No. 6,  October 2007

My goodness, look at the calendar! Can it be Autumn again? It must be, musn't it. Here's the October issue of the Pornanino Olive Oil Newsletter and you know we're always on time. Besides, this is the time we have been working towards all year long - it will soon be time to reap the rewards for all the loving care we lavished on our olive groves. And hopefully this year we will have the joy of presenting you with an olive oil that's even better than its usual outstanding standard. We are always pushing the limits of perfection because you deserve the best. And we want to make sure you get it! So get ready to taste a really remarkable new oil this year. Just remember: you have to order it now if you want to receive it in time for Christmas. And since our production is tiny, if you don't order now you risk having to wait until the 2008 harvest! That would be a real shame. We know you'd hate it, so don't forget to order your yearly supply right now! And be generous to your family and friends: give them some Pornanino nectar for Christmas.

Franco’s olive grove diary --------------------------------------- The alarm clock is going to ring any day now. With a near-perfect season so far, Franco has high hopes for this year's harvest. Everything plays out over the next few weeks, though, and the stakes are high. Read more   Ordering Pornanino Extra Virgin Olive Oil how it works --------------------------------------- You've never ordered our wonderful olive oil before and you'd like to know how it works? Then read on, and hopefully we'll have the pleasure of welcoming you into the selected ranks of our Pornanino friends. If you are an old hand have a look anyway: you might discover something new! Read more   I want olive oil for Christmas! --------------------------------------- Good kids are supposed to ask politely, but can you blame them for going straight to the point? So make them happy. Just pop into the kitchen with our easy-as-pea olive oil recipes and give Santa a hand. Success is guaranteed! Read more

The ancient charm of the nativity scene ------------------------------- As Christmas approaches, Italian families the world over are getting ready to unwrap the tiny, exquisite pieces that will be lovingly arranged around the Holy Family. Sounds easy? Ah, but it could take days to assemble a respectable nativity scene. And the result, many Italians claim, would put the most lavish Christmas tree to shame. Read more      Grandma Lia's olive oil recipes ------------------------------- As requested by Jan, here's the recipe for a hearty favourite bound to put just anybody in a festive mood. Put on your apron and come learn how to make the most wonderful lasagne! Read more

Back to top

---------------------------------------- page 3 ----------------------------------------

Ordering Pornanino Extra Virgin Olive Oil: how it works

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You've never ordered our wonderful olive oil before and you'd like to know how it works? Then read on, and hopefully we'll have the pleasure of welcoming you into the selected ranks of our Pornanino friends. If you are an old hand have a look anyway: you might discover something new!

In the unlikely event that you came by this newsletter by chance and have never ordered (or tasted) our top grade first-cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, then take our advice: it's time for you to take the leap and experience some of the best olive oil you can hope to find. And the time is right now.

Let us explain. In an ideal world olive oil should be the golden fluid that comes out of the crushed fruit of the olive tree. These days, with world demand hitting the ceiling, most of the stuff that's marketed as "first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil" is either inferior grade or not exactly what it claims to be. Which doesn't necessarily mean it will make you ill, unless you've come across a downright scam - and there are quite a few around. Quite simply, most commercial olive oil has been processed and refined to the point that it's no longer the precious gift from nature it's supposed to be. Imagine the difference between a canned orange drink and a freshly squeezed juice. It's not really the same, is it? And the taste is not the same, either.

Tradition teaches us that olive oil, the genuine article, is beneficial to our health in several ways, and modern science has confirmed it. Of course it won't do your waistline any good if you are not careful, like any other fat, but taken in moderation it will make your body happy. And your taste buds too! But it needs to be the genuine article, because the heat and chemicals used for industrial processing will spoil both the flavor and vitamins, even assuming that the quality of the olives it was made from was adequate.

Perfect oil comes from perfect olives. Franco started making oil as a hobby, having retired to a neglected estate in the heart of the Chianti region of Tuscany. And he soon vowed he would do things by the book, even if it cost more in terms of hard work and expenses. He doesn't use any chemicals and tends to his groves himself, with the help of his family. And when autumn comes, they harvest by hand and cold-press the olives themselves and bottle the oil within a few days, working non-stop to make sure that neither the olives nor the new oil are left lying around too long to oxidise - which is a nicer way of saying "spoil".

