olive oil DOP Aprutino Pescarese

These days are being spent searching and finding the best products for Via Martina. Last Monday I lived an unforgettable experience when I went to Pianella, a small hill town in Abruzzo, not far from the Adriatic Sea and close to the two most interesting mountains of Abruzzo: Gran Sasso and Majella.

The meeting was with the President of the Consorzio di Tutela Olio DOP Aprutino Pescarese, Mr. Silvano Ferri. The good and kind feelings were immediate as soon as we understood that we both live with enthusiasm and competence in our lives. Silvano described to me the history and the charateristics of the oil DOP Aprutino Pescarese and I learned alot.

This olive oil is obtained from olives whose trees, most of them older than one century, grow in an hill area whose bounderies are the river Tavo and the river Pescara (Pescara is also a town, yes).

The Tavo valley is also named area Vestina because three thousand years ago (more or less) the people Vestino lived this area. The Pescara valley is also named area Casauriense and its most charateristic town, pretty and small, is Tocco da Casauria.

By the way, the word Tocco gives the name to one of the two main breeds of the olive whose blend gives the DOP Aprutino Pescarese: the Toccolana.

The other very important olive is the Dritta.

Guess how many olive trees in this DOP area ?

I couldn't believe when Presidente Ferri told me the number: one million and eight hundred thousand trees which make seven million litres of olive oil DOP Aprutino Pescarese.

To use this olive oil DOP Aprutino Pescarese is like a medicine to prevent heart problems.

The color is a middle point between yellow and green but if I were obliged, so to speak, to tell you which color is a bit more then half, well, I say green. The flavour is fruttato medio and maybe a translation good enough could be medium fruity. If we want to split hairs, let's say that the Toccolana gives a medium fruity and the Dritta whose fruit tastes a bit stronger than medium.

How do we use these oils in the kitchen ? Oh, what a delicious and happy problem !

For sure I will use this masterpiece among olive oils to bless my insalata di mare. Can you imagine the smooth stroke of the Aprutino Pescarese DOP on the clams, mussels, squid and shrimp ? Those drops will enable these gorgeous gifts of the sea to renew their lives for us.

Then, I will use this olive oil often in our Sunday Lunch. I am thinking of rigatoni with sun-dried tomatoes, aged pecorino and green olives. I will use the olive oil Aprutino Pescarese DOP at the beginning of the cooking of the ingredients and I will put the bottle on the table to enable my guests to add a tiny bit of olive oil on the dish as a finishing flavor.

I am also thinking to sagne and beans and, by the way, I cannot tell you know which it will be the secret ingredient of this Sunday course; otherwise where is the surprise ?! OK, I am telling you now: mussels; yes, mussels with sagne and beans. Reserve, please; as only a few seats are available on Sundays ! Last, but not least, I will use olive oil Aprutino Pescarese DOP to obtain the best from my recipe with the squid.

With President Ferri I went to visit four frantoi: Chiarieri, De Juliis, CAPO and La Selva d'Abruzzo. Obviously each olive oil is DOP Aprutino Pescarese.

We will provide the guided taste of these four olive oil DOP Aprutino Pescarese on Saturday March 7 in Savannah (GA).

If you're interested to organize a further guided tasting, please feel free to contact me.

SIGEP

What: The trade show for Gelato, Pastry, and Confections for Baking!
Where: Rimini Fiera
When: Next week for 5 days -- 17-21 Jan 2009

How fortuitous the time and place for us. It's right down the road and it's just when we need it.
At this point we aren't going to offer gelato (silly, I know), but after this show, we may be changing our minds.

In any case, it's 5 days of intense exploring, excessive tasting and lots of walking the convention center.
Here's the site
http://www.sigep.it/

What is DOP and IGP?

“DOP” (Denominazione di Origine Protetta - Protected Definition of Origin) indicates an agricultural and food product with particular qualities that come entirely from a particular geographical area and follow an approved production method. This process begins with the raw material and continues though to the finished product.

“IGP” (Indicazione Geografica Protetta - Protected Geographical Indication) means a similiar thing, indicating a strict dependence on the land, climate or traditional production process in a given geographic location. The difference to the DOP certification is that, by law, only part of the production needs to take place locally.



These designations are modeled after the wine system (DOCG, DOC and IGT) to preserve the specialty food products of the past. It aims to preserve their survival in tradition and to prevent their debasement by imitators.

Today Italy holds 164 DOP and IGP products – 109 DOP and 55 IGP which include Extra Virgin Olive Oil, fruits, vegetables, cereals, cheeses and processed meats.

Mortadella Bologna IGP

It's not bologny...

It is the classic Italian uncured, unprocessed finely ground pork with small pieces of pork jowl perfectly seasoned and slow-roasted. It has a delicate flavor and goes perfectly with mild or strong cheeses such as gorgonzola.

My question: Do you prefer (or think you'd prefer) it with or without pistacchios?

What is a via Martina

I want to explain why we chose via Martina for the name of the piadineria...

I usually have a difficult time choosing names for things; websites, blogs, dogs, etc. But in this case once we said those 2 words we never looked back. It just seems right for so many reasons, the first of which is that via Martina is the name of the street we live on in Italy. It's special to us and was our home for over 5 years. We also think it's a nice sounding name and easy to pronounce. VEE-AH MART-EEEN-AH.

We wanted it to be Italian, but easy and comforatble to say.

The second part of the name Vini and Piadina flows well with via Martina -- VEE-NEE and

PEE-AH-DEEN-AH. Vini is just the plural of Vino (wine) and Piadina is what it's all about here!

Piadina as poetry

La Piada

In the 1800s, the Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli wrote a poem about Piadina...........

..."Il mio povero mucchio arde e già brilla:pian piano appoggio sopra due mattoniil nero testo di porosa argilla.Maria, nel fiore infondi l'acqua e poniil sale; dono di te, Dio; ma pensa!l'uomo mi vende ciò che tu ci doni.Tu n'empi i mari, e l'uomo lo dispensanella bilancia tremula: le landetu ne condisci, e manca sulla mensa.Ma tu, Maria, con le tue mani blandedomi la pasta e poi l'allarghi e spiani;ed ecco è liscia come un foglio, e grandecome la luna; e sulle aperte manitu me l'arrechi, e me l'adagi mollesul testo caldo, e quindi t'allontani.Io, la giro, e le attizzo con le molleil fuoco sotto, fin che stride invasadal calor mite, e si rigonfia in bolle:e l'odore del pane empie la casa."-- Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912). "La piada"

..."My poor heap (of twigs, etc.) burns and already is bright: slowly, slowly I place the black griddle of porous clay on two stones. Maria, you mix the water in the flour and put in the salt; gift from you, God, but think! Man sells me what you gave us. You fill the seas (with bounty), and man dispenses it in trembling balances; you make the land a feast, and yet the tables are empty. But you, Maria, with your calm hands you master the dough, and then stretch and smooth it; and here it is, smooth as a leaf and as largeas the moon; and on extended hands you bring it to me, and place it carefully on the hot griddle, and then, step away. I turn it, and with the poker tend the fire underneath, so that it squeaks from the heat, and inflates with bubbles: and the odour of bread fills the house".