The perfect extra-virgin olive oil (Robur)

English

Italian

What I am about to describe is not just a bottle of oil, but a denser entity. In this extra-virgin olive oil, you may found an unexpected taste, but also commitment, (an almost medieval feel for) enterprise, a gamble shiver, and THE organic battle. I wrote unexpected taste, because indeed when we think about Italian oils, our minds fly directly to Tuscany, Sicily, Liguria, and Puglia. Yet this oil comes from Bologna, the land of Tortellini, of the most ancient university in the world (A.D. 1088), and of Mortadella, only to name three Æmilian flagships. Emilia-Romagna (italian region) Aerial Bologna and three of her best knows strong points The superior oil is named Robur, from the Latin strength, after a family motto robur prudentia firmat (through prudence strength is reinforced), if I am translating correctly. Robur is also the oak tree, but in this case I think a figurative reading has to be privileged. I also believe is deeply important that the best families of our aristocracy implement the level of our economy applying to new trends - as the organic - one and ancient savoirs. Moreover, the expertise derived from the past of their tradition has the chance to be actualized and improved, conformed to the new Time (which is indeed us). If aristocracy still means the government of the best men (and clearly women), then it is natural that these best people have to give the example and promote the change. Heraldic coat of arms: the farm is called Ca' Scarani of the Earls Ranuzzi de Bianchi, via dell'Osservanza 41, 40136 Bologna tel. +39 051 333627, www.villascarani.it   During the Christmas holidays, I met a dear friend of mine, Michelangelo (not the famous artist, yet almost!), who had the courage and skills to start an autochthonous production extra-virgin olive oil on the hills, which surround Bologna as a rocky scarf. In his family estate, instead of betting on an easier construction speculation, he opted for an edible one. Following his father’s suggestions, some years ago, he decided to coat his land with an olive forest, both because it is a plant that dresses up the hill side incredibly well, and secondly because it is a relatively low-maintenance tree in an organic agriculture system. The result is magnificent: the oil condenses the soul of the town, not the dynamic and modern one, but the rural city, helas, almost forgotten. Moreover, Michelangelo joined the olive consortium, which provides the mechanical devices (the oil mill) to squeeze olive, keeping the final price at every pocket reach. Each bottle is sold for 16€, which is indeed not a low price, but it is worth the purchase. You can find it in NaturaSì. My preciousss Two years ago (2011) the production began, whereas 800 plants were bedded out in 2004. If I am not mistaken, around only 250 bottles were brought to the attention of the market, since the plants are growing the amount of olives is not that high at the moment. Nonetheless, last year (2012) the production redoubled: 500 bottles have been released on the market. And finally, in the early days of 2013, I managed to have a little taste of last harvest. It was a true epiphany, in the Joyce’s acceptation, as usual! The hills transfer their mildness to the oil: its density, robust side and acidity are very balanced. None of them overwhelms the other: I was drawing for the sake of comparison a confrontation with a Napolina oil (which is not a terrible oil at all!) and the mirroring is uneven. Napolina is too fruity and peppery and overcomes other flavours too much. Perhaps, I should have allowed myself a more refined parallel between two distinct oils, but for logistical reason, I did not have the chance: however, I recently spotted some incredible and promising brands at Waitrose, so sooner or later, this face-to-face shall take place! Frantoio imolese (oil mill) This is a rich extra-virgin olive oil, opaque and sweet, yet sweet with character. Here in the UK, I managed to taste several imported good oils, yet this one is almost unbeatable. The flavour is balanced: hence you never perceive a too strong acidity, a too sturdy fruitiness, and a too powerful robustness. It does indeed resemble the hill breeze where it is born. For these reasons, I started trying it on different meals, so to understand if it was more crudity-suitable oil, or cooked-like oil. I would recommend it especially on row preparations: there it releases an incredible personality. On mixed salads it offers the chance to taste the different ingredients, on buffalo caprese it behaves accordingly to expectation! Nevertheless, on warm dishes is excellent such as on a red lentils soup. Buffalo caprese (Tesco Finest) with a sprinkle of white pepper, Tesco organic cherry tomatoes and Robur. Green lentils are fine, yet try the red ones and the Norcia ones and your day will shine! It’s optimum when spilled on clear soups with white beans and egg pasta! Equally on durum-wheat pastas dressed up with veggie garnishments, such as broccoli, sprouts and spinaches and chars! It also gives an incredible performance when you actually cook it: especially in short frying sessions, as for vegetable balls with a cheesy heart! So, to sum up, indirect cooking is better, yet direct heating does not spoil it at all! On organic bread it offers a unique emotion, in a sort of palate dialogue, which is a tête-à-tête between two simple but effective ingredients. Clearly the bread MUST be good quality bread, otherwise you risk to spoil the soundness of the oil! Organic seed bread (Waitrose) and Robur oil: the Franciscan feast of simplicity Let’s observe some examples (see next post): ·      Mixed organic salad with nuts and apricots (Real Food) and Robur oil ·      Plain basmati rice (Tesco Finest) with Savoy cabbage stripes and Robur oil as a golden necklace ·      Organic broccoli (Real Food) with spelt orecchiette (NaturaSì) enriched by this greenish Robur oil touch: ·      Organic lentils soup empowered by Robur oil ·      Oven vegetables with bain-Marie meat, gently brought to cooking with Robur oil and organic balsamic venigar! ·      Croquettes with cheesy heart dived into Robur oil that leaves them light and crispy! ·      Fried duck free range eggs with red chilli in Robur oil, escorted by organic Waitrose lettuce and seed bread.

