Lately I have been munching through several books at one time, including my daily diet of olive-related news articles. Most of the books I am reading are of the business, economics, and crime flavor. One of the books in this “meal” is Tom Mueller’s, Extra Virginity … a book I started the week after it was published and am still savoring.

Sometime last week I began to notice relationships among these books, specifically, relationships between business/criminal actions of the past centuries and business/criminal activities of the present. This morning I woke up with a theory. I went to the sources that gelled my idea to verify my understanding of the passages that lead me to that theory. I verified what I could and modified my thoughts a bit.

Here are the books and the article that stimulated my idea, in the order I read or am reading them:

1. Elements of Shipping by Alan Edward Branch
2. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster by T.J. English
3. Sovena USA First Ever Lab to be Certified by International Olive Council in United States: Top Olive Oil Importer Becomes Only U.S. Company to Hold Certification published on December 5, 2011 on PR Newswire
4. Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller also published on December 5, 2011
5. The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
6. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

Here is my theory:

The Mediterranean olive oil adulteration business/criminal activity is moving it’s main operations lock, stock, and bulk shipment to the United States.

I’m going to be kind of a jerk here and not explain how I arrived at my theory, instead I am going to provide you with a list of ingredients for this recipe for disaster. After you prepare this recipe tell me if it tastes the way I think it does.

Whisk together 5 books and 1 article. Slowly fold into this mixture 1 cup of boiling politics, 2 tablespoons of consumer ignorance, 1 dollop of soft regulatory environment, 1 loaf of potential-willing market torn into smaller pieces, and several million tons of “extra virgin olive oil”. Bake, sprinkle dish with 1 bag of EU economy crumbles, and serve. Mmmmmmmmm – nasty!

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

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Today I felt like my life was missing something, and it was. It’s books – real ones, not the Star Trek version, Kindle or Nook. I wasn’t missing just any books or even new books, but the kind you find at the library: old books; much read books; cookbooks by out-of-favor authors; books checked out by school children and copied for book reports; travel books showing barren, sandy beaches that are now covered in high rises; books … So I saddled up the old Cadillac and went to the library.

I do a lot of research and almost all of it is on the internet. I am tired of logging onto the world wide web and finding the same answers to my questions repeated verbatim from website to website. Sister Marie Renee would have called that – plagiarism and sent them to the Principal, Sister Mary James, for a phone call (rotary dial of course) to their parents. Now, plagiarism is old hat and stupid data like the widely-varying smoke point of extra virgin olive oil can freely circle the world dressed as “truth”. Groan!

After renewing my library card and re-acclimating myself to the Dewey Decimal System I combed the shelves for treasures. In Fiction I found some Alexander McCall Smith books I had missed. In 398 I found Folklore and in 292, Classical (Greek & Roman) Religion. In 641 I found Food & Drink and Sophia Loren’s Recipes & Memories a/k/a 641.5945. I took them all for a 28-day visit to Chez Olive Crazy. Thank you Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library.

Here is Mrs. Ponti’s “Penne alla Puttanesca” or “Pasta Quills, Whore Style”. Yup that’s right. As the dear lady explains, it is quick to prepare and indicates vitality and gaiety. Apparently these are whoreish qualities of which many of us are guilty.

Makes 4 servings

Salt
1 lb penne
4 anchovy fillets, drained
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 to 3 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped
1/2 c pitted black olives, drained, finely chopped
1 tbsp capers, drained
1/4 c Italian parsley, minced

Bring a large pot of water to boil, add a pinch of salt, and drop in the pasta.

In a mortar, use a pestle to pound the anchovies and garlic into a paste. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, then finely chop them. Heat the oil and butter in a pan, add the paste, and sauté for about 1 to 2 minutes over a medium heat. Add the tomatoes, olives, and capers, and cook for 15 minutes.

When the pasta is al dente, drain it and dress it with the sauce. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

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Olive Crazy and the young Olives are on vacation, crossing the country headed for California, real olives, and olive oil (wine too). I’ve packed some summer reading – one is an old favorite and the other, I hope with be a new one.

The old favorite is, Under the Tuscan Sun, by former Georgian, Frances Mayes. The book is way better than the movie which, besides fictionalizing the story, doesn’t have the olive tree tending, olive harvesting, pressing, and of course eating parts – the best parts. The descriptions Frances Mayes uses are so vivid I feel like I’m right there with her.

The other book is Carol Drinkwater‘s, The Olive Farm. It is described as, “A Memoir of Life, Love and Olive Oil in the South of France.” I hope it’s good. If it is, I will tackle the rest of her “Olive” stories. By the way, she is also the actress who played Helen, the wife of James Herriot in “All Creatures Great and Small”.  One of my sisters was addicted to that show.

Gotta go read.

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

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