Oil Infusions

Lunch. Herbed oil drizzled over penne with vodka sauce and grated cheese.

Several years ago hubbs and I made some oil infusions and gave them away as holiday gifts. We made 2-different kinds--herbed and spicy. I've been wanting to do it again for a while and finally did last night. I only made the herb infused oil this time. I tried to recreate the dipping oil that Bertucci's serves with bread.

Here's how I did it:
1. Roasted a small bulb of garlic. (First time doing this. Super easy.)
2. Pulled leaves of rosemary off two stems and bruised them with a rolling pin to expose more flavor
3. Poured 1 1/2-cups of extra virgin olive oil into a small saucepan
4. Put the roasted garlic, rosemary, 2+ tbls. dry Italian herb blend, 1/4 cherry pepper, 1+ tbls. dry oregano, and a sliver habanero pepper into the oil and stirred

5. Heated on medium to low for 10 minutes. Occasionally stirred. Don't let it boil, smoke or burn.
6. Let cool, covered, and put in the fridge overnight
7. Used a funnel, coffee filter and metal mesh strainer to separate oil from herbs


That's it! Can't wait to use it. It smells wonderful. To eat it as a dip with warm bread I will pour some in a saucer and sprinkle it with grated Romano cheese.

Plain extra virgin olive oil on left and herb infused oil on right.
*Updated: had it over some pasta for lunch. Delish!

Earlier this week my husband accidentally deleted my entire reader. Grrrrrrrr! So I have to go back through and redo all the feeds. Grrrrrrrrr!