Bread and [Not] Butter

A lot of restaurants have abandoned butter in favor of olive oil. This is especially true of ambitious Italian restaurants, where dipping bread in olive oil harmonizes so much better with the meal than bread spread with butter. I had a certain ambivalence about the practice until savoring a few pre-meal slices pulled through the oil at La Zingara, which recently has become my regular Italian haunt in Bethel, Connecticut. I was so taken with the olive oil's full, fruity flavor that I begged the staff to tell me what made it so special.  The cook, maitre d', waiters, and bartender all shrugged, telling me it was nothing but oil with olives in it. I expected that meant that the oil itself was very rare and probably very expensive. Not at all. The La Zingarians freely told me that they use Edda brand, which I was able to mail order from Teitel Brothers (www.teitelbros.com) for all of $6.99 per liter, plus shipping. It is good stuff -- first cold pressed extra virgin -- but it most definitely is not the top of the line, not elegant or refined. It is robust and full-flavored ... which is exactly why it transforms simple rustic bread into something magnificent.