Ingredient

Extra virgin olive oil Recipes

44 recipes with extra virgin olive oil for weeknights, meal prep, and quick ingredient searches. Choose by time, cuisine, and what is in your kitchen.

44 recipes

High-Fiber White Bean & Chickpea Skillet with canned white beans, canned chickpeas and canned crushed tomatoes — Mediterranean recipe

🌊MediterraneanAdvanced

Vegetable and Mushroom Dishes

High-Fiber White Bean & Chickpea Skillet

White beans and chickpeas in a garlicky tomato base with smoked paprika and wilted spinach — one skillet, 25 minutes, around 18 g of fiber per serving. This is the kind of dinner that looks simple and then keeps you full for four hours. No meat, no gluten, and genuinely good enough to make on a weeknight without thinking of it as a compromise. Serve with crusty bread or flatbread to drag through the sauce.

25 min380 kcal4 serves

🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free💪High protein

Çılbır (Turkish Eggs) with eggs, Greek yogurt and butter — Turkey recipe

🇹🇷TurkeyMedium

Breakfast and Brunch

Çılbır (Turkish Eggs)

Poached eggs on a bed of thick, garlicky yogurt, finished with warm spiced butter or olive oil. Çılbır (pronounced chil-bir) dates to the Ottoman court of the 15th century. The combination sounds unusual — cold yogurt with hot eggs — but the contrast is exactly the point: the cool, tangy, creamy yogurt cushions the egg, the runny yolk breaks into it, and the red-tinted butter pools on top and sizzles when it hits the yogurt. This is one of those dishes that takes fifteen minutes and tastes like it took an hour. Bread is mandatory. You will not leave a drop.

15 min390 kcal2 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Pasta alla Puttanesca with spaghetti, anchovy fillets and olives — Italy recipe

🇮🇹ItalyMedium

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Pasta alla Puttanesca

A bold, briny Neapolitan pasta sauce built entirely from pantry staples: anchovies, olives, capers, garlic, and canned tomatoes. The name translates roughly as 'in the manner of a prostitute' — the exact origin is disputed but the dish is genuinely Neapolitan, from the Spanish Quarter, and dates to at least the mid-20th century. What makes it work is the combination of four distinct salty elements — the anchovy dissolves into the oil, the capers add a floral brine, the olives add a fruity richness, the tomato provides acidity — and none of them taste quite right alone, but together they produce something complex and deeply savory in under twenty minutes. Do not worry about the anchovies: they disappear completely into the oil and leave no fishy taste. Only their umami remains.

25 min490 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick🌶️Spicy

Baked Feta Pasta with pasta, cherry or grape tomatoes and feta cheese — Finland recipe

🇫🇮FinlandMedium

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Baked Feta Pasta

A whole block of feta baked in the center of a dish of cherry tomatoes and olive oil until golden and soft, then smashed together with roasted garlic and fresh basil into a creamy, tangy sauce that gets tossed with pasta. This dish went viral in Finland in 2019 under the name uunifetapasta (oven-baked feta pasta), created by food blogger Jenni Häyrinen. It hit TikTok in 2021, and shops in several countries reported selling out of feta. The reason it works is simple: baking concentrates the tomatoes into something sweeter and more intense than fresh, and the feta bakes from a crumbly block into a soft, creamy, salt-forward mass that forms a sauce without any effort. The whole dish requires almost no technique — just one baking dish, one pot for pasta, and about 40 minutes of oven time.

45 min610 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌶️Spicy

Saganaki with kefalotyri or graviera cheese, flour and olive oil — Greece recipe

🇬🇷GreeceEasy

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Saganaki

Saganaki is a Greek appetizer of firm cheese (kefalotyri, kefalograviera or graviera) dredged in flour and pan-fried in olive oil until the outside forms a thin golden crust and the inside turns soft. The 250 g of cheese here makes two slabs, enough for four as a meze at half a slab each. The dish takes about 10 minutes from start to finish and must be eaten immediately — the crust stays crisp for only a few minutes before it softens as the cheese cools. A squeeze of fresh lemon over the hot cheese just before serving cuts through the richness and is not optional. Saganaki is the name of both the small two-handled frying pan traditionally used and, by extension, the dish itself.

10 min270 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick

Chimichurri Rojo (Argentine Red Chimichurri) with roasted red bell pepper, fresh flat leaf parsley and red wine vinegar — Argentina recipe

🇦🇷ArgentinaMedium

Sauces and Dips

Chimichurri Rojo (Argentine Red Chimichurri)

Chimichurri rojo is the red version of Argentina's chimichurri, the uncooked sauce of parsley, garlic, oregano, wine vinegar and oil that goes on grilled meat. The red comes from pimentón dulce (sweet paprika) and ají molido, the crushed dried chili of the Argentine pantry; some cooks there also add chopped red bell pepper (morrón), and this recipe takes that route, charring the pepper over a flame first. Everything is chopped by hand, stirred with the vinegar, then covered with oil. Hands-on time is about 30 minutes; the pepper steams under a plate for 10 minutes while you chop the rest, and the finished sauce needs 30 minutes on the counter before it tastes right. Makes about 350 ml (1½ cups); a serving is about 3 tablespoons.

