L'huile d'olive . Dix façons de le préparer

Olive oil is good for preparing food and increases the natural flavors of ingredients without modifying their taste. The olive tree has been the symbol of eternal peace for thousands of years. One of my ancestors, a senior civil servant in the Spanish government, used to recount that culture and agriculture are the two best ways of making the most of one's time and money. Today, the seventh generation of our family of olive farmers still is in firm belief of the same ethos. Olive oil holds the heart and soul of Mediterranean culture, and we have used all of our passion and knowledge to strive to reach perfection, while at the same time respecting nature, and mixing traditions with avant-garde techniques. In today's ever-globalized society, where cultures meet and mix, olive oil, an eons-long symbol of the Mediterranean, finds itself on tables from Scandinavia to Australia to Japan. Basically, it is nothing more than the delicate and subtle juice of the olive. At the house of Nunez de Prado - ever conscious of maintaining quality -- we harvest all of our olives by hand including those having fallen to the ground. Only hours later is the crop carried to the mill where the fruit is broken up by granite rolls and pressed. The precious liquid extracted from the produce is decanted naturally to isolate that minute quantity of vegetal deliciousness that is the oil. Though appearing simple, this extraction process, especially for a high quality oil, is nearly as complex as the production of a quality château wine, the term used in Spanish to describe olive oils as well.