Our Best Recipes That Showcase the Versatility of Olive Oil

The French call them crudités, but for this recipe, crunchy, raw vegetables go Italian and become pinzimino. They're paired with the easiest, most delicious dip of ricotta featuring top notch extra virgin olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar.

Here's a salad that shines in the winter but tastes great year round. When crunchy fennel and creamy avocado meet sweet citrus, there's no need for vinegar or a vinaigrette. The juices from the satsuma mandarins combine with a finishing touch of olive oil for the best of dressings.

Channel the Italians when you fry with olive oil. This Venetian dish starts with a pounded, breaded pork chops sizzled in a thin layer of olive oil; it ends with a splash of white vinegar to infuse its crust, akin to a salt-and-vinegar potato chip. A salad of radishes, dill, parsley, and shallot, scattered on top at the end, introduces a different kind of crunch, one that's bright and fresh.

The classic patatas bravas you order in a tapas bar are cubed and deep-fried. Here, the potatoes are cut into wedges for handy dipping in homemade aioli. Another inspired move is parboiling the sliced-up spuds and letting them dry on a baking sheet before frying, which guarantees a creamy center and ASMR-ready shell.

Crispy edges are guaranteed when you shallow fry eggs in olive oil. Pair with toast or a Breakfast Bowl with Yogurt and Vegetables.

Olive oil isn't only for frying. When you use olive oil for poaching, it gives fish like halibut a wonderfully rich, almost buttery flavor.

Shrimp cook quickly, which means they can overcook easily. Here's a radical idea: Roast a pound of shrimp low and slow, nearly submerged in olive oil, like a confit. A saffron marinade ups the elegance—and you need only a pinch of the spice, since mashing it with salt and sugar and adding lemon juice disperses it. Round out the recipe with chopped herbs and creamy feta, and you have a sublime appetizer to serve with crusty bread.

This world-class one-pan meal is the ticket. Its flavor profile is Mediterranean, thanks to a spice rub of chile flakes, thyme, and coriander. Drizzled generously with olive oil, the chicken legs, orange slices, and chickpeas roast together, getting crispy on the outside and meltingly tender throughout. The final genius touch is tossing in olives and big handfuls of greens—mustard, dandelion, baby kale—for the last minute. Dinner is served.

Spaghetti and olive oil are endlessly versatile and effortlessly carry a dish on their own. Combine the two and you really have something to savor. Here, they work with with garlic, a little fresh chile, plenty of pasta water (our not-so-secret ingredient), and some Parmesan grated on top.

Take olive oil into sweet territory. Here a fruity variety of olive oil is whisked into mango purée for a decadent tasting sorbet.

Olive oil replaces butter in these cocoa crispies, which also have a touch of honey to lend a deeper sweetness than sugar alone.

Cakes made with olive oil keep better than cakes made with butter, but this lemony wonder won't be around long enough for you to test that theory. It's delicious simply dusted with confectioners' sugar or paired with berries and whipped mascarpone.

Toasting oats with extra-virgin olive oil and honey or maple syrup is our favorite route to granola. This luxurious nut-and-seed packed recipe is a great way to start the day and also makes a sublime snack.