[spikezoe]

I'm trying to reverse engineer a dipping oil from a favorite italian restaurant to no avail...the kitchen folk will gladly provide me with their oily crack for a king's ransom. I'm having a hard time with proportions and short of going through a few gallons of cheap olive oil to get it right, does anyone have any suggestions? I know that the ingredients roughly include: olive oil, rosemary, thyme, basil, sun dried tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Barring any help with this bundle of ingredients, does anyone have any favs for things I can sop up with bad grocery store batards?

[Ruth]

with a good quality oil try not to put too much in it.
remember less is more.you take an amount of , infuse it with shallot ,garlic,whole blk pepcrn and 1 herb and let it rest covered in a cool dark place.make sure your items are covered by the oil.after a week smell and taste.then you may want to strain and only add back an herb for visual and some fresh cracked pepper.
it is important that you choose an oil with some flavor.try a good quality extr virgin,wether it be french,italian or spanish.

[spikezoe]

thanks for the tip...this sounds even better than the addictive stuff that I'm trying to replicate

[davewarne]

HI,

We were hooked on a mix we called bread dressing. Copied from a pizza restaurant chain. Made from good olive oil, a little neutral oil if the live oil is a bit heavy, balsamic vinegar , garlic ( infused ) and salt and coarse ground black pepper.

Dave

[shroomgirl]

Not to be a wet blanket but watch the garlic in the olive oil if left it can produce bacteria. If I've got great oil and bread there is nothing else necessary.

[Mezzaluna]

Good point, Shroomgirl.

When I was in Tuscany this summer, an ex-pat American chef there told me the Italians don't do the dipping oil thing with bread- it's an American thing, according to her.

[shroomgirl]

I'm not a dipper but know people that are....I'd rather spread butter....European unsalted please....I just went to an olive oil tasting and the nuances were great, Bob had French, Spainish and Italian, no Californian to think of it... I prefer the less peppery, less acidic???(not sure what the correct term would be) but some hits the back of your throat pretty hard. My larder probably has a dozen olive oils...each like a good wine has certain characteristics that make it appealing....I wouldn't want to gummy them up...or make preverbial sangria with them.

[chiffonade]

Carrabba's here in FL serves a wonderful oil concoction prior to every meal. The waitperson brings a small saucer of herbs to the table and pours oil (already on the table) into the saucer, then presents it to the diners. You can easily make your own. Combine:

* Finely Chopped Rosemary
* Chopped fresh oregano
* Chopped basil leaves
* Chopped fresh flat leaf Italian parsley (NOT curly)
* Chopped fresh thyme
* Pinch kosher salt
* Pinch freshly ground black or white pepper

Place in a flat plate and drizzle in copious amounts of the most fruity, flavorful olive oil you can find. Dip into it, the most crusty peasant bread available - bread so crusty it makes your teeth hurt!

Because the herbs are fresh, they must be chopped very close to service. (They get brown and nasty if left too long.) Also, don't try to do this in a food processor. Food processors do obscene things to rosemary - some fresh herbs pick up a metallic taste.

[spikezoe]

Thanks for the replies...that gives me a little more direction. The chain with the onsite bottle oil is Bravo in Ohio. Very decent take on 90's italian-lite (wood fired this, spinach sundried tomato that) and always a good fall back plan in restaurant crazy Columbus. Just the thought of a 3 hour wait on the weekend make me wonder about the sanity of those folk.

[chiffonade]

..Very decent take on 90's italian-lite (wood fired this, spinach sundried tomato that)...

That is the best description of that era's Italian cooking I've ever heard.