Pinzimonio allows vegetables, olive oil to shine
The first time I came across pinzimonio I thought it was a mistake. A friend of a friend placed a platter of vegetables on the table with a bowl of olive oil, pale golden-green, in its center. I thought she’d perhaps forgotten the roasted garlic or anchovies? Or did she mean to add vinegar and grated cheese? No, I learned, she’d served us a plate of pinzimonio.
Jim Dixon, founder of Wellspent Market in Portland, Ore., first learned about the dish in the early 2000s after a trip to Italy in 1996 spurred a longtime obsession with regional Italian cooking.
“I view it as more of an approach than an actual dish,” Dixon says, noting that there are many variations. Sometimes vinegar is added, other times garlic or pepper or lemon juice. Some cooks find these additions controversial, but to each cook their own.
I was doubly mistaken when I thought pinzimonio was served in the early fall to highlight the most recent olive oil pressing. Instead, Dixon says, it’s more about the vegetables than the oil. Beatrice Ughi of the Italian importing company Gustiamo concurs. (To celebrate olio nuovo, or the first olive oil pressing, Italians serve fettunta, which is bread soaked in oil. The name of the dish comes from the Tuscan dialect: fetta for “slice,” and unta for “oily” or “greased.”)
While spring vegetables are lovely and tender, fall vegetables deserve their own sort of celebration. Let’s have pinzimonio tonight, then.
There is a seemingly endless number of ways to approach the dish. I like that at its heart, the dish forces the eater to pay attention, to taste the individual vegetables and oil, to appreciate flavors that are often cooked and combined and muddled into some other whole. Taste a leaf of baby kale, a purple carrot, a fresh broccoli floret — really taste it. The oil and a pinch of salt will enhance the flavors of each vegetable just slightly, as though you were putting them under a magnifying glass.
There aren’t many recipes for pinzimonio, because at its most basic, it’s a selection of fresh vegetables served with olive oil for dipping. This recipe spins the Italian classic into a meal with the addition of a simple, lemony white bean dip. Use canned beans for ease, or cook your own white beans before blending them with lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. Spread the dip in a bowl and pour the greenest olive oil you can find over it. Then, use it as a dip for carrots, fennel, bell peppers, radishes, cauliflower, snap peas or any other fresh, crisp vegetable.
Use whatever vegetables you have available. Feel free to include bread or crackers, if you’d like.
Cannellini beans make an especially creamy dip, but any white bean will work.
In place of garlic, try a teaspoon of chopped rosemary.
Pinzimonio With White Bean Dip
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 ½ cups cooked white beans, drained)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste
1 clove garlic, smashed
Ice water, as needed
Fine salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 small carrots (10 ounces total), scrubbed
2 small bulbs fennel (8 ounces total), sliced
½ cup snap peas
1 red bell pepper, sliced OR
2 or 3 mini peppers, halved
8 small radishes OR cauliflower florets
In a food processor, combine the beans, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Process until smooth and thick. With the processor running, drizzle in some ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until the dip is a thick but creamy consistency. Taste, and add lemon juice, if desired, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
To serve, spread the dip in a shallow bowl. Top with a few glugs of olive oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Serve with the carrots, fennel, peas, bell pepper and radishes, for dipping.
Makes 2 to 4 servings.