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Posts Tagged ‘le Marche’

The truffle trials

Posted in Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2012 | 6 Comments »

The fact that the word truffle is derived from the Latin for ‘swelling’ or ‘lump’ hasn’t put off the gastronomes. This rare tuber is more sought after than ever – and now also by us! For some time now we’ve been hatching a plan to add white truffle olive oil to our range -so we’ve been out snuffling with the best of them. Most of our oils are made by pressing the fresh fruit or herb together with the olives and we were keen to apply the same technique here.

So we bought 2,000 euros worth of white truffles and pressed them, fingers crossed, with our ripe, plump olives. Other truffle oil makers scoffed and told us this would never work; they said all truffle oil is made by adding a synthetic dioether called 2, 4-dithiapentane. Well it doesn’t sound nice and it’s derived from petrochemicals, so we ignored them and ploughed on with our fresh, natural truffles. If there was any justice in the world, this story would have a happy ending, with us producing the most wonderful natural truffle oil and forcing those truffleheads to eat their hats. Sadly it doesn’t. The truffles imparted no flavour to the oil when we pressed them together. We waited, hoping that time would give the truffle flavour more oomph. But no oomph came.

We are going to try one more time, this time with a warm infusion. So all is not quite lost yet. But if that last attempt doesn’t work, we’re afraid Nudo truffle oil might go the way of the dodo.

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Five trees of separation

Posted in Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , on September 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »

While we were preparing the autumn packages this year it dawned on us what an amazing network of people around the world are part of the programme. So this year we chose a typical olive grove ‘street’ (one row of trees in the Rosalio grove) and asked the adopters if they’d mind ‘coming out’ to their neighbours. They were all happy to do so – thank you Rosalio row! Here are some of their comments.

RO295 - Chris, Delaware USA
‘We have used the olive oil several times and it is fantastic. We love olive oil and this is one of the best by far  that I have tasted. We are taking some with us on vacation this week for other family and friends to try!!’

RO285 - Greg, New Mexico USA
‘Great gift.’

RO279 - Larry, Massachusetts USA
‘The olive adoption was given to me as a birthday gift and yes I was very surprised, my wife has a hard time finding gifts that I really use. This is a great gift that I have already used, even on Cape Cod I can sit outside with wine, baguette and my own olive oil for dipping add a little herb from the garden. It does not get any better than that.’

RO300 - Helenmarie, Pennsylvania USA
‘This past Christmas my daughter, her husband and my son planned my present on everything Italian. I received pasta and biscotti and sauce all imported from Italy. I was thrilled when I opened the part of the present that told me they had adopted an olive tree in my name. I began to cry (hey I’m a tough northern girl this rarely happens) and I kept crying. I was so moved by this idea that I had this little part of a country I have only dreamed about visiting for years! What a tender idea! Just writing to you now fills me up again (eegads, I could be getting soft).

Before this goes any further let me blame it on Rosey! I know her formal name is Rosa 300 but she’ll always be Rosey to me and I’m sure her delightful olive oil has warmed my northern heart. The day her oil arrived we tore into some crusty bread and did some comparison dipping and tasting. You know Rosey won! Bravo! Bravo! Bella Rosa!

Our summers are wonderful here warm days and cool mountain nights. My neighbor brought me fresh lettuce and green beans from her garden last night. I drizzled them with Rosey oil, poured a glass of red wine and Wow! Closed my eyes…Italy!’

RO304 - Dominic, London UK
‘It was my gorgeous sister, Philippa who gave this to me as a an amazing gift (she has an amazing nose for hunting out new, interesting, unusual and trend setting things). Firstly it’s a delight and real occasion when the oil is delivered, the oil is bloody lovely and the best I’ve tasted and I love ‘owning an olive oil grove in Italy’ (maybe a little exaggeration there). I’ve loved it so much that its the first present that I’ve asked for again and again. So thank-you and thank-you Philippa for that.’

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Voices from Le Marche

Posted in Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

We asked some of our olive grove owners to tell the story of how their relationship with Nudo began. These are some of their answers. Un caro saluto a tutti voi!

From Paolo, Fiorano

“The first we heard of the Nudo project was when we first met Jason and Cathy. We didn’t immediately understand all the benefits of the idea but we were won over by their enthusiasm and sincerity.