In Tuscany olives are usually harvested sometime in November and the "new oil" is greeted with much the same enthusiasm as a newborn. The proud possessors of a few olive trees (most of the population) take their crops to communal mills to crush and then discuss the merits of the vintage of the year against past years, as if it were wine. Unless it's been tampered with, natural olive oil will change over time. It starts peppery and sharp and stronger and then mellows as it matures. Just like vintage wine. If you pay attention, you'll see it changes colour slightly as the chlorophyll slowly subsides.

This is why we ship it out as soon as it's bottled. We like all of our friends to enjoy the thrill of the new oil as Italians have been doing for countless generations, savouring the green, earthy flavour of a juice so freshly squeezed that you can still faintly taste the sap. And we want you to be able to appreciate the subtle changes as it matures and mellows. Just treat it right: don't leave it exposed to air, sunlight and heat. Keep the bottle well corked up in a cool, dark place and use it up within 2 years. If you have some left don't throw it away, though, as all it will have lost is flavor and vitamins. Use it for frying instead.

Now you know why we usually ship our olive oil once a year, at the beginning of December - in time for Christmas. But this means you only have this one chance to order your yearly supply, as by January it might well be sold out! We have a tiny production since everything is done by hand, and we are very proud that the community of Pornanino olive oil lovers is growing all the time.

So please order your olive oil now, as we would really hate it if you couldn't get it later on. We've been working hard to give you some truly amazing olive oil this year. Don't you dare miss it!   Click here to order

Back to top

---------------------------------------- page 3 ----------------------------------------

I want olive oil for Christmas!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good kids are supposed to ask politely, but can you blame them for going straight to the point? So make them happy. Just pop into the kitchen with our easy-as-pea olive oil recipes and give Santa a hand. Success is guaranteed!

Back to top

---------------------------------------- page 4 ----------------------------------------

The ancient charm of the nativity scene

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Christmas approaches, Italian families the world over are getting ready to unwrap the tiny, exquisite pieces that will be lovingly arranged around the Holy Family. Sounds easy? Ah, but it could take days to assemble a respectable nativity scene. And the result, many Italians claim, would put the most lavish Christmas tree to shame.

Once upon a time, some three millen-nia ago, the Romans be-lieved that the souls of their ance-stors stuck around to lend their help in case of need. To make sure the dear departed were willing to cooperate, the Romans made little figurines and put them in domestic shrines as if to say "see, we remember you so please don't you forget us!"

Once a year, on the festival day of the Sigillaria in December, they celebrated the departed. Relatives exchanged little figurines representing family members who had passed away during the year, and kids had the task of cleaning the family collection of tiny ancestor images, rearranging them inside a small pen reproducing a countryside scene. Then the family would pray and leave offerings for the ancestors, and the following morning they would be gone, replaced by sweets and toys for the children.

This sounds familiar, doesn't it? The theory goes on to say that when the Romans converted to Christianity some of their pagan festivals were adapted to the new faith. And the Sigillaria was turned over to the celebration of the birth of Baby Jesus.

Some say this is where the tradition of the crèche came from; others maintain it was introduced by St Francis of Assisi, who was the first to have a live re-enactment of the nativity staged for the Christmas Mass of 1223. Be it as it may, it's a fact that at a time when illiteracy was the norm the Church often resorted to visual means to explain and teach, which is why Medieval churches where often lavishly decorated with frescoes where Biblical scenes and the life of Christ where displayed in pictures, like colourful children books. Nativity scenes were often featured, and even played out by live actors in the so-called Mystery plays of the Middle Ages.

By the 15th century it had become common practice to have large sculpted nativity pieces year-round in the major churches and monasteries (many are still around today), but it was the Protestant reform that brought about the major shift leading to present-day presepio. As coaxing the errant sheep back to the Catholic fold became a priority, the nativity scenes acquired a realistic, homely feel simple folk could identify with - the holy family was steeped in the hustle and bustle of an Italian peasant setting.

In some instances the rustic look was a little contrived. In Naples, where the presepio was the rave of the beau monde during the whole of the 18th century, the aristocracy hired real architects, light designers and artists to stage elaborate nativity scenes that could take up several rooms. Dummies dressed in meticulously detailed costumes, made with the finest fabrics and real jewels, reproduced the country life of the time, the crafts, and a rich cast of characters down to the lame beggar and gypsy woman.

