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Olives
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Description
Name: Olives.
Product type: Fruit.
Colour and texture: From light to dark green, with flavour that varies considerably from one variety to another. Of the hundreds of varieties catalogued in Italy, only a few dozen are used today.
Harvest: Olives are harvested by beating the branches with long poles or using shaking machines which mechanically shake the tree.
Production area: Mediterranean basin.
Note: The olive tree has always featured in Mediterranean culture; sacred to the goddess whom the Greeks called Athena (Minerva to the Romans), its fronds, along with laurel, were once used to crown the heads of victorious Roman generals. Frost is the olive tree's main enemy, but the plant is also vulnerable to attack by a type of fly known as the olive fly, which causes serious damage to production. |
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SACRED, NOT JUST TO ATHENA |
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Italian cuisine would be lost without the olive, and not just the fruit since, when pressed, it yields an oil of great nutritional value which is used as a dressing throughout the Mediterranean basin.
Olives in fact constitute a tasty ingredient in many recipes, even though most consumers are unaware of the infinite varieties grown in Italy.
The difference between the many varieties lies in the shape of the flower and seed, as well as the flavour, which varies considerably from cultivar to cultivar ("cultivar" being the preferred term of those in the trade, rather than "variety").
There's the Bella di Cerignola, from the Puglia region, the Nocellara del Belice, on which selective work is being carried out, Taggiasca, loved for its well-rounded flavour and its almost crunchy flesh. A full list would have to include at least seven hundred, concrete evidence of the age-old presence of these trees in Italy.
The olive tree's real enemy is the cold, which is capable of carrying off a healthy plant in a single frost. This is why olive groves are most widespread in areas with particularly mild climates, where sudden falls in temperature are few and far between. However, the olive tree does have another enemy, this time in the form of a fly (the olive fly), which wreaks considerable damage, forcing producers to treat their olive groves with pesticides.
Tradition suggests a variety of ways in which to get the best out of olives in cuisine, starting with a classic combination of tuna and olives, perfect with Pipe Rigate, or Bavettine with capers, olives and anchovies, another typical Mediterranean recipe. In summer olives are an ideal ingredient in cold pasta salads.
An original recipe from Central Italy is olive all'ascolana, in which olives are stoned, filled with meat, battered, coated with breadcrumbs and deep-fried.
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