive oil cake, but just haven't. Love the idea of pistachios in the cake - now I may actually get around to making one of these, YUM!
I too use a ton of olive oil. I especially love the fruity note it lends in baking recipes. This cake is gorgeous. Anything pistachio catches my eye. Gorgeous!!
I love cakes made with olive oil so thank you for this recipe. I've made a grapefruit olive oil poundcake and a chocolate chip olive oil bread - all divine. Your pistachio cake looks absolutely delicious!
I've been buying only California Olive Ranch's olive oils ever since I read Extra Virgin: The Sublime & Scandalous World of Olive Oil (great read) a few years back. They are very high quality and I like the varieties that they have (and that my local Wegman's carries them).
Please take me with you on your next food trip! I'm a minimalist packer and rather short so won't be much trouble. You'll hardly notice that I'm there at all. 😉 Haha!
Love this Erin! You captured the ranch so beautifully! Seriously, these photos are stunning. Also, this cake sounds so delicious.
This looks delish! How many ounces of pistachios make enough flour?
Usually 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups of pistachios would work (1, 8 ounce bag). If you're close to a trader joe's- they sell the perfect size bag!
Our household guzzles extra virgin olive oil as well, but I've never put it in a cake before. Your recipe looks great - I love pistachios and I'm really looking forward to trying this out!
Great background on the making of the olive oil, amazing recipe, thank you!
This cake is stunning and so many of my favorite flavors!
I love this post! Olive oil is one of my favorite things ever. I use the really good stuff as a finishing oil for nearly everything that we make in our house. It complements everything. I loved learning about how it is made, as I really had no idea. Thank you for such an informative post! This cakes looks incredible.
This sound absolutely amazing! I just made a new Christmas cookie recipe which I know you will love. Please check it out! Oat cookies dunked in dark chocolate, topped with flaked almonds and dried cranberries. x http://juicyluciefoods.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/christmas-cookes.html
I've been reading your blog for awhile but never commented. When I saw this cake, I knew I wanted it for my birthday cake-- so I made it this weekend to celebrate. It. Was. Amazing. I made in Saturday, and there's not a crumb left this morning. Thanks so much for such a delicious, easy-to-follow recipe!
This cake is amazing! Olive oil is very healthy but I sometimes substitute it for almond oil, which is a bit softer. It also has a lot of properties and lots of vitamins as you can see here: http://aceites10.com/almendras. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Ella!
I love the look of this recipe. I used to live in Greece, and I like dense cakes.
I'm wondering - and in my search I found your interesting site - can pistachio oil be used in baking a pistachio cake?
Cheers,
Shirley
Hi Shirley- I've note done much baking with pistachio oil but I bet it would be really lovely! If you try it, please let me know!
Sounds Devine! Do you think I could use coconut milk instead of whole milk? I'm dairy free.... Thanks!
I would go with something like almond or hemp milk (unless your coconut milk is like that consistency- I always think of coconut milk as the extra thick milk!)
I made this today for my parents. It was delicious! I love a cake with less sugar and only a small amount of butter in the frosting. Great recipe and so pretty! Thank you.
Hi, when you say “stir” do you mean letting it mix in the mixer? Or do you mean stir by hand? And also when you say “whisk” do you mean by hand or in the mixer?
All by hand!
Just made this today and wow !! Absolutely delicious. Highly recommend trying it.
Loved this cake! I made it twice for neighborhood parties. I used lavender infused honey in the frosting. Everyone loved it! Thanks