Ciò che mi accingo a descrivere non è semplicemente una bottiglia d’olio ma un’entità più ricca di significato. In quest’olio extra vergine d’oliva, si ritrova un gusto inatteso, ma anche una devozione, un senso dell’impresa (quasi medievale), il brivido della scommessa e la battaglia biologica. Ho scritto gusto inatteso poiché davvero quando si pensa all’olio italiano, la mente vola subito alla Toscana, alla Sicilia, alla Liguria, ed alla Puglia. Eppure quest’olio è realizzato a Bologna, la patria dei Tortellini, dell’ateneo più antico del mondo (1088 d.C.) e della Mortadella, giusto per nominare tre vanti Emiliani. Emilia-Romagna (regione italiana) Veduta aerea di Bologna e tre suoi vanti L’olio superiore Robur, prende il nome dalla parola latina forza, e si ispira al motto di robur prudentia firmat (con la prudenza si corrobora la forza), se sto traducendo nel modo più corretto. Robur è anche il nome della quercia, ma in questo caso penso si debba privilegirare una lettura figurata del termine. Credo anche che sia molto importante che le migliori famiglie della nostra aristocrazia implementino l'economia, innestando su nuove tendenze - come il biologico -antichi saperi. Infatti, l’esperienza derivata dalle tradizioni del passato ha l’opportunità di essere attualizzata e migliorata, conformata al nuovo Tempo (che siamo proprio noi stessi!) Se aristocrazia ancora significa il governo dei migliori uomini (e chiaramente delle migliori donne), appare dunque naturale che queste persone migliori diano l’esempio e promuovano il cambiamento. Blasone araldico: l'azienda agricola si chiama Ca' Scarani dei conti Ranuzzi de Bianchi, via dell'Osservanza 41, 40136 Bologna tel. +39 051 333627, www.villascarani.it   Durante le festività natalizie, ho incontrato un caro amico, Michelangelo (non il famoso artista, ma quasi!), il quale ha avuto il coraggio e l’abilità di iniziare una produzione autoctona di olio extra vergine di olive, sui colli che circondano Bologna come una sciarpa rocciosa. In questi possedimenti di famiglia, invece di scommettere su una più facile speculazione edilizia, il mio amico ha scelto la via edibile. Grazie ad alcune intuizioni paterne, ormai qualche anno fa, ha deciso di «vestire» le pendici delle sue terre con una foresta di ulivi, sia perché la pianta si adatta molto bene al clivo, sia perché è una pianta che offre un basso profilo di manutenzione in un regime di coltivazione biologica. Il risultato è stupefacente: l’olio condensa l’anima della città, non quella dinamica, ma quella rurale, ahimè, quasi dimenticata! Per di più, Michelangelo si è consorziato al Frantoio Imolese che adotta la spremitura meccanica e che gli permette di tenere sotto controllo i costi di produzione! Ogni bottiglia è venduta a 16€, che non è un prezzo basso, ma vale la pena dell’acquisto. Lo si può trovare a NaturaSì. Il mio tesssoro Due anni fa (2011) è iniziata la produzione, mentre gli 800 alberi di ulivo erano stati messi a dimora nel 2004. Se non mi sbaglio, soltanto circa 250 bottiglie furono poste all’attenzione del mercato. Poiché gli alberi sono ancora in fase di crescita, il quantitativo di olive non è alto al momento. Ciononostante, lo sorso anno (2012) la produzione è raddoppiata: 500 bottiglie sono state immesse sul mercato. Finalmente nei primi giorni del 2013, ho avuto la