To celebrate Italy’s autumn olive harvest and pressing, we’ve recently devoted our Friday Foods column to a series on that one essential ingredient to La Cucina Italiana – olive oil. An integral part of Italian cooking in all of Italy’s diverse regions from north to south, olive oil has become an important part of Italian culture and daily life. But what is the story behind that bottle of olive oil sitting on your counter? In our olive oil series we’ve followed the production of Italy’s “liquid gold” from the age-old harvesting traditions to the many different methods for extracting the olive oil. But with so many different types of oils to choose from, you’ll also want to check out our recent posts on choosing the best olive oils and how to keep them tasting their freshest.

If you’ve missed any of our series on olive oil in Italy, we thought it would be handy to have the articles all gathered together in one handy post for easy reference. For those of you new to The italyMONDO! Blog, we hope you enjoy reading about olive oil from harvesting to pressing to enjoying it with your favorite Italian dishes. Buon appetito!

For the Love of Olives – Italy’s Olive Culture

October marks the beginning of the olive harvest season in Italy, and traveling across the Italian countryside, you’ll find that the olive tree—that ancient symbol of abundance, longevity and peace—is just as much an integral part of the landscape as its luscious oils are a part of La Cucina Italiana. Dotting the hillsides in picturesque groves or popping up unexpectedly alongside a mountain road, the distinctive silvery green leaves and the large, gnarled forms are indelible symbols of Italian culture. The first part of our olive oil series, this article will introduce you to Italy’s ancient olive culture.

La Raccolta – The Olive Harvest in Italy

One of the most exciting times of the year to travel through the Italian countryside is during the autumn olive harvest. The hillside olive groves come alive with activity as nets are spread out under trees and family and friends gather for the harvest. This yearly event is an ancient tradition in Italy, even older than the many century-old olive trees, and the chance to see it with your own eyes offers a moving connection to the past. This article will introduce you to the traditional and modern-day olive harvesting methods in Italy.

Il Frantoio – From Olives to Olive Oil

Once harvested, olives must be pressed as soon as possible – generally within 36 hours at most. After the hard work of the harvest, the freshly picked olives are rushed to the olive pressing mills called oleificio or frantoio. This time of year the mills from the north to the south of Italy run almost around the clock. Much like the different harvesting methods used across Italy, there are just as many different ways to press oil. In this article you can read about the olive pressing process, including the best part, sampling some of the season’s freshly pressed olive oil!

Olive Oil and La Cucina Italiana

Italy is known worldwide for its distinct regional cooking traditions. But no matter where you travel in Italy, you’ll find that olive oil is an integral part of La Cucina Italiana. Without it any Italian kitchen would come to a grinding halt. This love of olive oil drives Italy’s Olive Culture, and the hard work of the yearly Olive Harvest and Pressing that we’ve talked about in the first three parts of our olive oil series here on The italyMONDO! Blog. Now that Italy’s fresh oils are coming off the (cold) presses, read on in this article for tips on how to enjoy them in your own kitchen.

italyMONDO!’s Olive Oil 101

To wrap up our five part series on olive oil, here is italyMONDO!’s Olive Oil 101, where you can learn about the many varieties of olive oil, what the different names indicate, and what determines the unique flavor of each oil. You’ll also learn how to choose the best bottle, as well as handy tips for how to store your olive oil to preserve its flavor from the first to the last drop. What better way to finish your olive oil introduction than with our olive oil Italian vocabulary that will help you find the best olive oil during your travels in Italy.

Two weeks ago, in a post about Olive Oil and La Cucina Italiana, we left off daydreaming about all the wonderful ways olive oil is used in Italian cooking. But good food and reveries aside, there are some basic facts about olive that will help you make the best of that freshly pressed oil you’ve just brought home from the frantoio. And with so many different olive oils to choose from at the store, how do you choose the best one? Once you’ve brought it home, how should to store it to keep it fresh from the first to the last drop? Read on to learn some handy olive oil tips.

