Recently I have grown quite fond of a salad made of arugula, kosher salt, grated parmesan, and olive oil. I have stepped up the quality of the cheese, and now wonder about improving the olive oil.
So I ask you; how much does the olive oil matter. You can really spend some dough on the stuff. Does it matter?
According to my bf, and he’s the better gourmet between us, the quality of the oil depends on the use.
For something like the dressing, it is indeed worth it to use the EVOO good stuff. But if you are using it to cook or saute, don’t upgrade.
So I have a small bottle of good stuff, and a large bottle of everyday stuff.
I rarely even find any olive oil on the shelves that isn’t extra-virgin, cold-pressed. And I tend to shop at the cheap places. I think the use depends on the taste, too; different brands might taste differently, and certainly the light olive oils are going to taste different than the heavy ones. I would definitely stick to pure olive oil though, and not a mix with canola or whatever, for uses that add flavor, such as your salad.
If you’re worried about cost, I would suggest adding the salt and cheese to your salad first, toss it up, and let it sweat a bit for added flavor and moisture; you can then use less olive oil.
But I would definitely stick to the extra virgin; it just tastes a lot better. Just use less, if you can.
How bout some recommendations for particularly good, widely-available oils? I don’t want to have to go to Dean and Deluca or Whole Foods for my decent olive oil.
In my experience, the most immediate difference between different olive oils today is the strength of taste & smell. Strong oils aren’t very useful for frying and can be overpowering. So I use a cheap ‘neutral’ olive oil for frying etc.
I’ve also got a bottle of “Monini Gran Fruttato”* which has a relatively strong and “flowery” smell and taste that I like for dressings and seasonings (a few drops are great on bread with cheese and tomato).
Hmmm…never seen that one around here. 
As said by many, it depends on use. In the salad you describe, with no vinegar, a good flavorful oil would be good. My advice to you would be to find a place were you can taste the oils. In the SF Bay area Segona’s Market will let you taste. There are several local olive farms that come to my farmer’s market and offer samples. Taste varies considerably depending on olive type and environmental conditions, so taste before you buy anything more expensive than $10 a liter.
It definitely matters to me for dipping and drizzling, but I will freely admit to my olive oil snobbery.
We’ve got some run of the mill stuff for cooking, but for eating, we’ve got at least 10 different bottles from all over the world. Heavy on local oils right now, but we have Tuscan, Argentinian, Greek, and my personal favorite, a Spanish oil from Alicante - Masia el Altet. It is crack to my taste buds and heirloom tomato season simply can’t come fast enough. 
I tend to go for the fruitier styles most of the time though. Then again, depending on the dish I may want a greener tasting oil.
This was pretty much what I came in here to say. We have a bottle of each, too. The thing is, people’s preferences are personal, so what one person might recommend might be too spicy/floral/etc. Some olive oil is almost peppery in flavor - IME it usually has a darker green color if that’s the case. It’s OK to experiment a little, a small bottle at a time.
Some info on selecting oils from what looks like the California grower’s association.
Luccini is sold in a lot of grocery stores, and is several cuts above most of the stuff you see there. It has a nice, fruity flavor without overpowering things, works very well either for dipping or on salads. Runs about $17-$22 for the large bottle.
Be careful of going by labels when determining how ‘virgin’ the olive oil is.
Here’s an interesting article from USATodayabout misleading labels on olive oil
Just what I came in to recommend. It’s our high-end oil, then we use De Cecco or Colavita or some of the others for cooking.
America’s Test Kitchen - *Cook’s Illustrated *did a blind taste test of EVOOs that are common in supermarkets. The article is here. You may have to subscribe to see the taste test results.
Their top three: Columela $18, Lucini Italia Premium Select $19, Colavita $18.
The bottom three were: Carapelli, Davinci, Star.
I like Costco house brand. Surprisingly good, single batch and labeled as such so you can tell how old it is.
“Crapelli”, sez I. Trader Joe’s Kalamata isn’t bad, and it has the added advantage of being cheap.
McEvoy Ranch in Sonoma offers tours and tastings. Very interesting.
I like pretty much all extra virgin olive oils. Certainly some oils are more grassy or more peppery and you’d choose different ones for different dishes. But any one of them I could be happy to sop lots of french bread in then munch down.
Thanks, guys. We’ve been using Bertolli, which isn’t bad (and was ranked “best of the rest” in the above taste test). I’ll look out for the higher rated ones.
Just what I came in to recommend, Chefguy. About $8 a (quart?) bottle here in the bay area. It’s not too peppery and not too bland. And it’s from Greece, my favorite olive oil producing country.
I was shopping at Cost Plus World Market yesterday and noticed that they had a greatly expanded grocery section, including plenty of olive oils from around the world at a good price. I think I’ll try out a Spanish one next time I shop there.
We use both the Spanish and the kalamata oils. They last a very long time and the flavor is not overpowering. The Spanish is only $5.49 or something ridiculous.
I’m a big fan of olive oil, and I like the extra-virgin, dark green ones. They are NOT good for cooking though-for that use a light spanish or portuguese oil. California oils are great, but very expensive.
Lately, I have found some greek oils to be very good. One thing to be aware of-many of the cheaper oils are blens…and most use tunisian oils, which are not too good.