Now after three seasons, I find the idea ever more relevant, both economically (it is wonderful when tree adopters come to visit their tree and we are able to host them in our agriturismo) and in terms of the image of the province of Ascoli Piceno and the whole of Le Marche. All the visitors we have had have been so enthusiastic about the area as well as about their tree – and about getting to know us, their tree’s ‘carers’. The first couple to visit their tree were a young English couple who drank a glass of fantastic wine (Fiorano, naturally) under their tree at sunset with smiles covering their faces. At times like this, we can help to realise someone’s dream!”

From Caterina, La Morla

“From a local newspaper, I heard of an English couple  who were in search of organic olive groves, for adoption. I immediately liked the idea; I knew it would be great for my olive trees to have someone with a more personal relationship, who would think the world of them.

The adoption programme is a perfect way to recognize all the quality work that goes on year round in an olive grove, to care for the trees and make the olive oil. I think that much of the passion that people have for olive trees and their products comes from the allure of a plant that lasts for centuries. When a visitor looks at the 800-year-old olive trees around our house, they wonder about the other world it knew in the 15th century, and the world it will see in the 30th century.

Of our tree visitors, some have become real friends. We had some fromAustralia(we found them in the garden, they didn’t even ask for directions!) who will come back next year, by now our very dear friends. I think it was their appreciation for their beautiful olive tree that helped encourage our mutual friendship.”

From Alduino, Il Professore

“In 2008 I read an article in a local newspaper, about the Nudo proposal. The article said that they were searching for olive trees to adopt, that would produce high quality olive oil for the adoptive parents. It was so totally new that I was immediately very curious, and soon had the pleasure of meeting Jason. He visited my olive grove, and liked what he saw–and so we started our business relationship, which has since grown to give mutual satisfaction.

I am a qualified agronomist, and have always had a passion for olive cultivation bred in me. However, now that my olive oil reaches hundreds of worldwide customers, who have demonstrated an appreciation for high quality, I have been spurred to improve my olive oil even more. I also pay close attention to the new techniques developing, for harvesting and processing, that preserve the oil so that it can arrive with the adoptive parents in the same delicious condition in which it left Italy.”

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Countdown to gelato o’clock

Posted in Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , , on April 8, 2011 | 1 Comment »

We’ve been having some beautiful sunny days the past week, a trend that seems to be rolling out all over Europe. Perfect inspiration for a bit of day-dreaming about things to do in the warmer times, eating gelato on the beach and watching Rosie chow down on an unfeasibly enormous platter of spaghetti vongole with salt in her hair.

On that front, we are counting down to our next full family trip to Le Marche. April is proving very kind this year holiday wise (thank you William and Kate – a day off in exchange for all those tax millions, seems only right) and we’re taking off to Italy for a chunk. I’m probably making the mistake I make every year -picturing balmy evenings and t-shirt sleeves by day, when the reality is that Le Marche in April is very much akin to London in April, namely completely unpredictable. It could be fog, it could be rain, it could even be snow though that would be peculiarly cruel. That’s the thing about places that are lush and verdant. You don’t get there through sun alone.

Anyway, for now, my fantasy is a flush of sun, a passeggiata in late afternoon as it squintingly descends and a pasta supper overlooking a sea readying itself for some enthusiastic dipping, in a while.

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A visit to the Il Taccolito grove

Posted in Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2010 | 2 Comments »

The day Joni Starr and Bill Bock tied the knot they got a bit more commitment than they were expecting. Little did they know that they were about to become instant Adoptive parents to a not-so-little olive tree in Nudo’s Il Taccolito grove.  As good parents do, they decided to visit their arbor of joy upon taking their honeymoon in Italy. Here is Joni’s account of their visit.

“My husband and I received an adopted olive tree for a wedding gift last June and we were thrilled to learn we could visit it on our honeymoon one year later. We drove to Le Marche to the Il Taccolito agriturismo in San Severino where we met our lovey tree! Alfio led us up the hill to the grove to introduce us to our tree and take some photos with it. He then showed us their farm animals (including cows Margarita and Phillipe!) and introduced us to his mother and father, Rita and Massimo, who were so very proud of their work and welcomed us with open arms. Rita made a fabulous Italian lunch for us and since the family speaks very little English and we speak very little Italian, they had invited some of their son’s friends who speak English over to have lunch with us. Before we left, Rita gave us a gift which was a book about the olives grown in their region. It was such a wonderful experience! Thanks to Rita, Massimo and Alfio for the wonderful hospitality! Thanks, also to Marco and Assunta for arranging our visit.”

