(photo: Latella family olive orchard outside of Pellegrina, Italy)
(3/22: Update - Contest is closed and the winner is Joe. D., congratulations! And thanks to everyone for leaving a comment)
Recently, I had the good fortune to sample some new extra virgin olive oils from Italy, including Titone (from the Trapanesi Valley in Sicilia), Frescobaldi Laudemio (from Firenze in Tuscana), Vittorio Cassini (from Liguria), and Frantoio Di Sommaia (from Calenzano in Tuscana), all imported by Manicaretti.
Frescobaldi Laudemio Extra Virgin Olive Oil has won a ton of awards, including #1 Tuscan oil in 1997 by Wine Spectator and "Best of Olive Oil" at the 2001 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. The consortium that produces Laudemio has been around since the early 1990's and the filtered oil has nice notes, again, of pepper and lemon zest. I like Laudemio drizzed over a hot bean soup or over roasted broccoli and red pepper flakes.
(3/22: Update - Contest is closed and the winner is Joe. D., congratulations! And thanks to everyone for leaving a comment)
Images have always played a large role in my life. I still have vivid images in my mind of childhood events like playing hide and seek at dusk on my New Jersey block or the fierce eyes and large breasts of my sixth grade teacher Mrs. Salzarulo. I shut my eyes and mental pictures bring me back 5, 10, even 20 years ago to seminal and not so important events in my life. I don't consider conjuring vivid imagery a particularly impressive ability, just a function of how my brain works. Some images are romanticized, and I'm sure not wholly accurate, while there are other mental pictures that I've shelved as eternal truths.
One such mental image is that of my grandfather Latella in Calabria. The mental image I have is of Nonno under one of his beloved olive trees. The image is simple enough; namely, an elderly man sitting underneath an ancient olive tree. But the image in my mind is more detailed; it includes a weathered face molded by a happy, but difficult, life working the land, large hands gently removing leather working boots, and the same hands reaching for a bottle of cold wine to quench a thirst brought on by the mid-day Mediterranean sun. The image of Nonno Latella represents the Southern Italian life for me; that is, a life of simple pleasures, fierce individualism, and a love for the land.
Nonno's love for his land, combined with his paternalistic tendencies towards his olive trees, yielded some pretty intense, first cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil (I describe it here in my Guide to Olive Oil). The Italians from the rural South use olive oil from everything from simple tomato salads to deep frying arancini to lubricating shotguns and polishing leather shoes. In the US, of course, we're a bit more selective about how we use olive oil and it's mostly a culinary lipid / liquid (thankfully!).
Recently, I had the good fortune to sample some new extra virgin olive oils from Italy, including Titone (from the Trapanesi Valley in Sicilia), Frescobaldi Laudemio (from Firenze in Tuscana), Vittorio Cassini (from Liguria), and Frantoio Di Sommaia (from Calenzano in Tuscana), all imported by Manicaretti.
Titone Extra Virgin Olive Oil is produced by a father / daughter team Nicola and Antonella. The 5000 tree olive farm in Sicilia is organic and has a D.O.P status. The Titone oil is limited quality and has a deep golden yellow/light green color. The Titone family also hand picks all of their olives and the resulting oil has a sharp and pepper flavor base as well as complex grass and earthy elements. I think Titone would work best with hot pasta or in a rustic (hot) potato salad.
Frescobaldi Laudemio Extra Virgin Olive Oil has won a ton of awards, including #1 Tuscan oil in 1997 by Wine Spectator and "Best of Olive Oil" at the 2001 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. The consortium that produces Laudemio has been around since the early 1990's and the filtered oil has nice notes, again, of pepper and lemon zest. I like Laudemio drizzed over a hot bean soup or over roasted broccoli and red pepper flakes.
Vittorio Cassini was my favorite amongst the 4 olive oils I sampled. Cassini is made from 100% Taggiasca olives and is a limited production oil. The olive farm is located in the hills above the Ligurian coast between Nice and Genoa. The olive oil itself has less pepper than the aforementioned oils and has a wonderful raw nut flavor which is clean and almost sweet. Cassini is ideal for making pesto, tomato salads, or drizzling on a freshly baked pizza. This is the least bitter and intense oil.
Frantoio Di Sommaia has been made by the Marini Bernardi family for almost 200 years. The olives are hand picked and pressed via stone in Calenzano, Tuscana. The family uses 100% Bianca olives. The oil is unfiltered and extremely pungent, but has a wonderful buttery mouth feel. Frantoio would work well with an arugula salad or drizzled over fresh basked bread with coarsely ground black pepper.
In honor of Nonno Latella (who's still alive but upset he doesn't get to go to the farm as often as he once did) Scordo.com is giving away a bottle of Vittorio Cassini Extra Virgin Oil! The oil was my favorite amongst the four bottles I recently sampled and I'm sure you'll enjoy a bottle of the expertly crafted oil.
(photo: Latella family olive orchard outside of Pellegrina, Italy)
Here's what you need to do to enter the Nonno Latella Extra Virgin Olive Oil Contest:
- 1. leave a comment under this post on how you use olive and which olive oil you normally purchase (doesn't need to be a fancy kind, just what you use and like) and 2. sign up as a fan of Scordo.com on Facebook here or Scordo.com newsletter, it doesn't need to be both). If you've done both already, then I'll ask you if you can please re-tweet the article on Twitter and include the article URL in the RT: http://bit.ly/cVgYQT and @scordo in your tweet)
- Only one entry per person please.
- The contest is open until 12 midnight on 3/20 and a single random user will be picked via Random.org. The winner will be announced immediately on Twitter (so please follow me) and on Scordo.com by 5PM on Monday, 3/22.
- Please use a valid email address when leaving a comment so I can contact you just in case you're the lucky winner (I'll need your shipping address).
- Manicaretti Italian Food Imports will send out the bottle of Vittorio Cassini olive oil to the single contest winner during the week of 3/29.
That's it, so please sign up for a chance to win a wonderful bottle of extra virgin olive. If you can't wait to sample the olive oil then head on over to the Manicaretti site to find out how to buy some!
Italian
