Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Olive Oil

Discover the best flavour pairings for olive oil based on data analysis of thousands of recipes. Find perfect ingredient matches & delicious recipes.

Briny aroma and solanum notes are at the forefront of olive oil's flavour profile, but identifying its perfect partner requires exploring its subtle nuances. We must examine the complex interplay of notes within its bouquet, like grass, lamb, and hints of oleic acid. We need to understand how these notes affect each other and which complementary flavors they harmonise with.

To illuminate these harmonies, we embarked on an ambitious journey, analysing thousands of ingredients. Each was meticulously deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, allowing us to pinpoint precisely which notes complement in both classic and unexpected ways. Our findings reveal, for instance, how wild asparagus's methanethiol tones can carry olive oil, or how yellow squash's cucurbital notes create an unexpectedly harmonious bridge with the briny aroma.

An ingredient's flavour comes from its core characteristics, like vegetal, herbal, and floral, combined with its unique aroma notes (outer bars). When pairing ingredients, aim to include a broad variety of core characteristics for a balanced dish. And choose aroma notes that complement each other for a harmonious combination.

Flavour Pairing Method

To understand how flavour notes harmonise, we analysed more than 50,000 popular ingredient combinations. By exploring these pairings, we identified specific flavour notes that frequently occur together, indicating they share a harmonious relationship.

The Flavours That Harmonise With Olive Notes

Our analysis reveals a strong connection between olive and squash flavours. Since olive oil has a distinct olivey flavour, try pairing it with the squash-like flavours of yellow squash.

The recipe below provides inspiration for pairing olive oil with yellow squash.

Harmonious Flavours Of Olive Oil

Just as our analysis revealed that olive and squash-like flavour notes harmonise, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavour accents present in olive oil. For instance, the tomatoey flavours of olive oil are strongly associated with briney and mustardy flavours.

The aroma notes complementary to the various aroma notes of olive oil can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of wild asparagus offers many of the notes complementary to olive oil, including asparagus and petrichor aroma notes. Because the flavour profile of wild asparagus has many of the of the features that are complementary to olive oil, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of wild asparagus across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with olive oil.

Recipes That Pair Olive Oil With Wild Asparagus

Linked Flavour Notes

Looking at the aroma notes that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of olive oil, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of olive oil, along with the complementary aromas associated with each note. While the right side shows some of the ingredients that share many of the accents complementary to olive oil.

What To Drink With Olive Oil

The asparagus notes in greek white make it a perfect pairing with olive oil. Likewise, the asparagus flavours in pecorino create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of olive oil below.

Which Cheese Go With Olive Oil?

Choose cheese that embrace its herbalness or awaken its briny aroma. Reblochon and gruyère offer vibrant, clean counterpoints, their verdant freshness lifting the palate. Hard cheese add a gentle, oniony brightness, while grana padano introduces a sophisticated, anise-tinged elegance.

Alternatively, embrace cheese that harmonise with olive oil's grassiness. The addition of provola, with its subtle garlicy notes, can complement the hay beautifully, while pecorino romano lends a green vegetal notes.

How Flavonomics Works

We've pioneered a unique, data-driven approach to decode the intricate art of flavour pairing. Our goal is to move beyond intuition and uncover the science of why certain ingredients harmonise beautifully. This rigorous methodology allows us to provide you with insightful and reliable pairing recommendations.

Our analysis begins with over 50,000 carefully selected recipes from acclaimed chefs like Galton Blackiston, Marcello Tully, and Pierre Lambinon. This premium dataset ensures our model distils genuine culinary excellence and creativity.

Each ingredient from these recipes is deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, creating a unique numerical "flavour fingerprint." This quantification allows us to apply advanced analytical methods to identify complex patterns between flavour notes.

We identify popular ingredient combinations that frequently appear in our recipe database. Regression analysis is then performed on these pairings to statistically validate and pinpoint truly harmonious flavours.

These insights drive our predictive model, which allows us to take any ingredient (e.g., Olive oil), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.