- Joni Starr and Bill Bock (Minneapolis, USA).

If you would like to visit your Adoptive olive tree, please contact Assunta at adopt@nudo-italia.com to arrange your day.


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11 hungry men, 2 rabbits and 1 cook

Posted in Antipasti recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 11, 2010 | 1 Comment »

I suspect the person who coined the phrase ‘working up an appetite’ had in mind a morning spent pruning olive trees followed by a three-course Italian lunch. I have no wish to romanticise what is a bloomin’ tough job – but the rewards that met our sturdy band of pruners was, I think, worth the pain. This is what our friend Louisa cooked up for the boys – traditional lunch grub for the Le Marche farmer.

Linguine with red duck sauce.

First thing to emphasise is that it’s the sauce that’s red rather than the duck – so spare your blushes. Something about the recipe here. Brown one duck leg or thigh per 1.5 people in olive oil. Remove the duck, pour off the fat and sauté a sliced onion, carrot, celery stick and a couple of garlic cloves. Once they’re softened return the duck pieces and add a glass of red wine a can of chopped tomatoes, a cup of stock and a handful of rosemary.  Simmer on a low heat for a hour or so until you can pull the meat off the bone. Then reduce to a nice thick sauce for another half hour or so. Season with salt and pepper. Cook about 80g of dried linguine per person. And mix in the sauce.

Chicken with black olives and bell peppers

Marinate two chicken breasts or legs per person, add half a cupful of olive oil, two cup fulls of black olives (pitted or not), two sliced red peppers and two sliced green peppers, chopped rosemary, oregano, bay leaves and sage, and 5 cloves of chopped garlic.

Heat up a large saucepan over a medium flame, pick out the chicken pieces and sauté on both sides until golden brown. Then add the rest of the marinade and sauté for several minutes more. Once the peppers are tender season with salt and pepper and you are ready.

Roasted potatoes

Clean your potatoes. The quantity depends (obviously) on how many people and how hungry they are, but always always do more than you think as they’ll always get eaten. Slice into wedges. Cook over a medium heat for 30 minutes in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan with lots of olive oil and chopped rosemary.

Spinach

Italian spinach doesn’t seem to wilt and disappear as much as the stuff I’ve had in the UK. Anyway, roughly chop whatever spinach you can and steam it in a thick saucepan with a spoonful of butter and a grating of nutmeg.

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Tasting Notes from Nudo’s olive groves

Posted in Pasta recipes, Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 27, 2010 | 2 Comments »

For all our adoptive tree parents, this time of year is one of great anticipation, as the due date for the precious new arrival approaches. Any day now, a stork will arrive carrying your bespoke bonnie bundle – a package of divine extra virgin olive oil from your very own Italian olive tree.

There are a few things you should know about the new addition to your family. Just as with grapes, there are hundreds of varieties of olives, each producing a different tasting oil. In addition, the olive oil from a leccino olive grove in Umbria will taste quite different from leccino oil from a Le Marche grove. Even adjacent groves can produce very different tasting oils, depending on the terrain, the care of the trees and how quickly after picking the olives are pressed. The differences are so great, in fact, that even within our Nudo family of producers, there is more than a generous drizzle of competitiveness. Naturally, every grove owner believes their olive oil is the best. But who is right? Along with your olive oil you will find a tasting card, which you can send back to us, or fill in the online tasting card at http://bit.ly/96KRa0 and we will announce which grove wins the popular vote.

To help get you going, we’ve compiled some tasting notes of our own.

Aleandri

This year the oil taste profile was affected by the dry summer. The oil is medium fruity, with a herbaceous leaning and the smell of almonds and artichoke. Overall it’s very well balanced with a leaning towards the sweet end of the scale. The taste profile diagram is shown above. Around the edges, clockwise from the top are the different internationally recognised type of flavours you find in olive oils – fruity, green, bitter, peppery, sweet, almonds and artichoke

Ardelio

This oil has a delicate golden yellow colour. It has a light flavouring and sometimes a peppery after-kick, which is indicative of a high concentration of polyphenolic antioxidants and freshness. It has an acidity level of less than 0.5% (it needs to be under 0.8% to be classed as extra virgin).