Such lavish productions couldn't survive the golden age of Naples, but the tradition trickled down to the alleyways and courts to be returned to the humble folk, who promptly embraced it and haven't let it go ever since.

The streets around the church of St Gregory of the Armenians in Naples are still packed with tiny workshops turning out hundreds of exquisite figurines, miniatures houses, treadmills, tiny animals and craftsmen of all kinds, drunks and fighting children, pouting belles and fisherwomen and all the colourful society of a Neapolitan country village around 1750. It's a magical sight around Christmas!

Not all Italian children have the good fortune to pick their crèches in the Naples wonderland. But even those who have to make do with plastic ones spend hours blissfully arranging them around the mirror lake, up cardboard hillsides lined with musk. And when the time comes to light up the fairy lights, they feel they have the most wonderful presepio in the world.

Back to top

---------------------------------------- page 5 ----------------------------------------

Grandma Lia’s olive oil recipes          

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In her e-mail, our friend Jan Collins says she would like the recipe for "authentic" lasagne. Unfortunately Italians are an individualistic lot, and a deeply food-loving people to boot, which means that there are almost as many different versions of the best-loved dishes as there are cooks in Italy. I once made lasagne for some Roman friends, and they couldn't believe it was lasagne! In the south of Italy they make it all different, often layering the pasta sheets with small meatballs and hard-boiled eggs - which is something a Northern Italian cook would never do.

By almost universal consent, though, lasagne belong to the traditional cuisine of Emilia-Romagna, a northern Italian region famous all over the world for such delicacies as Parma ham, Parmesan cheese, meat-filled tortellini and a host of other wickedly rich and luscious dishes. Of course since Emilia is a gourmet's paradise, everyone used to have their own idea of how perfect lasagne should be and their own secret recipe for the most important part of the dish - the meat sauce Italians call ragù. It's basically a mix of veal and pork, with some sausage thrown in for extra flavor and to pile on calories (lasagne are supposed to be rich and definitely NOT low-fat). Some recipes call for a little tomato purée, some douse it with red wine or milk instead of the more common white wine. Most lasagne are finished off with creamy white sauce, although the traditional recipe from Emilia wouldn't actually call for it. Here's my personal recipe for lasagne - I hope you'll enjoy it!

Lasagne (serves 6)

6-9 ready-made egg pasta squares (lasagne) depending on size

1 ¼ pint milk

2 oz butter

2 tablespoons flour

Grated nutmeg

1 small carrot, finely chopped

1 celery stick (roughly double the weight of the carrot), finely chopped

1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

11 oz ground meat

5 oz fresh sausage (salsiccia)

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon tomato purée

A few dried porcini mushrooms (optional)

2 oz dry white wine

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Pornanino Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Soak the dried porcini mushrooms in a little warm water, if using. Finely chop the carrot, celery and onion and cook them in a saucepan with a little butter and Pornanino Extra Virgin Olive Oil over a slow heat until soft and translucent. Add the bay leaves, ground meat and mashed sausage (remove the skin first), turn up the heat and cook for a few minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon to prevent it from sticking. When the meat is no longer pink and raw-looking douse with the wine, add the tomato purée, chopped mushrooms (if using) together with their soaking liquid, a pinch of salt and a little freshly-ground pepper. Cover with a lid and cook over a very slow heat for 3 hours, adding a little water or stock if it looks like sticking. Don't add too much and only if needed. Adjust the seasoning if needed and put aside. It will keep for a few days in the fridge. It freezes quite well.

Make the white sauce: melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time. Remove from the heat, add a little milk and stir vigorously. When the mix is smooth pour in the rest of the milk and cook for about ten minutes. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and some grated nutmeg. When it's cooked remove from the heat and add two tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Stir to dissolve.

Scald the lasagna squares in plenty of boiling water if necessary (read manufacturer's instructions). Cover the bottom of a well greased baking tin with a layer of lasagna squares. Cover with ragù, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and spread enough white sauce to cover. Add another layer of lasagna squares, ragù, Parmesan cheese and white sauce. Finish off with one final layer of lasagna squares, the last of the white sauce, a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and a few dots of butter. Bake in a moderately hot oven (375°F) until golden on top, about 40 minutes.

Tell us if you like our recipes! Is there a recipe you'd like Grandma Lia to work out for you? Let us know.

Back to top