Tasting Italian Olive Oils From Tuscany, Liguria, Umbria And Abruzzo With Chef John Colletta
If you’re a lover of Italian wines – and who isn’t – it’s virtually a sure thing you also like Italian extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), especially if you get the opportunity to try one of these oils from a wine farm. There are plenty of very good Italian olive oils on retail shelves, but there’s a richness and character in an oil from a wine estate that usually isn’t found in a commercial oil from a large producer, no matter how good that company is at producing EVOO.
I recently sat down with John Colletta, founding chef and partner at Quartino, an Italian restaurant and wine bar located in the River North area of Chicago. A first-generation Italian-American, he is a native New Yorker but moved to Chicago, where he opened several Italian restaurants. His partners and he opened Quartino in 2005, focusing on authentic regional preparations of Italian food.
His experience includes that of being a culinary Olympian; he was an individual gold medalist in the 1984 Culinary Olympics, and won another gold medal in 1992 as a member of the Culinary Olympic Team USA. Currently he is an advisor to the National Culinary Team USA 2024. He has authored several books on Italian cuisine, including Risotto and Beyond, published in 2018.
Given this experience, I knew I would get a better understanding of Italian olive oils by tasting with him. He was kind enough to share his thoughts in our sit-down meeting at Quartino in July. (Note: all the oils are from the 2021 harvest.)
Terenzuola (Tuscany and Liguria)
“This is superior,” commented Colletta. “It’s a new world way of making olive oil – there’s nothing traditional.
“That doesn’t make it good or bad. What I like about it is that is is produced in the mountains, so you have this high level of fruit, with a minimal amount of acidity.” He went on to note that the color of the oil is pale green and very, very light, while there is very forward fruit and a light bitterness. “It’s great. The fact that the olives are grown in the mountains has a significant impact on the acidity.”
La Regola (Tuscany)
This oil displays a pea green color and has that signature “Tuscan itch” in the finish. “This is super smooth and super fruity,” remarked Colletta. “This could go with almost anything. It is surprisingly balanced.”
Usiglian del Vescovo (Tuscany)
“I don’t know the area where is comes from, but it reminds me of the Ligurian olive oils,” Colletta remarked. “I could see this being utilized with refined foods; super refined risottos, super refined fish. I would definitely not use this in a Tuscan olive oil cake. It’s so delicious, it’s so balanced you want to put this on any fish dish or vegetable dish.
Castello La Leccia – (Tuscany, Chianti Classico DOP)
“This is delicious,” noted Colletta. “It’s a little more acidic. Being a Tuscan olive oil, the first thing that comes to mind, it’s not my first choice for a bistecca fiorentina. I could see pouring this over vegetables. I think a big selling point is that it’s an organic olive oil and that it’s from Chianti Classico.”
Fratelli Pardi – (Umbria, Montefalco)
“This is very light,” noted Colletta. It’s light and it’s very acidic. I like it very much. The acidity for being a non-filtered olive oil (as stated on the label), the clarity is incredible. I would serve this with almost anything.”
Ciavolich – (Abruzzo, Loreto Aprutino)
Ciavolich is located in the small town of Loreto Aprutino and uses an indigenous cultivar called Dritta for its oil. I have tasted other examples from this area produced solely with Dritta, and have been amazed at the elegance and complexity of these oils, which are among my favorite in all of Italy.
“This is the best one,” exclaimed Colletta. “You can really taste the soil in this. There is an elegant spice in the finish, which is long and flavorful. This is superior.”
After finishing our tasting, Colletta offered some advice about tasting olive oils at a later time frame that many people recommend. “Olive oil, in my opinion, doesn’t come into its peak until it’s in its fifth or sixth year. It’s like wine, it needs to soften. When you consume olive oils fresh, they tend to be harsh, they need some mellowing time.
I asked Colletta about the labels on most bottles of olive oil that recommend you consume by 18-20 months after the harvest. “That’s done for the US,” he remarked. “So to taste olive oil that’s five, six, seven years old, and it’s been maintained at a cool temperature – spectacular.
“If you go to southern Italy, like Puglia, they’ll put it in the ground, some 40 – 50 feet underground. So the natural cold that’s down there will preserve the oil.”
Thanks for the advice, John. I’ll have to try that. And thank you for your comments on these EVOO from Italy.