possibilità di assaggiare l’ultimo raccolto. È stata una vera epifania, nel senso Joyciano, come sempre! Le colline hanno passato la loro mitezza all’olio: la sua densità, la robustezza e l’acidità sono molto bilanciate. Nessuna di queste proprietà sopravanza l’altra: per fare un raffronto, mi sono prodotto in un confronto con l’olio Napolina (che non è per nulla un cattivo olio!) ma il paragone è impari. Napolina è troppo fruttato e pizzichino e sovrasta troppo gl’altri sapori. Presumibilmente, mi sarei dovuto concedere un raffronto più sofisticato, ma per ragione logistiche, non ne ho avuto la possibilità: tuttavia, recentemente ho notato alcune marche incredibili e promettenti da Waitrose, quindi pesto o tardi, questo faccia a faccia avrà luogo! Frantoio imolese Quest’olio extra-vergine è ricco, opaco e dolce, ma dolce con carattere. Qui nel Regno Unito, ho avuto modo d’assaggiare numerosi oli d’importazione, ma questo è quasi imbattibile. L’aroma è ben strutturato: pertanto non si ha mai la sensazione che l’acidità sia troppo marcata, o la fruttuosità invadente, né che la robustezza sia eccessivamente potente. Ricorda, in effetti, la brezza da cui le piante sono state cullate. Per questa ragione, l’ho provato su piatti diversi, per capre se fosse un olio adatto alle cruditées oppure a pietanze cotte. Lo raccomanderei soprattutto per piatti crudi: in questo caso rilascia una personalità incredibile. Sulle insalate miste offre la possibilità di apprezzare i diversi ingredienti, sulla caprese si comporta in armonia con le aspettative! Caprese di bufala (Tesco Finest) con una spolverata di pepe bianco, pomodorini ciliegia biologici e olio Robur. Eppure è eccellente anche sui piatti tiepidi come le lenticchie, soprattutto quelle rosse di Norcia. È ottimo se asperso sulle zuppe a base si fagioli bianchi (cannellini o del rene) e pasta all’uovo! Anche sulla pasta di semola condita con verdure, come i broccoli, i cavoletti, gli spinaci o la bietola! E rende anche molto bene quando lo si cuoce, soprattutto però nelle preparazioni brevi: principalmente con polpette di verdure dal cuore formaggioso! In definitiva, cuocerlo indirettamente lo esalta di più, ma anche una cottura diretta non lo rovina affatto! Sul pane biologico regala un’emozione unica, in una specie di dialogo palatale, che è un tête-à-tête fra due alimenti semplici, ma efficaci. Chiaramente il pane deve essere un buon pane, altrimenti si rischia di rovinare la consonanza con l’olio! Pane biologico ai semi (Waitrose) + olio Robur: la festa fracescana della semplicità Osserviamo qualche esempio (prossimo post): ·      Insalata mista bio con noci e albicocche disidratate (Real food) e olio Robur ·      Riso basmati (Tesco Finest) con striscioline di verza e olio Robur come collana dorata ·      Broccoli biologici con orecchiette di farro (NaturaSì) arricchite con un tocco verdeggiante di olio Robur. ·      Zuppa di lenticchie biologiche valorizzata da olio Robur. ·      Verdure al forno con carne a bagnomaria, gentilmente portata a cottura con olio Robur e aceto balsamico di Modena biologico.  ·      Crocchette di verdure con cuore di formaggio tuffate in olio Robur, che le lascia leggere e croccanti! ·      Uova fritte d’oca allevata a terra con peperoncino in olio Robur, accompagnare da lattuga e pane biologici di Waitrose.