Types of Olive Oil
With all of its health benefits, olive oil has received a great deal of press in recent years, and many know already that Extra-virgin Olive Oil (Olio Extravergine di Oliva) offers best quality, flavors and nutrients. To be labeled Extra-virgin, the olive oil must be produced in what is termed a “cold press” where heat during pressing doesn’t raise above 80° F (27°C). Acidity levels also determine the quality of the oil. Extra-virgin oils must have an acidity level lower than 1%. Oils with an acidity level between 1-2% with a nice flavor and color are often labeled as Virgin Olive Oil (Olio Vergine di Oliva). Oils with acidity levels between 2-3.3% are labeled Ordinary Virgin Oil (Olio di Oliva Vergine Corrente), and are often used for frying or cooking where the flavor of the oil is not as important. Any olive oils produced with acidity levels over 3.3% are termed Olio Lampante (named because it used to be used to light lamps!) and are not used for cooking. Nothing is wasted during olive pressing, and what remains of the olive pulp after pressing, called sansa, is often burned for fuel or can be sold to olive refineries that use chemical solvents to extract even more oil. The oil produced by this method is labeled Olio di Sansa in Italy and it is a much lower quality product, often lacking in flavor.

A good olive oil flavor depends not only on the acidity and production methods, but also on the type of olives used and on the particular location and seasonal climate where they are grown. Some of Italy’s regions are geographically quite diverse, which means that oils produced in the same region near the sea can differ significantly from those produced in more mountainous areas with cooler temperatures. Colors and flavors of oils vary from dark green to light golden and strong and pungent to delicate and fruity. For example, the fine oils made with the local Dritta olives in the provinces of Pescara and Teramo in the Abruzzo region are known for their rich and fruity aroma, while those from the neighboring Molise region made with the local Gentile di Larino olives offer a delicate flavor with a slight aftertaste of almonds. Heading further south, olive oil from Puglia and Calabria can be quite peppery with an intense aroma perfectly complementing the spicy local dishes. This range and variety of flavors is what makes sampling olive oil from the top of the boot to the toe such an exciting culinary adventure.

Buying and Storing Olive Oil
The first thing to keep in mind when selecting an olive oil is to remember that it is a delicate product and must be packaged and stored carefully. Olive oil does not improve with age as wine does, and it is best used within a year after production. Take the time to check for a date while shopping and fresher flavors will be your reward. Like any fat, olive oil can become rancid or loose its flavor and health benefits if it is not stored properly. The two main enemies of olive oil are light and heat. Look for olive oil packaged in tins or tinted bottles rather than clear ones, and remember never to store your olive oil in a sunny spot! The ideal temperature for olive oil is between 58-64° F (14-18° C), so be sure not to store it next to your stove as the heat can quickly change the oil’s quality. Too cold is also no good, so get that olive out of the refrigerator!

Olive oil easily absorbs aromas, making it an ideal base for perfumes and for aromatic oils, such as those commonly made in Italy like chili pepper oil, rosemary oil and citrus oils. However, this also means that olive oil quickly absorbs bad odors as well. Be sure to store your oil in a container that has been thoroughly cleaned and dried, and keep it away from strong smells.

Olive Oil Vocabulary
The following list will help you brush up on your olive oil vocabulary and help you find the best olive oil during your travels in Italy.

Olio di oliva – Olive oil
Olio extravergine di oliva – Extra-virgin olive oil
Olio vergine di oliva – Virgin olive oil
Olio di oliva vergine corrente – Ordinary or plain olive oil
Olio lampante – “Lampante” olive oil
La raccolta – Harvest
Brucatura – Harvesting of only the ripe olives from the tree by hand
Pettinatura – Harvesting of olives using hand held rakes
Bacchiatura – Harvesting of olives by beating the branches with poles
Il frantoio – Olive mill or press
Olio nuovo – Freshly pressed oil
Sansa – Olive pulp left after pressing

Photo Courtesy of “SteffanyF!” at Flickr

Italy is known worldwide for its diverse cooking traditions. Varying from region to region as you travel from the top of the boot to the toe, you’ll find unique specialties to try in each place you stop along the way. However, there are a few staples that bind together these countless local and regional dishes that form what we call La Cucina Italiana, one of the most fundamental elements being extra virgin olive oil. Without “EVOO” any Italian kitchen (including Rachael Ray’s!) would come to a grinding halt. This love of olive oil is what drives Italy’s Olive Culture, and the hard work of the yearly Olive Harvest and Pressing that we’ve talked about over the past few weeks here on The italyMONDO! Blog. But now that Italy’s fresh oils are coming off the (cold) presses, how should you use it in your kitchen?

