Maple-Candied Pecan Salad with Arugula, Raw Sheep’s Milk Cheese, and Quebec-Bottled Moroccan Olive Oil

I’m an olive oil snob.

It’s not my fault. It’s this darn lactose-intolerance. At restaurants (before I became gluten-intolerant…) I always had to request olive oil instead of butter for bread, and a good olive oil made me feel almost as though I wasn’t missing out, especially if it was a Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or Greek place where a dark bottle of cold-pressed oil from Abuelo or Nonno Alberto, Avô Alberte, or Παππούς Abderus (respectively) was placed on the table like liquid gold.

Moroccan grandfathers (and fathers, and sons, and presumably, daughters and mothers), however, are looking for a larger piece of the extra-virgin pie. Morocco currently ranks 4th in world production of olive oil, following in the footsteps of its Mediterranean brothers and sisters.

In the same sense of olive oil-based family tradition, Quebec is joining the market. No, we don’t have abundant olive orchards in Magog. But we do have DivineOlive, owned by Moroccan-Canadian Mohamed Boujra, who’s importing his family’s olive oil and bottling it in the Montérégie. He’s been involved in the production of his family’s oil since he was a kid, and he’s now launching a high-end oil to join his quality, daily-use oil. Both are cold-pressed and extra-virgin, but the olives are harvested at different stages of maturity, so their acidity levels differ. The oil comes from the Fès region of northern Morocco, closest to the Mediterranean sea.

Boujra oversees the entire production, from harvest and pressing in Morocco to shipping in giant vats and bottling in Quebec. He explicitly states that he uses olives from each’s year’s harvest – no second-rate or leftover olives. Did you even know that happened? Apparently it does.

His two olive oils:

DivineOlive: this one’s been around for awhile. It has a very low acidity of 0.13%. The olives are harvested while green. The taste? Light, delicate, a little fruity and a little herbal. It’s available in Quebec specialty grocers. It’s around $12 for 250mL/$20 for 500mL. You’re supposed to save it for drizzling on dishes just before serving, on salads, with bread, on pasta and with grilled meats. Don’t cook with it.

Then there’s Ol’vie: This is the new one. It has 0.3% acidity and is more affordable. Use it for cooking, marinades and vinaigrettes. These olives are picked a little later in the season once the olives are have truly ripened. It’s gentler, in flavour and price, going for ~$10 for 750 ml or $30 for 3 litres. The press release says “ideal for restaurants,” but I’d also say Greeks.

And lactose-intolerants. Especially those who can still eat raw, unpasteurized sheep’s milk cheeses on dreamy arugula salads (picked from the garden that morning, and possibly nibbled by some little beetle that also thinks the leaves are delicious).

Maple-Candied Pecan Salad with Arugula, Raw Sheep’s Milk Cheese, and Quebec-Bottled Moroccan Olive Oil

You can make this salad with your sweetener of choice. Maple syrup is spectacular. Honey is great. Coconut sugar is lovely. Agave works. White sugar is fine in a pinch. You just need to melt the solid sugars before tossing them with the nuts. I made this with the leftover candied pecans from my puy lentil salad with grilled endive and maple-red wine vinaigrette. I used them sparingly in that recipe so I could keep enjoying them. But you can also make a batch just for this salad. It’s worth it. Trust me. A little here goes a long way, though. And chopping them small makes them stretch even further. If you have leftovers, there’s no way you won’t use them up another way. Such as by snacking. Constantly.