30 min110 kcal8 serves

🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Gazpacho Andaluz (Classic Spanish Cold Tomato Soup) with ripe tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar — Spain recipe

🇪🇸SpainMedium

Soups

Gazpacho Andaluz (Classic Spanish Cold Tomato Soup)

Gazpacho is not a recipe — it is a summer habit in Andalusia. Ripe tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, garlic, sherry vinegar, and a generous pour of olive oil go into the blender raw and come out as a cold, silky, bright-tasting soup that is consumed by the glass as much as by the bowl. The quality of the tomatoes decides everything. Needs at least two hours in the fridge before it tastes right.

20 min145 kcal4 serves

🌱Vegan⚡Quick🌿Vegetarian

Green Goddess Dressing with fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, fresh tarragon leaves and full fat mayonnaise — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAMedium

Sauces and Dips

Green Goddess Dressing

Green Goddess is a creamy American herb dressing made from mayonnaise, fresh parsley, chives and tarragon, with anchovy for depth and lemon for acid. It is usually traced to the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in the 1920s; this version lightens the mayonnaise with Greek yogurt and adds a little garlic. It contains anchovy (fish) and egg (in the mayonnaise); for a fish allergy, leave the anchovy out and use one of the swaps in the FAQ. The result is vivid green, herb-forward, and complex in a way no bottled version gets close to. Doubles as a dip, a sandwich spread, and a sauce for grilled fish or chicken. Makes about 360 g, enough for 8 servings of 3 tablespoons. Ready in 10 minutes, plus 20 minutes in the fridge before serving.

10 min140 kcal8 serves

🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Whipped Feta with Hot Honey and Pistachio with feta cheese, Greek yogurt and honey — Greece recipe

🇬🇷GreeceMedium

Sauces and Dips

Whipped Feta with Hot Honey and Pistachio

Whipped feta with hot honey and pistachio is a creamy salty-sweet mezze dip — block feta blended with Greek yogurt, lemon zest, and olive oil into a fluffy spread, then drizzled with chili-infused honey and topped with toasted pistachios. The contrast is the whole point: salty brined sheep's milk cheese against sweet floral honey with a slow chili burn, and crunchy pistachio against the silky base. It takes about 15 minutes of hands-on work in a food processor (plus 15 minutes for the honey to infuse and 30 minutes for the cheese to come to room temperature) and serves six on a mezze board with warm pita, crackers, or sliced pear. The hot honey is easy to make at home if you cannot find it in shops.

15 min230 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

Watermelon Feta Mint Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing with watermelon, feta cheese and mint — Mediterranean recipe

🌊MediterraneanMedium

Salads

Watermelon Feta Mint Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing

Watermelon feta mint salad is a cold summer salad from the eastern Mediterranean table: cubes of sweet watermelon and salty block feta with cucumber, red onion and torn mint in a honey-lime dressing. In Greece and Turkey a slice of cold watermelon with a piece of white brined cheese (karpuz peynir in Turkish) is an old summer habit; the tossed salad is a modern take on it. The trick is contrast: salt amplifies the watermelon's sweetness, watermelon water tames the sharpness of feta, and mint plus lime cut through the heaviness with brightness. Active work is 15 minutes; the watermelon needs at least 2 hours in the fridge first. The 1 kg in the list is flesh without rind, which takes a melon of about 1.7 kg. Serves 6 as a side dish for grilled meats, fish, or as a light starter.

15 min180 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Branzino al Sale (Italian Salt-Crusted Whole Sea Bass) with whole branzino, coarse sea salt and egg whites — Italy recipe

🇮🇹ItalyMedium

Fish and Seafood Dishes

Branzino al Sale (Italian Salt-Crusted Whole Sea Bass)

Branzino al sale is the classic Italian salt-crusted sea bass — a whole fish buried under coarse sea salt mixed with egg whites, baked at 200°C for 30 minutes, then cracked open at the table. The salt forms a hard dome that turns the oven into a sealed steam chamber: the fish cooks in its own moisture and the aromas of lemon, thyme, and rosemary. Despite the dramatic amount of salt, the flesh emerges perfectly seasoned, never salty — the skin and scales keep the salt out. Restaurant-style Mediterranean seafood in its simplest form: high-protein, gluten-free, keto-friendly, and entirely hands-off once in the oven. Active work 10 minutes, bake 30 minutes. Serves 4 from two 700 g fish.

40 min220 kcal4 serves

💪High protein🌾Gluten-free🥑Keto

Aïoli (Traditional Provençal Garlic and Olive Oil Sauce) with garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil and egg yolk — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceEasy

Sauces and Dips

Aïoli (Traditional Provençal Garlic and Olive Oil Sauce)

Aïoli is the classic Provençal garlic and olive oil sauce — a thick, glossy, intensely garlicky emulsion made from raw garlic, egg yolk, and extra virgin olive oil. Its name comes from Occitan: alh (garlic) and òli (oil). The authentic 'aïoli véritable' uses no egg and relies purely on garlic's emulsifying compounds, but Larousse Gastronomique and modern French restaurants now standardize the egg-yolk version as 'aïoli'. In Provence, this sauce is the centerpiece of Le Grand Aïoli — a Friday lunch of boiled vegetables, salt cod, and hard-boiled eggs all dipped into a communal bowl. Vegetarian, gluten-free, keto-friendly. Active work 15 minutes, no cooking. Yields 250 ml, serves 8.

15 min220 kcal8 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Ingredients

Goes well with

Other ingredients that appear most often alongside extra virgin olive oil across the archive. Pick one to drill deeper.

tomato eggs garlic parmesan basil spaghetti anchovy fillets eggplant capers feta cheese cucumber celery