Extra virgin olive oil (finishing)
A finishing element whose raw, grassy flavour is best preserved by drizzling after baking rather than only before.
- Salt
- low
- Fat
- high
- Sweetness
- low
- Acidity
- low
- Heat
- none
- Moisture
- low
- Umami
- low
- Cooking requirement
- raw ready to eat
Preparation
Drizzled before baking for flavour infusion, or after baking to preserve its raw aroma
A light drizzle; too much makes the pizza greasy
Suitable to add after baking.
Cautions
- a heavy hand undermines a light-crust style like Neapolitan by adding a greasy weight the thin base cannot support
History and cultural context
Central to Mediterranean cooking for millennia and specified by name in the AVPN disciplinare, which requires extra virgin olive oil on both the margherita and the marinara.
Traditional regions: Italy, Spain, Greece, the wider Mediterranean
Frequently replaced with cheaper blended or seed oils in commercial pizza production, and often omitted entirely in domestic recipes despite being a specified component of the traditional pizzas.
Where olive oil is expensive or unfamiliar, other fats take its place — a substitution that changes the finished pizza more than most people expect, because much of the aroma of a Neapolitan pizza comes from oil hitting a very hot surface.
Where it is actually used
Specified in the protected standard for both named pizzas, applied in a spiral before baking.
Well established- Global chain pizzaRareCommercial or chain-driven
Blended or seed oils are the commercial norm on cost grounds.
Generally accepted
What it is called elsewhere
- Olio extravergine di oliva — Italian
- Extra virgin olive oil — English
Commonly repeated, and not supported
- That extra virgin olive oil should never be heated. On a pizza it is applied in a thin film and the bake is short; the traditional standard specifies it precisely for the finished aroma.
- International Regulation for True Neapolitan Pizza (Disciplinare Internazionale) — Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN)
- Modernist Pizza — The Cooking Lab
Pairs well with
- Fresh basil
Explicitly noted as a good balance for Extra virgin olive oil (finishing).
- Pineapple
Its acidity cuts through Extra virgin olive oil (finishing)'s richness.
- Giardiniera
Its acidity cuts through Extra virgin olive oil (finishing)'s richness.
- Fresh tomato slices
Its acidity cuts through Extra virgin olive oil (finishing)'s richness.
- Capers
Its acidity cuts through Extra virgin olive oil (finishing)'s richness.
- Kalamata olives
Its acidity cuts through Extra virgin olive oil (finishing)'s richness.
Suits these styles
How it behaves on a pizza
How preparation changes what this ingredient contributes to the bake and the flavour.
- Finishing oils and hot honey: why they go on last
Extra-virgin olive oil, chilli oil and hot honey are all added after baking because heat destroys exactly what makes them worth using. A good olive oil baked at 250 °C is indistinguishable from a cheap one; honey baked into a pizza caramelises into generic sweetness and can burn.