Have you ever seen Smart Balance advertise their olive oil and butter mixture? Believe it or not, this is nothing new, and you can make it yourself.
It was new for me when I first got married. My husband would take some butter in a container, and let it become soft. Then he would add in the container some olive oil and mix the two together.
We would use the mixture on our garlic bread or toast, to season our roasted chicken, and even to bake with. The one thing we had to be careful of, was to make sure we did not add too much olive oil which would then overpower the butter taste. Not exactly the flavor I wanted for my morning pancakes.
By using a mixture of olive oil and butter you will gain a few advantages. One benefit is that you are cutting down on the amount of fat intake from the butter. This is a good thing.
The other benefit is more scientific and directly related to cooking and not so much health. Oil has a higher smoking point then butter does.
For those who are not sure what this means, imagine placing two separate pans on top of two burners over medium-high heat. Place 2 tablespoons of the butter in one pan and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the other. The butter will burn faster than the olive oil and the olive oil will begin to smoke later than the butter. Olive oil smokes before burning, thus the term, “smoking point” not “burning point”. This is why they say olive oil has a higher smoking point than butter.
So what does this mean for those who want to cook Italian recipes? It means a lot. When you want to create a sauce which is a butter sauce, but not real thick – just something simple – this is when you would want to use the mix.
Point in case I’ll give you a recipe.
Take some olive oil along with some butter, not too much maybe a a few tablespoons of butter and half of that amount for the olive oil. Let it melt over medium heat. Add in a few tablespoons of Romano cheese, mix well until the cheese has melted. Add more cheese if you need to.
We are just looking for a nice light cream butter mixture – not a thick alfredo sauce.
Meanwhile cook some long pasta and when it is al dente add it to your butter sauce, give it a good toss adding more cheese or olive oil as needed. Once heated through and mixed, serve the pasta in some pasta bowls and top with any remaining mixture or sprinkle with cheese.
Another easy recipe is to toast some breadcrumbs in the butter mixture (omit the cheese) and then add in the pasta and sprinkle some cheese on top when serving it. This is often considered a peasant’s meal but you certainly do not have to be a peasant to eat this pleasant recipe!
Don’t forget to finish it all off with a nice tazzi of espresso.
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