Flavor Your Life with Le Stagioni d' Italia

Extra virgin olive oil is my absolute favorite oil to work, and I'm so thrilled that Moms Meet and Le Stagioni d' Italia sponsored me for today's blog post to talk about their bottle of 100% Italian extra virgin olive oil! I personally use extra virgin olive oil for cooking, as a dressing, and as a dip in some cases. Ever since I did an olive oil and balsamic tasting room in my 20s, flavor has been a big deal for me. Le Stagioni d' Italia's EVOO has a very light taste with just the smallest hint of a bite at the end. I love how bright it tastes!

As part of the Flavor Your Life campaign, Le Stagioni d' Italia also included a few recipes cards and a box of their Risotto. For today's post, I decided I wanted to try making their Flavor Your Life's Beef Tagliata with my own side creation of asparagus risotto!

Extra virgin olive oil has a high smoking point of 400 F, which means it's great for cooking with below 400 F before it'll start smoking and burning. For this reason, I love that I can use this oil to help get a great sear on my steak without having to reach for butter. It'll also help enhance the flavor of the salad afterward, so that means that I'll need a few less ingredients since EVOO is so universal and packed with flavor.

For the Beef Tagliata recipe, we had to take a little bit of creative liberty for what we could find but it is such an easy throw together dish that you'll impress your friends and family with. Below are the ingredients I used:

Le Stagioni d' Italia's 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Boneless rib eye steaks
Italian seasoning
Freshly ground pepper and salt
Spring mix salad
Baby arugula
Grape tomatoes
Red onion
Balsamic vinegar
Parmesan

For the Beef Tagliata, you want to start by prepping your Greens for the salad as well as any additional ingredients you might want to add. For the salad I used spring mix with a little bit of arugula added in. I added grape tomatoes and thinly sliced red onion for extra texture and flavor. I sent that all into a bowl and set aside. Brush Le Stagioni d' Italia's 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil , and follow up by the seasoning your steak with freshly ground black pepper, salt and mixed herbs. I used Italian seasoning for my mixed herbs.

Pour tablespoon of Le Stagioni d' Italia's 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil into a skillet at medium high heat to heat up oil. Cook each side of your steak for roughly 4 to 7 minutes each, until your steak is cooked to your liking. Avoid constantly flipping your steak back and forth to help make sure that it gets a nice sear on each side. Place your steak on a plate to let it rest. In a small bowl add three tablespoons of Le Stagioni d' Italia's 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil and one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Add to it any resting juices that have built up in the pan as well as your plate. Mix that up and pour over your salad, and thoroughly coat.

Slice your steak into long thin strips. Point your salad, layer your steak strips on top, and top with a nice helping of freshly shaved Parmesan!

The risotto was almost a complete disaster, but in the end it was a huge hit! My grocery delivery didn't come with all my ingredients so I had to do last minute improvising. Risotto is a terrifying dish to take for anyone who has ever seen a Gordon Ramsay show, but I was determined to make this work! For this is used:

Le Stagioni d' Italia's Carnaroli rice
Prosecco
Red onion
Asparagus
Butter
Vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste

For this recipe I diced 1/4 of a very large red onion and cooked it on medium/medium high in 2 tbsp of butter for 5 minutes. Then I added one cup of Le Stagioni d' Italia's Carnaroli rice and cooked it for 3 minutes stirring constantly to ensure nothing burned at the bottom. I then added two cups of vegetable broth and might chopped asparagus into the pot, brought to a simmer and dropped down to medium low. I should have kept it at medium. For the next 15 minutes I slowly added another three cups of vegetable broth and half a cup of water. My pot got too hot and my broth was cooking away at a faster rate than I could keep up with. To help the rice along, I added the half cup of water and raised the temperature back up to medium to cook for an additional 10 minutes.

While things got pretty stressful with this dish I kept at it and we were really happy with how it ended up turning out. Once it was done cooking we placed into a bowl, added salt, pepper and shaved Parmesan.

This part of the meal hit Mike and I on a comfort level that we weren't expecting to feel. Even though neither of us grew up having risotto there was just something a little bit comforting from it that we didn't expect. It made for a really great side and we ended up finishing the entire pot!

I'm so grateful that Moms Meet and Le Stagioni d' Italia chose me and my family to be a part of their flavor of Life campaign. It was so fun to be able to try such a different recipe than what we typically gravitate towards, and I can't wait to add all these recipes to my weeknight options list. We've already started going through trying to decide which recipe we're going to try next (spoiler: it'll be a chicken thigh recipe)!

If you're looking for a new way of cooking, Le Stagioni d' Italia's 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil is exactly what you're looking for to help bring flavor to your dishes from preparations to the cooking to the plating. Extra virgin olive oil adds a lot more flavor and depth, and is so versatile.

100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil doesn't just have to be something you place in your pan to cook with. It can be the base of a dip, it can enhance the flavor of a salad it can be a marinade for meat. If there's anything that I've learned from today is don't limit yourself to what you're comfortable with because you'll never find extraordinary meals to fall in love with.

Let me know in the comments below if you would like me to try any of the other delicious recipes provided for this post. I would love to share more with you guys in the future!