Customer Rating: 
Summary: Informative and delicious!
Comment: This is an absolutely beautiful cookbook, with a clean, graceful layout and gorgeous photographs by Laurie Smith. Whether you want to see what many of the recipes look like or take a glimpse at the olive harvest in Chianti, you'll adore the full-color photos. This would make a wonderful gift book for your favorite cook.
The stories of olive oil harvest and production are fascinating, made all the more interesting and personal with details of particular trips the author has taken and the people she met along the way. You'll also learn what the various grades of olive oil mean, the range of tastes you can expect, how to hold your own olive oil tasting, and how to find, choose, store, and cook with the best oils.
The recipes are reminiscent of Mediterranean cooking: simple dishes of fresh ingredients meant to showcase their delightful flavors, and the author makes suggestions for which olive oils might go best with each. Many of the recipes come with delectable photos and notes on their origins or the author's experience with them.
Every recipe we tried from this book did an amazing job showcasing the flavors of its fresh ingredients---this is the kind of cookbook that encourages you to splurge on the best cheeses and herbs because it really will make a difference in the final product. My favorite was a beet salad that included spinach, a balsamic vinegar dressing, and blue cheese.
If you love fresh produce and olive oil, I highly recommend this cookbook. It's a gift-quality volume you'll want to flip through and use over and over.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Comment: I came across this book while killing some time at a local bookstore. This is an incredible book to have in your collection, if, for nothing else, the reasons below:Incredible graphic design. A general rule of thumb--if Chronicle are the publishers of the book, it'll have a fantastic layout. These are the guys who brought to life Michael's devastatingly good vision in the "Tra Vigne" cookbook. Likewise, they also published Georgeanne Brennan's "Potager" and "Mediterranean Herb" cookbooks. The layouts are ALWAYS superb, and each and every release has beautiful photographs and dialogue. Which brings me to my next point.
Great dialogue. Offers a surprisingly thorough history of olive oil. Likewise, it offers a good summary on how to pick, store, and use different types of olive oils, as well as offering a mini glossary of olive oil colloquialisms (i.e., "extra-virgin" and "first-cold pressed", etc.). Also, Peggy's personality and humor come across very well and make the text quite an enjoyable read. This is something that just isn't normally found in many cookbooks who only see things through a step-by-step, color-by-numbers approach to cooking.
Of course, importantly,
Very good recipes. The recipes are extremely tasty. Most are amazingly simple, yet turn out spectacular. The approach is very simple, yet home-y...including ingredients typically found (or readily available) to the novice, home cook.
Get this book and I guarantee that you will not regret its inclusion in your collection!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic recipes
Comment: I came here looking for another book by Peggy knickerbocker! The recipes in Olive Oil are terrific. You don't have to be an Olive Oil expert to love every single salad or dressing she writes about. Even if you are a three thumbed guy like me you can turn out a five star meal with this book. Thanks Peggy!
