Are you trying to get rid of your old olive oil before buying your stock of 2008 Amelia Oil or have you been wrecked by tasting the good stuff and don’t know what to do with your old supply? Why not make some herb-infused olive oil.

I would not recommend using high-quality extra virgin for this operation because what happens is that any organic material introduced into the olive oil begins a process of oxidation, slow turning the oil rancid (over a long period of time). In addition, the flavouring you add essentially takes away from the flavour of the olive oil.

Rachel’s spicy pizza oil

Ingredients:

500ml extra virgin olive oil (last year’s oil)

7 small hot red Italian peppers, dried (adjust amount according to how hot you like it)

2 sprigs of dried oregano

3 cloves of garlic

Put the olive oil, whole garlic cloves and red peppers in a container or a bottle that you can get everything out of again. Cover and let your ingredients infuse for 2 days. Remove the garlic. Transfer the remaining oil and ingredients to the final bottle (I always look for an interesting bottle) into which you have carefully added the sprig of oregano leaving enough room for a cork. Let the oil infuse for another few days. You may want to adjust the quantities to suit your own tastes.

This infused olive oil adds a hit of heat to pizza or red pasta sauces. It also makes a great gift. You can also expert with other herbs such as tarragon, basil or rosemary. Do you have some suggestions you’d like to share? Leave a comment.