Food gifts (2): showdown

Never present an alarm clock inside a crocodile to James Hook!

When we move from speech as a non-spoken gift - able to map our world - to gift as present, we may notice a striking similarity. When we actually are careful about other human beings, suddenly we became mindful about their likings. Gift and present, donation, offer and thought, are somewhat all synonyms, yet each of them declines the idea of giving according to different linguistic roots and core-ideas: http://www.etymonline.com/

This episode in the Walt Disney cartoon Peter Pan is particularly touching,
because Peter never came across gifts in his entire life, he is a castaway, he does really ignore
the implications of gifts.

Where to watch Disney Peter Pan in English with caption

The gift is a way-of-being we impress on an object/a gesture/a segment of time; we have to uphold an accolade so to nominate (and treat) the object as a gift. A gift should be a spontaneous message, an opening we produce to witness our care, as concern or joy. Hence, the gift is opposite to violence: violence is the act of taking what does not belong to us, giving is abandoning something we posses to someone else without wishing to have it back, which would be borrowing. The gift becomes the solid manifestation of the being infused in it: it is the thought we made while choosing the gift itself, it is the Time we devoted to the gift, it is the relinquishment of part of us we make over to the receiving person. Moreover gifts are empowered by the surprise effect that doubles the marvel. Christmas is a tricky moment of the year: everyone, somehow, expects something, yet one does never know what to expect.

Two products from Piemonte (North West Italy): some apricots in Grappa, a phenomenal hard liquor obtained by the grape stalks from the Alps & a boar salami from Cuneo, delivered by Luke a food evangelist!	Pistachio nut creme, to Michelle from Simone: definitely the best choice. Eataly is a new chain that focuses its attention on "alti cibi", high foods, trying to safeguard prices and quality: http://www.eataly.it/
Artichoke pâté, delicious on bread or pasta: to Michael, who looks like Matt Dillon at his best!	First Moleskine of my life, from Isabel & John

Heidegger calls the Ereignis the event in which two beings meet together, a sort of symbolic dialogue between two essences, otherwise not communicating. Ereignis is making something our own, a process of acquiring for instance the presence of a single tree despite the dense appearance of woodland. The psychological evolution of Ereignis is not anymore just the event or experience of spotting something and isolating it from the context, but is the advent of a deeper comprehension, through which we create a bridge between separate unconscious beings – the ring and the finger thorough love, for instance. This is why gifts create bonds!

Legame III, sculpture by Eva Antonini
http://www.eva-antonini.com/

So to sum up, the Being is the living spirit of things, through meditation and listening men are able to awaken this being and receive it as a gift, which gives us conception. Then, as we gain this idea of gift - as a natural form of giving -, we can export the mechanism when we deal with human being’s relationships, where gifts rise to the stage of symbolic conversations occurring amid responsive senses. Giving is a sign and motion of constant remembrance, and it is a pity that in the consumerist era – a degeneration of Capitalism – gifts are degraded to mere objects, commercial entities to feed the void of solitude, worthy for their prices rather than their value, idiotic display of power through money. Giving is also custody: women are averagely better than men in processing and dealing with feelings and emotions. This might depend on structural factors, such the ancestral chance of giving birth, and the social aptitude to remain in the cave, while men were hunting: so whereas men developed a skill based on renewable sources of pleasure, women cultivated the skill of caring better of what was already achieved.

