Lecture on Olive Oil & Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake

Olive oil, in it's most beneficial form with a high amount of phenols which are good for our health, taste bitter to those of us who don't associate bitter with quality, at least not olive oil. With the rare exception, in our sampling two of us, most Americans prefer less bitter olive oil.

Or do we?  Would that ratio change if we were exposed to high-phenol content oils that we know to be of the highest quality? And how do we determine and standardize quality?  Those questions and many more were explained today at The University of Florence by a world renowned gastronomic sciences professor, Erminio Monteleone.

We participated in a blind oil tasting and within minutes his team presented the results.

Erminio did not talk about Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake. After a long afternoon of Italian language, I found this at the grocery store on my walk home after class around 7pm. Italians eat late. I couldn't read the label on this cake, but I knew what it was the moment I laid eyes on it. Ricotta cheesecake is my very favorite. 

Lit by the afternoon sun dappling in through the window, I ate this lovely confection while waiting the long wait for dinner. It's nearly 9 now, dinner is almost ready.