LOCATION AND CLIMATE

 

As you might expect, olives grown in cooler areas where there is more moisture (rainfall and dew) exhibit leaner, more restrained characteristics.  This doesn’t however mean that great oil can now be made in Iceland – you need a minimum amount of sunshine to make your Extra Virgin Olive Oil taste remarkable, similarly to tomatoes or stone fruit.

Olive trees are sensitive to winter freeze (the Casaliva cultivar is more resistant to cold, hence being grown in the Garda region).  It is also easier to farm organically where the climate is more stable and less chemical sprays are required to keep the trees healthy.

OLIVE MATURITY

 

Here’s the thing – all olives are green.  When they become fully mature, they turn black.
Olive maturity at the time of harvest is a major factor in flavour and quality: olives harvested earlier (green olives) feature more bitter, grassy characteristics, with lower yields and with the highest anti-oxidant content.  The oil is a much more intense green colour and has a longer shelf-life.  In terms of production, milling can take longer with green olives (a longer malaxation - the action of slowly churning milled olives to release droplets of oil - is needed and can be more complicated) but the results are far superior!  Don’t choose olive oil from over mature fruit: it lacks all the potential goodness and flavour.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL IN GROVE AND MILL

 

People who care passionately about what they make and follow it personally every day have the capacity to create products with far higher quality, with integrity, and that taste of where they come from.  They are also able to do this by caring for the environment they inhabit.

FRANTOIO DI RIVA BOX

This box contains 6 bottles of extra virgin olive oil made exclusively by Frantoio di Riva from groves on the banks of lake Garda.

Frantoio di Riva, 46°PARALLELO green label x 3 bottles (50cl)
Frantoio di Riva, 46°PARALLELO organic white label x 1 bottle (50cl)
Frantoio di Riva, 46°PARALLELO blue label x 1 bottle (50cl)
Frantoio di Riva, ULIVA Garda Trentino DOP x 1 bottle (50cl)

April 11, 2020 In Pasta, Recipes, Spring
SPRING | SUMMER | AUTUMN | WINTER

Penne ai sapori della Primavera

In this extraordinary moment of life, many of us have necessarily moved from shopping every couple of days to shopping or receiving delivery of a weekly order.  We find this abundant arrival of vegetables in our kitchen hugely uplifting and it drives us to create fresh, delicious dishes that the whole family can enjoy.

We find that the kids are particularly fond of having Leccino, Taggiasca or Biancolilla doused over their new season peas and courgettes. Asparagus has also started appearing on the shelves as well as artichokes, which make our food routine more varied. Indeed during this time we are reminded how lucky we are to live in a place with some extraordinary food ecosystem and to have such variety of choice of food and as challenging as it is to keep those 3 meals a day varied and healthy, it is manageable. This simple pasta dish has all the freshness of spring, it is very quick to make and is adaptable to the vegetables you have in your fridge.

Serves 4 people

400 gr Penne

2 leaks

300 gr fresh peas.

3 zucchini

3 spring onions

1 clove garlic

1 small fresh chilli pepper

 

Thinly cut all the veggies and shell the peas (you should have about 100gr of peas). Put the the Penne in abundantly salted boiling water .  Gently fry chilli, garlic leaks and onion in good Extra Virgin Olive Oil (we use Biancolilla by Cutrera for this), until gold and soft.  Add the zucchini and peas. When the penne are all dente, drain and toss them in the pan with the vegetables for a few seconds to get the juices from well coated on the penne.  Check for seasoning and serve with some freshly grated pepper and some parmesan, as well as an extra drizzle of olive oil.