Dell’Orso

This is a very high quality oil (though not quite as good as the exceptional 2008 pressing) from an organic grove. All the groves in the region were affected by ‘mosca’, an olive fly this year; what this means, is that the olives have to be picked as early as possible which has the effect of producing an oil that is slightly more peppery. This year, the oil is green with a golden hue. The smell is fruity with a hint of cut grass and the flavour is fruity with a slight bitterness and a spicy tip. The acidity is 0.5 (it needs to be under 0.8% to be classed as extra virgin) and it hits 6.8 on the peroxide scale.

Fiorano

This year the oil is light to medium on the fruity scale. Although the colour isn’t a reflection of quality the oil this year is yellow with a hint of green. The ‘nose’ is strong with hints of almonds, leaves and artichokes. The acidity 0.16 (it needs to be under 0.8% to be classed as extra virgin, so this is really low). Overall the quality is high and this years oil is sweeter and less peppery than from the previous harvest.

Fonte Carella

The colour of the oil is straw-like with a tendency towards green. The aroma is intense and fruity with hints of freshly cut grass. The taste is peppery and spicy due to the early harvesting of the olives by hand (the longer you leave the olive on the tree the milder the oil is, but the higher the oil content is – so it a balance of quality versus quantity and we go for quality). It is one of the best years for oil from Fonte Carella because the trees didn’t produce great quantities, and so a tonne of quality was pumped into each and every fruit.

Il Professore

Again, a great year, though not as great as last years. The acidity is pretty low 0.34  (it needs to be under 0.8% to be classed as extra virgin) and the peroxide level is 7, which means that the olives were in a good condition when they were pressed. It is a medium fruity oil with a green nature and almond flavour. The oil is overall sweet, with a peppery note and a medium intensity of bitterness. There is also an aftertaste of almonds. It has a beautiful yellow colour. The polyphenol level is around 500 (these are the cardioprotective compounds in the oil, so the more the better).

Il Taccolito

As Rita says, this delicate oil should be treated gently, like you should treat a women. It is well balance, medium fruity, with a very low acidity (i.e. very high quality) of 0.02% (it needs to be under 0.8% to be classed as extra virgin). It has a grassy nose (i.e. smell) with hints of grass and tomatoes. And it has a almond flavour with slight peppery aftertaste. At pressing the oil was rather green, but we have noticed it is becoming more yellow.

La Morla

This oil is very well balanced. Its colour is yellow with a green hue. Its nose is medium fruity with hints of almonds and artichokes, whilst its taste is again well balanced with a hint of bitterness and a medium intensity of pepperyness. All topped off with an aftertaste of almonds. Yum. It’s polyphenol count hits the highs at 445 (these are the cardioprotective compounds in the oil, so the more the better).

Lina

This is a light subtle oil with a fresh fragrance of artichoke, tomatoes and green apple. There is a peppery after-kick which you should watch out for, which is a sign of the healthy antioxidants in the oil. The acidity level is less than 0.3% and the colour is a lovely golden yellow.

Rosalio

The oil has a beautiful golden green glow. The smell of this oil is evocative of freshly cut grass and a hint of artichoke. In taste oil is well balanced but milder and more delicate than in previous years. It has a buttery textures followed by a herbaceous, cut-grass flavour. This oil is at it’s prime now, so drizzle with impunity.

DO you want to adopt your own olive tree in Italy? Click here to become an adoptive parent today.

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Come on out, we know you’re in there

Posted in Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 7, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Every year I make the same mistake. Thinking that winter comprises December, January and February, and that Spring (blue skies, no coats) rocks up good and proper in March. So wrong. Winter can trudge, fudge and muddle on for anything up to 5 months. Get your pacing right. This is a marathon not a sprint.

This week, the sun coyly coughed and let us know it was standing behind the door in its dressing gown. Just checking things out, the lie of the land. I was instantly fooled. Crocuses out, tights off! Let’s go! And now let’s get back inside and put that thermal vest on.

Best approach this time of year is to get planning your summer holidays. We’re feeling the allure of a barge or possibly a tent. Somewhere that your brain tells you is wet and grey 97% of the year but which your heart still believes will produce unremitting sunshine for the two weeks you’re there. The beauty of the imagination. If you don’t share a desire to be in a queue at a lock in the rain in Wales, then why not give Le Marche a try. We have lots of great recommendations for places to stay and the chances of warmth are, well, we can’t make promises, but if it’s not warmer than Llangollen I’ll eat my galoshes.