Carve a mandarin with a sharp paring knife and let it dry on the heater for one hour	Add the desired chocolates: here Green & Black organic four tastes (butterscotch, white chocolate, dark chocolate and milk chocolate)
Wrap in an alimentary fancy sachet and secure it with an elegant ribbon: Franceska, the beneficiary, appreciated it profusely.	Nosiola, a refreshing & fruity white wine from Dolomite Trentino (North-East Italy), perfect as a starter, and Marzipan, a thought to our lovely flatmate Andrea from Frederick and I. Valvona & Crolla never leaves us alone! http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/

The incapability of giving is not only a symptom of avarice and greed, but is fundamentally a misperception of the idea of relating to others, is the failure of mutual socialization: these people are accounting as a natural instance to get from others and not reciprocate, since they underestimate what they receive and they overestimate what they give back; they take for granted a sort of warship from the others, because they believe they are naturally sympathetic and nice, yet they never consider the importance hidden beneath the gift, they are incapable to see the other out of their pleasure principle; therefore, they perceive gifts as tokens of a shared-codified civilization and not as true channels of proximity. When guests think that it is expected and consequential that I am cooking for them since I love cooking, they utterly misunderstand the meaning of my welcoming and they offend me intensely. Fortunately, I daresay, the majority of guests are as entertaining as those language-speak-processing students Frederick invited over for an exquisite dinner, a couple of days ago.

Self-gift: Hazelnut butter, 100% organic hazelnuts and a French organic Orange blossom honey, both from Real Food: http://www.realfoods.co.uk/	Chopsticks-cutlery from my sistaaa!
Another detail of this fab chopsticks.	Caramelized homemade onion relish for Zinga, who emptied the jar in half a fraction of second!

Food gifts: a long synthesis (1)

Speech is an oral symbol, by some means a tautological paradox. Gifts, instead, are tangible symbols, which lose part of their effectiveness if taken out from the environment they were thought for: try to give your mother’s perfume to your father and you won’t achieve the same exact goal! Speech and language (or gifts) are not the produce of individual identities, called men and women, but they are something higher than that, because they aren’t linked to subjectivity, as many would think. So speech is neither a human activity - as Wilhelm von Humboldt stated more than one century ago - nor a mean of expression - as Aristotle used to postulate more than two thousand years ago. Subjectivity is indeed a form of violence we impose on language: we limit, we enclose, we describe, and classify according to our momentary need, but we fail severely when we refuse to make the effort to pierce through the veil of true meanings. Today (27 January) is also the genocide remembrance day, in memory for those millions of people seen as a form of otherness with no dignity or status, exploited as derogatory objects and slaughtered:

A torment inflicted to a slave	Spectacles stack in Auschwitz.
Gradual genocide of the North American Indians, there are profound considerations by Noam Chomsky on this subject.	Concentration camp of Bosque Rotondo, USA, New Mexico, 1864.

Let's return to less suffering topics, hoping to cast a light also on the idea of mankind. What should speech be then? If speech does is not directly a form of representation of Reality, it must be something different, a dimension of the spirit, a viewpoint and an aptitude toward the same Reality. At the same time, gifts are specific units inflated with extra-meaning. Offer a tie to someone who appreciates only tracksuits and you will allegedly identify perplexity on his face! This winter holidays have been characterized by a wide interchange of gifts with my friends: food have been combined with imagination, taste with elegance. Here are some results:

Portuguese tuna from Carolina	Deer bolognese to Carolina
Pecorino cheese from Sardinia with fig compote for Lou	Organic spreadable chocolate, luxury, but healthy, to Simone

