Lidia's Italian Table by Lidia Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich, Christopher Styler (Editor), Christopher Styler (Editor), Christopher Hirsheimer (Photographer)

Read an Excerpt

To me, the olive tree signifies life and eternity and is imbued with a sense of spirituality. Maybe it is because throughout my life olive oil has been so important, so respected, and so truly appreciated. I have memories of it being consumed with reverence.

My paternal grandparents had groves of olive trees. I don't remember my Grandma Francesca she passed away before I had an opportunity to know her-but a few of my younger years were spent with Grandpa Tonin. Like my family he lived in Busoler, on the other side of town from my maternal grandparents, Nonna Rosa and Nonno Giovanni, with whom I spent a lot of time.

Nonno Tonin would take me for walks through his olive trees, and I remember the shimmering, silvery green leaves and the clusters of olives looking so delicate-some vibrant green with purple speckles and some completely deep purple. The trunks of those olive trees, however, were not delicate-they looked to me like the gnarled faces of old men in pain. Whenever I had to pass the olive groves at night during my visits with Nonno Tonin, I had images of those old men in the trees chasing me.

Five years ago, I planted three hundred and fifty olive trees in Busoler in memory of my grandparents and in honor of the land they loved and worked with such dedication. When I visit now, the land is alive, the olive trees are smiling and waving in the breeze, and I swear I can see my grandparents working the fields.

Olive oil is the basic element of my cooking, as it is of the entire Mediterranean Basin. As far back as I can remember, the harvest of the olivestook place in the cold months of late November or early December. The women harvested olives from the branches that were reachable from the ground with the help of a ladder and a tela, or cloth, that was spread around the base of the olive trees to catch the olives that fell to the ground. The men climbed into the higher branches to gather the hard-to-reach olives. There always seemed to be a sense of urgency in harvesting the olives. When I was young, I thought that was because of the cold weather, but I have come to learn that olives have to be milled as soon as possible after they are harvested to produce the best oil. If left in storage, the olives begin to ferment and the quality of the oil suffers.

As I recall, Dignano—a small town next to Pola—was the location of the communal olive oil mill. There were two huge cylinders of stone that, when pulled by donkeys, rolled around and around over a wide stone base. Olives were layered over the base stone and, as the donkeys circled the base, the stone cylinders crushed the olives to a paste. A metal drain spout ran from the press, channeling the free-flowing oil into a container. The pulp was then collected and put into large, double-thick filters made of jute that were shaped like life preservers or car tires. These were stacked one atop the other on a wooden pole. Turning the lever on top of the pole slowly applied pressure to the filters, gently squeezing as much oil as possible from the olive pulp. When all the oil had been extracted using this method, hot water was applied to loosen any olive oil still lodged in the paste. The taste memory of hot crusty bread dunked in this freshly pressed olive oil is a flavor reference that I carry with me. I search for that flavor in every olive oil I taste and use.

Today, the process of making olive oil remains basically the same, except that machines, mills, and centrifuges do the job that stone, donkeys, and people used to do. The grade of olive oil that appears on its label is based on its residual oleic acid; generally speaking, the less acidic an olive oil is, the higher its quality. These are not arbitrary designations; the International Olive Oil Council is responsible for setting these guidelines and monitoring them. Olive oil labels can be tricky to read, but here are a few things to look for:

• ExtraVirgin is from the first cold pressing of olives and has no more than 1 percent oleic acid.

• Virgin Olive Oil, also from the first cold pressing, contains from I to 3.3 percent oleic acid.

• Olive Oil is virgin olive oil with an acidity level of higher than 3.3 percent that has been chemically refined to remove impurities and excess acidity and has had some virgin oil added to it to replace flavor and color removed during refining.

• Olive-Pomace Oil is the oil extracted from olive pomace (crushed olives) with the help of solvents, which is then blended with virgin olive oil.

• Olio Novello is newly pressed olive oil-usually less than two months old-and is just beginning to come to the States. In Italy, it is quite traditional, and a seasonal cuisine is built around it, usually in the month of December. You might want to ask your specialty food store to carry some. It will be vibrant green, murky, very vegetal, and fresh. It is excellent drizzled over soups-or use it to make bruschetta or to dress seafood, greens, and steamed vegetable salads.

All olive oil is best when used within a year after pressing, although under certain circumstances it can age well for up to two years. As olive oil ages, its flavor becomes milder and less herbal. To keep olive oil, transfer it to small bottles that seal tightly and store them in a dark, cool place. Being of an unstable molecular composition, olive oil oxidizes quickly and, if left in contact with air for long periods of time, will become rancid.