THE INGREDIENT - OLIVE OIL

I always knew olive oil was something special, especially in my family. But I didn’t realize just how much it functioned as a cultural icon in my life, shaping how I learned to eat, cook, and think about health long before I ever thought about food in those terms. It was just always there.

For me, olive oil is one of those ingredients that can work the room. It has a natural charisma, with a wide, complex flavor profile, adding dimension to almost everything in the kitchen, creating a glistening veil of shine and significant nutritional value.

Revered as liquid gold, even called the nectar of the gods, olive oil has sustained people not only as food, but as medicine, light, and protection. And in my family, it went even further—playing a role in beauty rituals and, according to my grandmother, even offering protection from evil spirits.

In Italian culture, there is the idea of mal occhio, the “bad eye,” believed to bring misfortune through envy or ill will. Olive oil spearheaded the ritual used to determine whether a curse was present. A few drops placed into a bowl of water would reveal the truth in the way the oil moved. Luckily, we were never cursed—perhaps because of the sheer amount of olive oil we ate, cooked with, and used on our bodies.

All our food was dressed with olive oil, finished with olive oil, and brought to life with olive oil. It was the only fat we used in the kitchen. Vegetables were always lightly sautéed, sometimes with crushed red pepper, sometimes with a little grated cheese. It was simply how our food cooked.

I didn’t realize this devotion wasn’t universal until middle school, when I watched butter attempt to melt over frozen broccoli at a friend’s house. In my world, butter was for toast. Olive oil was for everything else.

Like a family member, olive oil always had a place at our table. It was always real, high-quality olive oil, never a blend, coming in large metal cans from the Italian market near my grandmother’s house. You knew it was authentic by the way it smelled, tasted, and behaved in food. Authenticity was nonnegotiable.

Olive oil wasn’t just for the kitchen. The same oil we cooked with was used on skin, smoothed on before sun exposure and again afterward to moisturize. We used it for hot hair treatments and even to remove makeup. Looking back, the women in my family rarely showed early signs of aging. Maybe they were on to something.

That kind of magic has deep roots. Olive oil is one of the oldest cultivated foods in the world, traced back thousands of years to the eastern Mediterranean. Olives are harvested at just the right moment, crushed into a paste, then pressed or centrifuged without heat or chemicals—leaving behind something not manufactured, but simply pure.

Today, science gives language to tradition. Extra virgin olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fats, particularly oleic acid, associated with cardiovascular health and reduced inflammation. Its polyphenols act as antioxidants, while its fats help the body absorb essential vitamins from vegetables and whole foods. Used consistently, day after day, these effects are cumulative.

And maybe that’s the point. One quality ingredient, used well, over a lifetime—proof that simple, pure ingredients, close to their natural origins, can be deeply nourishing and remarkably powerful.