by Erica Buzzi
Cooking with high quality oil, even frying in that oil, improves life, promoting the natural prebiotic inulin , Vitamin K, essential to keep us healthy. This is the gist of the masterclass, explosive and provocative, held by the Chef Fabio Ferrara, Abruzzese by birth, by sympathy and by restaurant (Tarassaco Restaurant – FIOI Point in Roccaraso), held at Bologna Fiere at Independent Wine and Oil Market, which saw the protagonist FIOI - Italian Federation of Independent Olive Growers.
Better oils with a high polyphenol content
The title of the meeting, “Truth and False Myths in Oil”, it's already a program. Ferrara: “Oil is a sealant around matter, it creates a protective film and makes vitamins and nutraceutical substances bioavailable to our body when we eat them, and not only that, in certain cases when we cook with high quality oils and high polyphenol content, it exponentially increases their nutritional properties”.
The chef is a raging river as he brandishes with one hand the chemical analyses carried out at a laboratory in Verona at his own expense (2.400 €!) and with the other the thermal camera that controls the cooking temperature: “What steam cooking! You eat it, I’ll cook!”.
The correlation between polyphenols and antioxidant and antiradical properties, the ability of inulin to aid digestion and that of vitamin K to promote arterial flexibility are key aspects to understanding the relationship between food and health.
“Everyone tests oil but what’s the point?”, provokes Ferrara who continues: “You have to investigate the material you are cooking. For example, let's look at chicory, cooked in three different ways: in water, with Ascolana tenera oil (the cultivar, ed.), which has a polyphenol value of about 450 mg/kg and with a Coratina oil of over 850 polyphenols. Basically, I get three completely different results: with quality oil, the assimilability of the properties contained in the food increases and the higher the polyphenol rate, as with Coratina, the more powerful the process is”.
To each food its own oil
Every vegetable, every food has its own organoleptic structure and you need to know it to know which oils to choose, explains the chef: “There is a right oil for cooking each food, which thus preserves and maintains its nutraceutical values”.
The chef collaborates with doctors and university professors, such as Professor Raffaele Sacchi of the Department of Agriculture of the Federico II University of Naples, already known for his fundamental research and publications on the behavior of biophenols in extra virgin olive oil during food cooking.
Ferrara tells how the peas, which have a complex structure, require an oil with a polyphenol value above 1000 mg/kg. The soffritto carrot, celery and onion, which should be done at least a couple of times a week to "wake up" the liver's activity, must be cooked with an oil with over 850 polyphenols, if we want the oil to act as a vehicle for the good substances of matter.
His best recipe? Ferrara: “Keep your feet on the ground and play”.
For the tasting at the event, the chef proposed a taste experience with fried artichokes in monocultivar Coratina by Michele Depalo of Giovinazzo (Bari), and turnip tops cooked in water and monocultivar Intosso oil by Tommaso Masciantonio of Casoli (Chieti). “For the chefs of the future it will be essential to work with oils that reflect the aromatic identity of the varieties because, when cooked or raw, they enhance and respect the raw material with a depth of flavour and aroma that has never been achieved before”.