Harrod's tea from Andrea and a deserved wok from Michelle-ma-belle

Martin Heidegger suggests that speech should be an act of listening and listening up, but to what? Mankind – in spite of pandering its tendency of seeking for definitions and technical observation of phenomena - has the mandate to do something else, i.e. paying attention and let speech speak, so to say. Nature (and for instance dreams) is somehow able to speak to us even without the implement of words. Our mandate is that of being attentive, to open our ears and receive the gift of speech. The world, in which we are absorbed in, has its own voice of beauty that poetry is able to dig out. When we listen to the inner voice of things, we also actually develop our sensibility and care of what surrounds us. To make an example, a natural lake might be a perfect place where to listen to the freshwater waves and have picnics. At the same time, the same very lake can be seen (by engineers and scalpers) as a source of energy and might be latched inside a concrete dam. The landscape will naturally suffer of this human intervention, unless it is carried on with a considerate series of criteria, which often aren’t even taken into account. I offer here four dams examples:

Santa Rosalia dam, Ragusa, Sicily: a low dam well integrated in Nature.	Beaver dike in Canada: it is incredible how they help the ecosystem. They are re-introducing beavers in Northen Scotland as well for this very reason.
Scary dam in Shasta, California, Colorado River: in my opinion this human works should be avoided	Whales (UK), Lake Vyrnwy victorian dam: built in the second half of the XIX century is particularly efficient and well crafted without being too massive.

The nomothetic act of Adam of giving names to things is the innocent antecedent to what has become our world, where everything is measured, catalogued and spoiled as a source of income. In the Greek tradition the passage from ignorance to knowledge is slightly different and more rational: there is no archetypal man such Adam. Distinct creators forged in several occasions and of different natures men, that’s why we have the five ages of gold, silver, bronze, heroes and nowadays men. Gaia (Earth or the Great Mother) burgeoned out unconscious men, because of her fertility: whereas Gods are rational Titans enact the emanation of instinctual impetuosity, they literally emanate a sort of will force. Prometheus’ allowed men gifts, through which start developing, he showed them how to stand on their legs, to benefit of gods’ meat leftovers, and to use fire, which is the chance to direct the light of intellection autonomously where needed. The fire is the tool through which men were able to cook (we need fire in a culinary blog!) and to see things plunged into darkness. Prometheus was a Titan, therefore not a proper god, that’s why Zeus could chain him to the Caucasus for 3000 years, since Hercules freed him. What differentiates men and gods is the destiny (mòira), ones are mortals, and the others aren’t, moreover men can become slaves, because with death they lost a battle of supremacy.

Prometheus Being Rescued by Hercules  by Christian Griepenkerl (1839-1912)	Ring of fire as Johnny Cash sings
Laetitia Casta depicted as Mother Earth	Illumination of Adam naming the animals, Parker Library, Cambridge (UK)

Heidegger suggested going back to a different form of orienteering into Nature. We have to reconsider the hermeneutic circle, i.e. the circular process of interpretation of Reality, as an act of meditation, expectancy, holding and anticipation. Nature then offers us a gift – that of leading us to the authentic interpretation of Herself – and through this mirroring, we will be able to deal better with ourselves and our counterparts. The only way to reciprocate this gift is that of understanding and feeling how we can actively respond to our authentic needs and claims: we cut our nails when they are too long, but we wouldn’t amputate a foot to prevent nails to grow. Then why should we tear down entire forests, if we can just trim the branches?

Deforestations always made me sad	Reforestation
Cactus gift	Small pots garden tools by the French brand Pylones

Speech is then beyond good and bad – moral instances are created by language in a second instance –, authenticity is more connected with what makes us feel better, in a range of actions, which do not include at all shooting at people, only because we are insane or lunatic. Things around us are and are not, there is a being dwelling in them - a daímon or character - which could produce a resonance with the metaphorical diapason we have inside ourselves: Hottentots won’t recognize Botticelli's works as pieces of artistry! This vibration might be called perception and it is the basilar quality of speech. Then the development of speech produced language, and with language we are now able to communicate with others and persuade others. Nonetheless, this ramification should be subordinate to the first operation of staying next to things to understand their inner being and to receive it as a given-gift, not as something we should ransack.

DeAgostini visual dictionary, how to improve your vocabulary in five different languages	A diapason
Venus' semblant (detail of the Birth of Venus), Botticelli, Uffizzi Gallery, Florence, Italy.