Heat is wonderful for many things, but it mutes the fragrance of a fine oil. The trick the best Mediterranean kitchens rely on is to cook with a workhorse oil and then finish with a great one, raw, off the heat.
Cooking changes oil. Finishing with it lets the oil change the dish.
Try it over warm white beans with a little lemon; over grilled fish straight off the pan; stirred into a bowl of lentil soup at the table; spooned across burrata and ripe tomatoes; or — the simplest of all — poured onto good bread with a pinch of flaky salt.
In each case the oil arrives uncooked, so every aroma it carried out of the mill reaches you intact. A peppery early-harvest oil will make a plain dish taste considered. That is the entire point of keeping a serious bottle within arm’s reach of the stove.