No matter where you travel in Italy today, you will find olive oil an important part of Italian cooking. But it wasn’t all that long ago that its popular use was limited mostly to the central and southern regions of Italy, as well as the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, where the warmer climate offered the ideal growing environment for olive trees. (Even today the southern regions of Puglia and Calabria are Italy’s top olive oil producers). The northern regions of Italy instead depended more on butter for their cooking fat, developing a dairy culture as opposed to the southern olive culture. You’ll actually find this geographic and gastronomical anomaly reflected in two of the simplest dishes still served in the two regions. In the north you’ll find pasta al burro (pasta with butter) while in the south it will be pasta all’ aglio e olio (pasta with garlic and oil). The staples of millions of peasants for centuries, these were the simplest, quickest and most economical dishes that could be made with the ingredients available, and ironically is now often served in many of the best restaurants in the country.

Olive oil is used in countless ways in southern Italian cooking, and it is safe to say that without it you won’t go far past the antipasto without it. It is the base for almost every pasta sauce, and is used for frying all types of vegetables as well as those tasty arancini (rice balls) and polpette (meatballs) that nonna used to make. It is drizzled over salads, both raw and roasted vegetables as well as fish and meats. You will even find it used to preserve tuna and anchovies! A piping hot dish of pasta e fagioli (pasta with beans) wouldn’t be complete without a little crude olive oil drizzled over the top. Even better, add some peperoncino (chili pepper) flakes to the oil and let the spicy flavors blend together, creating a popular southern Italian condiment often simply known as “forte” (strong). Anyone who has visited the region of Calabria can attest to the merits of the name!

Olive oil is used in countless ways in southern Italian cooking, and it is safe to say that without it you won’t go far past the antipasto without it. It is the base for almost every pasta sauce, and is used for frying all types of vegetables as well as those tasty arancini (rice balls) and polpette (meatballs) that nonna used to make.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when cooking with olive oil is to remember that a particular oil might not be suitable for every recipe you’re cooking up. Just as a great bottle of Chianti won’t be the perfect accompaniment for every dish, you must carefully select your olive oil to make the most of your Italian meal. The decision is difficult, though, as olive oils come in a variety of colors and flavors and not one can be described as “the best.” The decision depends more upon your personal taste and how the oil will be used. A light olive oil with a subtle flavor won’t overpower the delicate baked fish dish, and a spicier or even pleasantly bitter oil might be the perfect finishing touch for your salad. If possible, taste your olive oil before buying to see if it has a good aroma and flavor and aftertaste that appeals to you. At home, experiment with different combinations of new oils, keeping in mind that you might have more than one in the house for different types of cooking.

While a bottle of artisan-made olive oil may be more expensive than the large, industrial-made varieties, one taste of the fresh flavors will quickly convert you. Drizzled over fresh salads, bread, pasta (and just about everything else!), olive oil is truly an essential ingredient of Italian cooking and one worth experiencing at its best. Visit The italyMONDO! Blog again next Friday for more tips on buying and storing your olive oil, and a handy olive oil vocabulary list so you’ll be ready to discover the freshest olio d’oliva during your travels in Italy.

Photo Courtesy of “Chez Pim” at Flickr

The Italian countryside in autumn is a picturesque scene of rolling hillsides dotted with olive trees, their branches full of ripe olives shining in the Mediterranean sun. Imagining this vista, who isn’t tempted to pluck one of these enticing little olives off the tree and give it a taste? After all, they look so much like the cured olives that make such delectable antipasti here in Italy. However, anyone who has given in to this temptation knows how the extreme bitterness of raw olives runs up and down the spine, making one’s face form unrepeatable contortions. (Much to the amusement of any Italians who might be watching!) That is when you realize just how much of a marvel it is that, with only some hard work and know-how, these bitter little fruits can be turned into the rich, golden oil so important to La Cucina Italiana.

Last week we learned about La Raccolta – The Olive Harvest in Italy – and we left off as the olives were being rushed to the oleificio or frantoio, the two words you’ll see used in Italian to describe the many olive pressing mills scattered throughout the countryside. Once harvested, olives must be pressed as soon as possible – generally within 36 hours at most. That means that during this time of year olives mills from north to south run almost around the clock as one truck or ape (the small three-wheeled vehicle driven by many farmers and beloved by camera-wielding tourists) after another pulls up with their precious cargo.

Much like the different harvesting methods used across Italy, there are just as many different ways to press oil. From the ancient method of using millstones to today’s high tech machines that – from cleaning to pressing the olives – automatically complete every step, each process has its advocates for why it is the best. While there are several variations on the process, let’s walk through the traditional methods first.

