Aguibal Manzanilla

Last night, as I was making my famous huckleberry vinaigrette, I realized that I was out of canola oil. Canola is my preferred oil because it is relatively heart healthy and, more importantly, it is nearly flavorless. In a pinch, I had to make the call between a bottle of Aguibal olive oil or a tiny bottle of olive oil that was smuggled back from Tuscany for me. I went with the Aguibal.

Aguibal is an olive oil made exclusively from Manzanilla olives (my favorite). The olives are hand picked, pressed, and bottled without any processing, filtering, or chemicals. The result is an oil that has a very mild aroma and tastes initially very "green." A few seconds later, your mouth is coated with a warm, "peppered endive" flavor. This is a "big" olive oil.

The rest of my salad was comprised of spinach, grilled chicken, red grapes, walnuts and Harbourne cheese (thank you again, Cowgirl). To compensate for the peppery finish in the Aguibal, I used the Harbourne cheese instead of a bolder blue and opted not to finish the salad with fresh ground pepper. It worked brilliantly. Typically this dish comes off a bit sweet, but the addition of the Aguibal added a depth, richness and edge to the dish.