We love Dean & Lesley of Caserma Carina and Bob & Ian of Casal dei Fichi – both offering a luxurious, comfortable stay close to the Nudo olive grove in Le Marche.

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Tagliatelle at La Perla.

Posted in Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , , on July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

La Perla is a typical Marchigiani restaurant.  It’s not in a picturesque setting. The restaurant itself is not picturesque (high ceilings, unadorned white walls, cold floors, bare furnishings). The atmosphere is, well there almost isn’t one. But what they get up to in the kitchen can bring tears of joy.

It is the classic Italian cooking rule of simplicity. They have good ingredients that really taste. They prepare everything by hand, fresh, right here right now. They don’t spread themselves thin by offering a squillion choices – they have the confidence to say ‘Here is what is good today’ based on the fresh ingredients they have, and maybe who is in the kitchen and maybe what they feel like. The customer doesn’t always have to be right. Sometimes a bit of unapologetic, proud and informed leadership is so much better for everyone.  And the La Perla tagliatelle could end wars. The kind of melt-in-your-mouth pasta you can expect at La Perla. This is fresh spaghetti with artichokes.

It’s very thin, much thinner than what might be called tagliatelle in a British supermarket. I’d say the strands are roughly 2millimetres wide. It is delicate. It melts in your mouth. And it really tastes of something – subtly of course but the wheat, the egg, the fields – somehow it is all there. And here’s another amazing thing – the tagliatelle isn’t just a conduit, an excuse, a blank canvas for sauce in the way it so often is outside Italy. In London I have been given pasta dishes which are pretty much 50% pasta and 50% sauce. No no no no no. Here the dish is 90% pasta and 10% sauce, the sauce just nudging a mouthful of the pasta a bit more in one direction or another. And an almost sauceless mouthful bringing  not a feeling of having been short-changed, but one of extreme pleasure. It is as different from foreign tagliatelle as instant coffee is from a freshly brewed Italian espresso.

And the real beauty is the bill. A total La Perla three course lunch with wine costs about what two humdrum starters would set you back in Blighty.

Note to self: must make more time to go out for lunch. If everyone else thinks we are ‘living the dream’ we might as well try and prove them right.

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Book Extract: ‘More to life than work’

Posted in Stories from the Olive Grove, tagged , , , , , , on June 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Jason and the AC Lorese“…one evening, at about seven, Jason took his luck and his boots and headed off to the stadium. There were various ragazzi hanging around, some already kitted up, others joking around. They were nearly all in their late teens or early twenties and Jason felt a bit like Dad as, pre-armed with a few bits of key vocabulary, he asked one of them where the coach was. They gestured towards a man over the other side of the field who bore a striking resemblance to Jesus Christ.

When Jason went over to introduce himself, he was surprised to find that Jesus already knew who he was. ‘Ciao,’ he said warmly, ‘e benvenuto.’ Was he really Jesus and knew everyone in the world?  He noticed Jason was looking at him rather puzzled. ‘La tua casa’ (‘Your house’), he said, ‘ho messo tutte le piastrelle’ (‘I tiled your house’).

Another one?! We thought Elmedine’s dad had tiled our house!  No.  Apparently he only does the outdoor tiling. Jesus had done all the indoor stuff – a big job, big enough to pay for his new car, he ‘joked’.

Jason said that he’d like to come along to football training, just to do some exercise and keep his skills up. ‘Ma certo. Iniziamo proprio  ora?’ (‘Of course. Do you want to start now?’)

A bit embarrassed having seen what he was up against in the kit department, Jason headed back to the car to pick up his motley assortment of mismatched QPR socks, Liverpool shorts and raggedy football boots. Everyone else was in pristine Loro Piceno kits, clearly ironed by their mothers, and carried everything around in state-of-the-art kit bags with equally pristine boots tucked away in the bottom. They had two sets of shoes each – trainers for training and football boots for footballing. This was all a bit of a shock to J, whose previous idea of an evening of football was a few fast physical games of five-a-side with plenty of bruises and swearing, then straight down the pub.

Training proper began. It transpired that Jesus wasn’t the main coach – he was just God’s number two, God being a guy called Ciocci who used to play for no less a team than Inter Milan, so in the eyes of the ragazzi was genuinely pretty close to the big guy.  This was a man who had played alongside true footballing gods such as (Jason tells me) Jürgen Klinsmann. How on earth he ended up in Loro Piceno, the other God only knows.”

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