The initial step is to prepare the olives for pressing by separating any stems and leaves and washing them. Once clean, the next step, called the frangitura, is where the olives – pits and all – are crushed until they form a brown paste. During the crushing, this paste is kneaded and generally heated ever so slightly so the oils will be released. The exact temperature of heating is a topic of great debate and often varies from one olive grower to the next, but the heat will never rise over 80ºF (27ºC)—the maximum temperature allowed during extraction to still consider the oil “cold pressed.” In the traditional stone ground method, large granite wheels slowly crush the olives as they rotate. In modern methods they are sometimes sliced with sharp blades instead of being crushed, but in many modern mills wheels are still often used—only now they are powered by a powerful engine instead of donkeys and oxen! The aromatic fragrance that arises as these fresh olives are crushed is the first taste an onlooker has of the fine olive oil to come.

Watching the freshly pressed oil drip out of the centrifuge in vivid shades of greens and golds is the moment of truth as this year’s labor and harvest can finally be tasted.

Once crushed, the next step is called the gramolatura, where the olive paste is spread out onto many circular mats made of a woven material, which are then stacked on top of one another and placed in a hydraulic press. As the olive paste is very slowly pressed, a reddish brown mixture of oil and water emerges from the press. This liquid produced from the estrazione (extraction) still doesn’t look like the luscious green and gold olive oils you would expect. To make the final product, this liquid is put in a centrifuge that separates the oil from the water. Watching the freshly pressed oil drip out of the centrifuge in vivid shades of greens and golds is the moment of truth as this year’s labor and harvest can finally be tasted. As you can imagine, to be in the frantoio and taste the “prima spremitura” – the first pressing – is a true delight!

Today modern mills often use an entirely mechanical method, which can combine some – if not all – of these steps into one continual cycle from washing to the final product. While not as romantic an image as the stone mills, the modern continuous cycle mechanical pressing offers many advantages. Each step takes place in a temperature controlled environment, and the stainless steel machines allow for easy sterilization and cleaning. This flexibility and control, as well as the fine olive oils produced, has made the continuous cycle process more and more popular over recent years.

Italians love their olive oil and take great pride in it as well. This is what makes the annual harvest and pressing of olives such a labor of love for so many. The job isn’t done just yet, though! Stop by next Friday for our final post in this series celebrating the olive as we talk about the finished product and the many ways this “liquid gold” is used in La Cucina Italiana.

Photo Courtesy of “Chris P.” at Flickr

One of the most exciting times of the year to travel through the Italian countryside is during the autumn olive harvest. The hillside olive groves—home only to sheep and goats during much of the year—come alive with activity as nets are spread out under the trees and family and friends gather for the harvest. This yearly event is an ancient tradition in Italy, even older than the many century-old olive trees you may encounter, and the chance to see it with your own eyes offers a moving connection to the past. And, if you’re lucky, you’ll even be able to sample some of the season’s freshly pressed olive oil!

The production of olive oil—from harvesting by hand to pressing—is a labor intensive and delicate process. Beginning in October and November, Italians patiently and passionately begin the olive raccolta (harvest). To create the highest quality olive oil, it is important to time the harvest perfectly. Olives begin to ripen in the crisp autumn air, and the best time to harvest is just when they are beginning to change colors from green to black. This is when they contain the most high quality oil and are most valuable.

Yet olives don’t mature at the same time—sometimes not even on the same tree. Since many small, family-run olive farms can’t afford the expense of harvesting multiple times, the trick is choosing the moment when the largest amounts of olives are mature. In the past, olives were often left to mature until they began to fall to the ground. This caused the harvest to be pushed off until the winter and sometimes early spring. It’s now known that this method doesn’t produce the highest quality of oils, and in this case it turns out that man is actually better than nature when it comes to deciding when the harvest begins.

Although olive producers know that the best oils come from picking early in the season, each swears by their own harvesting method—a process which plays an important role in the quality of the olive oil they produce. There are two main techniques for harvesting olives; either the traditional harvest by hand picking, or using newer mechanical methods. Both have their advocates, but in the end it is Italy’s rough terrain that usually decides. Using the “tree-shaking” machinery and power brushes is only possible on level ground where the trees are adequately spaced apart. In the mountainous mezzogiorno—the term used to describe Southern Italy—this is rarely the case! The rocky, terraced hillsides of many olive groves in southern regions such as Abruzzo, Calabria and Sicily has ensured that manual harvesting remains the most common method through much of the south—and even in the more industrialized north as well.

The rocky, terraced hillsides of many olive groves in southern regions such as Abruzzo, Calabria and Sicily has ensured that manual harvesting remains the most common method through much of the southern Italy.

