Italians use almost exclusively extra virgin olive oil in their cooking. They use it to make pasta sauce, salad dressing, drizzle on top of pizza, as part of a cake recipe, and so much more. While you may have heard that extra virgin olive oil doesn’t have a high smoke point, so it can’t be used for pan frying or high-heat cooking, that’s not exactly true. Extra virgin olive oil can be used for most cooking projects including sautéing, baking, and shallow pan frying. The only exception is deep-frying. I’d opt for peanut, sunflower, canola, or vegetable oil for deep-fried foods.