An autumnal harvest in Liguria

By Kate Singleton International Herald Tribune

ALBENGA, Italy For many of the inhabitants of rural Italy, the peak of
the farming calendar is the autumnal olive harvest. Its pleasures are
immediate, since olive oil is best savored as soon as the greenish black
fruits have been pressed. Sampling the new oil, with its characteristic
grassy, peppery aromas is a festive ritual that smacks of pagan origins.
Such enjoyment brightens the days leading into winter.

This is particularly so in Liguria, the northwestern coastal region
sandwiched between Tuscany and Piedmont. Picking begins around the
second week of November, when the temperature is crisp in the morning
and mild by midday.

Liguria is mountainous, with little natural farmland. The olives are
cultivated on sheer, narrow terraces overlooking the sea. The pickers'
equipment consists of a small hand rake to strip the olives from the
branches, a net fastened below to catch the falling fruit, a ladder to
lean against the tree, a firm grip and a good sense of balance.

Though olive cultivation reached Italy with the Greek colonies that
settled in Sicily and Calabria between the sixth and the fourth century
B.C., it took a while for the winter-fruiting, silvery-leafed trees to
spread north up the peninsula. One and a half millennia were to pass
before communities of Benedictine monks, whose dietary rule envisaged
the production and use of olive oil, introduced the species to Liguria.

The first areas in which olives were grown in the region thus coincided
with the location of the earliest monasteries: Santa Maria del Canneto,
in the far western reach of the region, and Lavagna, not far from Genoa,
the regional capital.

The variety grafted by the monks was the Taggiasca olive, which to this
day accounts for 99 percent of production around the coastal town of
Imperia and for more than 60 percent in the vicinity of Genoa, where it
is known as Lavagnina.

Although the religious communities of the ninth and 10th centuries were
producing oil for their own consumption, they gradually influenced local
eating habits, ousting the butter and lard that were typical of Italy's
northern regions. By the 16th century, the mercantile Ligurians were
felling woodland and planting olive groves on terraces cut into the
steep, rocky hillsides. A couple of centuries later, Ligurian oil was so
artfully produced and traded that it practically monopolized the
Mediterranean market.

Huge oil silos near the port in Imperia bear witness to the region's
erstwhile prowess in this sector. Today they remain empty, since the
Ligurians have long since realized that the future lies in gourmet
products, not bulk oils.

Ligurian oils are still largely crushed from Taggiasca olives, plus
varying percentages of a further dozen or so lesser varieties such as
the Pignola, the Mortina and the Razzola.

"The characteristic of these oils is their delicacy and low acidity,"
explained Agostino Sommariva, who with his siblings runs the Antico
Frantoio Sommariva (www.oliosommariva.it) located near the small fertile
plain of Albenga, west of Genoa. "Instead of filling the mouth with a
drum roll of grassy, peppery aromas, as Tuscan oils do," Sommariva
continued, "they are slightly sweeter and more elegant, with hints of
citrus and pine kernels on the finish. This subtlety makes them ideal
condiments for dishes in which the oil should never prevaricate: fresh
fish, for instance; or spring vegetables."

To produce fine olives, olive trees require regular pruning; and to
produce fine oils, the olives need to be picked, usually by hand, before
they are overripe, and pressed without delay. While most Tuscan growers
will take their olives to the village press, many of the Ligurian
producers have invested in extraction plant of their own. Though
relatively small in scale, this stainless steel equipment is both
state-of-the-art and heedful of tradition.

The Sommariva company not only crushes the olives grown organically on
the family property, but also produces a range of the exquisite sauces
and condiments, many of them containing chopped olives, for which
Liguria is rightly renowned.

A little further up the coast toward France, just inland from Imperia,
lies the small town of Chiusavecchia, surrounded by terraced olive
groves. Here the Anfosso family has been running the family olive mill
(www.olioanfosso.it) since 1945. Anfosso has recently invested in
extraction equipment built specially to their design, so that relatively
small amounts of prime olives can be pressed in ideal conditions.

But whether the olives are pressed between steel drums or traditional
millstones, the aim is the same: "Every effort goes into exalting the
particular flavors that are characteristic not only of the variety, but
also of a given altitude, soil and microclimate," explained Alfredo
Anfosso, who works alongside his brother Alessandro in the business in
which his parents, Davide and Angela, are still fully engaged.

Liguria has been quick to invest such differences with formal
recognition in the shape of appellations, or DOPs (Denomination of
Protected Origin). Each year the regional production of olive oil
amounts to around three-million liters, or about 800,000 gallons, of
which approximately 400,000 liters are DOP-registered. And the ratio is
growing, not least because fine olive oils of this sort can fetch, at
source, as much as EUR16, or $21, a liter.

For each of the three Ligurian DOPs there is a specific growing area and
a permitted combination of olive varieties. While all of them bear the
indication "Riviera Ligure," the three sub-zones are actually quite
distinct: the Riviera dei Fiori DOP in the vicinity of Imperia produces
oils that are yellowish in hue and fruity but sweet on the palate;
further east, between Imperia and Genoa, the Ponente Savonese DOP
features yellowy-green oils that are still sweet, but with a little more
bite; and the Riviera di Levante DOP, south east of Genoa, is renowned
for oils that are slightly grassier and peppery.

Today many of the Ligurian olive-oil producers also prepare their own
olives in brine, as well as producing olive pastes and other spreads in
which olive oil or olives play a major, tasty role. Pesto alla Genovese,
the sauce made with fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, cheese and olive
oil, is perhaps the most famous case in point.

Moreover, they use their olive oil to preserve vegetables such as
peppers, tomatoes, chilis and artichokes. There are also numerous
fragrant Ligurian dishes in which olives are featured alongside poultry:
rabbit cooked in Vermentino with Taggiasca olives, for instance, or duck
casserole with olives. Ligurian cuisine derives from times when
ingredients were few and largely wild. With its focus on olive
cultivation, today it is a persuasive ode to inventive parsimony.

"Victor Sack" > wrote in message
...
> An autumnal harvest in Liguria
>
> By Kate Singleton International Herald Tribune

Thank you Victor for the daydream. I saw myself on the Ligurian coast
sitting at a small harborside café below the steep cliffs and hillsides that
protect the village and watching the waves slap against the rocks; waiting
for the boats to return while sipping from a glass of the local red and
looking forward to my evening meal which I know will be semi-fluid with the
oils of Ligurian olives.

Charlie