Olives are removed from the trees using different methods, depending on the size of the tree and the lie of the land. The ideal harvesting method is to hand pick the ripe olives from the trees, which is an intensely physical job from beginning to end. Nets are carefully spread under the trees, and the olives are stripped from the trees in a number a ways, including by hands, with special rakes or with long sticks. Hand picking the ripe olives, called brucatura, is the simplest, but most time consuming, method. More often olives are harvested following the pettinatura method, where olives are stripped from the branches using bare or gloved hands and special rakes. For tall trees, long sticks or canes are used to beat the branches until all the olives have fallen into the nets below, a method that the Italians call bacchiatura.

Where mechanical harvesting is possible, tractors are used to power rotating brushes that are used to carefully strip the olives from the trees into the nets waiting below. Also becoming popular are “tree-shaking” machines that grabs onto the truck of the tree and literally shakes the ripest olives right off their branches! However, no matter the method, harvesting always continues until the trees have been stripped of their prized fruits.

But the work isn’t over yet. Once harvested, the olives are packed into airy harvest trays and must be quickly taken to the frantoio, or the olive pressing mill, within 36 hours after they’re picked. The sooner the better, because once picked heat and humidity can cause molds to form easily, contaminating the oil’s delicate flavor.

So now that the olives are off to the presses all across Italy, be sure to stop by The italyMONDO! Blog next Friday to learn all about the frantoio and the production of Italy’s fine olio d’oliva.

Buona Raccolta!

Photo Courtesy of “scanavacca1986” at Flickr

All across the Italian countryside, you’ll find that the olive tree—that ancient symbol of abundance, longevity and peace—is just as much an integral part of the landscape as its luscious oils are a part of La Cucina Italiana. Dotting the hillsides in picturesque groves or popping up unexpectedly alongside a mountain road, the distinctive silvery green leaves and the large–gnarled forms are indelible symbols of Italian culture.

As la vendemmia (wine harvest) winds down, October marks the beginning of the olive harvest season in Italy, which lasts through the end of December and stretches as late as February in some regions. Olive groves are easy to spot this time of year. The first sign of harvest is the web of nets that are spread out under the trees to collect the olives as they begin to be gathered. Harvesting is still routinely done by hand, as it has been for centuries, and is a yearly ritual often as old as the trees themselves.

The olive culture has deep roots throughout the Mediterranean. Since ancient times the olive tree has been a symbol of wisdom, purification, glory and peace—and has been used for medicine, beauty and religious practices as well as in the kitchen. In ancient Greece, olive branches and oil were offered to deities, important figures and the deceased in elaborate rituals. The precious oils anointed the skins of athletes and the noblest heads of antiquity, and the branches crowned the victorious of both athletic games and wars.

Not native to the Italian peninsula, it was the Greeks who introduced the olive tree to Italy when southern Italy and Sicily were thriving parts of the Magna Graecia. The Romans were quick to recognize the virtues of olives, and became massive producers and consumers of olive oil. The Greek writer Homer referred to olive oil as “liquid gold,” and the Romans capitalized on it by turning Rome into an important center of oil trade. By the 1st century AD, the Roman historian Pliny wrote that Italy’s olive oil was the best in the Mediterranean. Today Italy is still the world leader in the production of top quality olive oil.

The Greek writer Homer referred to olive oil as “liquid gold,” and the Romans capitalized on it by turning Rome into an important center of oil trade.

Nowadays, olives are grown throughout the length of Italy, from Liguria and Tuscany, down through Abruzzo and Molise, and into southern regions of Campania, Basilicata, Puglia and Sicily. There are countless varieties of olives that grow throughout Italy, with each of the 20 regions having a specific climate suitable for numerous different cultivars. Olive trees are evergreen and they can live for hundreds or even thousands of years, growing wonderfully twisted and gnarled with time. The olives are either green or black, but the black varieties are green until they begin to change color as they ripen.

The beginning of the olive harvest in the autumn means that this season’s fresh, aromatic oils will soon be available throughout Italy. Whether drizzled over bruschetta, a salad, or warm pasta dishes (and that’s just the beginning!), olive oil is the ultimate symbol of La Cucina Italiana. Now that the olive harvest is taking place all over Italy, stop by The ItalyMONDO! Blog on the Friday’s to come to learn more about la raccolta (the olive harvest) and il frantoio (oil pressing mills)–and to savor the many flavors of Italy’s olio d’oliva.

Photo Courtesy of “Carnaval King 08” at Flickr