RAW OIL IS GOOD BUT IN THE TOMATO-SAUCE IT IS MORE ANTI-OXIDANT

The Mediterranean diet doesn’t exist without extra- virgin olive oil. There is no “Italian-style” food that puts into discussion how and how much the olive oil should be used to cook or fry, or raw. A research by Raffaele Sacchi (from the Department of Food Science of the University of Neaples – Federico II) clears many doubts about the olive oil and its best use; this research was printed on the occasion on the Month of PDO oil in Campania (27th February – 29th March) “ Many reckon that the oil can show its qualities better when it is consumed raw but this is only partly true . The raw oil shows its bitter-spicy taste, that some consider as “primitive”. While cooking instead, the oil looses its bitter taste because of chemical phenomena like the hydrolysis of complex phenols. “Heathing – Sacchi underlines – can sharply sweeten the aggressiveness of the olive oil. “This scientific study shows that the anti-oxidants, according to scientific data, are lost only in part because of cooking. With cheese or ricotta oil looses its bitterness. At the same time the aroma in cooked food is not the same as in raw oil. Cooked oil lacks herbs, fruity aroma: when cooked, the oil looses its fragrance. This aroma gets lost only if food is cooked for a long time. Cooks usually attend alchemic proofs. The expert said that while cooking the oil solubilises many of the aroma of the other ingredients and helps to form the crust for fried food, roast beef…..etc. the oil makes also some products become smooth, as for sauces. It is a good thing to use only a small quantity of oil while cooking, adding a second part directly raw on the food. The olive oil matches tomato soup a lot. This union turns to be better when these ingredients are cooked – Sacchi said – the oil shelters all the noble components of tomato even during long cooking as the ‘ragù’. The body is in this way allowed to absorb the carothenoids of tomato. During this cooking the antioxidant- activity improves. But the researcher added – this union made with seed-oil has no effects”. The terracotta pot is the most adviceable for long cooking at low temperature of this plate that had a key-role in the comedy by E. De Filippo “Saturday, Sunday and Monday”. The oil is able to limit the cancer inducement of roasted meat by dressing meat with olive oil after a fast cooking, as a study from Lund University (Sweden)shows. It is more harmful to eat grilled fish, dry because oil-free; it is tastier and healthier to eat grilled fish with oil, herbs and lemon, as the tradition teaches us.