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 2009 in Savannah (GA).
If you're interested to organize a further guided tasting, please feel free to contact me.
Azienda Agricola Comincioli has proposed three selections to our panel and they are all excellent. This performance is due to Gianfranco Comincioli, the heir of the estate of Castello, which has belonged to his family since 1552. There are 10 hectares of specialized olive grove with 2,600 trees. In the last harvest 400 quintals of olives were produced, which, together with 200 purchased, yielded 55 hectolitres of extra virgin olive oil.
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