Monte San Savino 'Village Oil' hits the nose with an explosion of freshly cut grass, tomato, unripe almond and artichoke notes. On the palate, it has a vibrant and complex herbal taste, with hints of apple and unripe almonds. Its intense freshness soon evolves into a pleasant bitterness and a striking spiciness, an indication of the rich presence of polyphenols.

Polyphenol Level:

Our latest 2025 harvest Olio Nuovo is a premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil with a polyphenol content of 424 mg/kg, a sign of exceptional quality. This high level of natural antioxidants gives the oil a vibrant, slightly pungent and pleasantly bitter flavor, typical of freshly pressed olives.

Use this vibrant and complex Olio Nuovo  as a finishing oil on salad, on rustic, earthy soups, roasted vegetables or grilled meat, on your pasta, beans, or simply poured on a slice of good crusty bread. Endless combinations, same outstanding result.

Ingredients

• 250g spaghetti (or linguine)

• 3 tbsp Nudo Adopt's Extra Virgin Olive Oil 

• Zest and juice of 1 lemon

• 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

• 2 tsp Nudo Adopt's Stone Ground Thyme Oil

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Optional: grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano for serving

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta - Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Reserve about ½ cup of the pasta water, then drain.

2. In a large pan, gently warm the Extra Virgin Olive Oil  over low heat.

3. Add the garlic slices and cook until fragrant and just turning golden for about 1- 2minutes.

4. Add lemon and Thyme oil - Stir in the lemon zest and juice, and Thyme oil plus a small splash of the reserved pasta water. Swirl the pan to create a light emulsion.

5. Toss the pasta - Add the drained spaghetti to the pan. Toss to coat well in the lemon or thyme oil and add Parmesan or Pecorino Romano (optional)

6. Season generously with salt and pepper, and add a touch more pasta water if it needs moisture.

7. Serve -Plate the pasta and drizzle with a little more thyme oil or lemon oil.

8. Garnish with fresh thyme leaves and (optionally) a sprinkle of Parmesan.

Cerasuola olives are large and fleshy and turn, as they ripen, from a vivid green to a deep purple and then black when fully ripe.  

When tested, Alcamo showed an incredibly high level of polyphenols, the healthy compound in Extra Virgin Olive Oil which not only gives the peppery after kick but is nature's natural defence to neutralize free radicals that cause damage to your body's cells.  

Unusually for an olive tree, the branches and foliage of the Cerasuola olive tree reach upwards towards the sky rather than drooping downwards like most olive cultivars. The trees also thrive even in the poorest of soils and grow quite happily in the most unpromising of circumstances.

Famed for their resistance to drought and fluctuating climatic conditions, the Cerasuola olive is widespread across Sicily, a landscape which is without rainfall for increasingly long stretches of the year, and ranges from baking hot summers to the some of the lowest temperatures recorded in Italy in the winter months.

Both olives and olive oil are most often associated with savoury dishes, which leads many to assume that olives are vegetables. However, the fruity qualities of extra virgin olive oil make it a versatile ingredient that can be used in cakes and drizzled over gelato.

Can you eat olives off the tree?

Tempting as it may be, we can’t eat olives straight from the tree. The plump and juicy fruits need to be prepared carefully to become edible. If you were to eat an olive straight from the tree, rather than tasting like the delicious, meaty, and buttery fruit we all know and love, it would be incredibly bitter and inedible. A bitter compound called oleuropein is responsible for making the olive fruit unpalatable. However, skilled olive farmers will take a bite of an olive straight from the tree to gauge the oil content and see whether the tree is ready for harvesting.

Given the dreadful taste of raw olives, it’s surprising that early humans didn’t avoid olive trees altogether after their first unpleasant bite.

The process of curing the olives in salt and water over a period removes the bitterness from the olive by extracting the naturally occurring polyphenols and tannins. Famously innovative, it is thought that the Romans were the first to put the whole olive fruit on the table, using lye in the curing process.

Is it okay to eat olives every day?

Although cured olives are undoubtedly delicious, they are incredibly high in sodium. In terms of health benefits, edible olives and extra virgin olive oil are not comparable, in the same way that a bar of milk chocolate is not comparable to a cacao nib. Despite being a fruit, olives unfortunately do not count towards one of your five a day due to their salt content. However, being a fermented food, olives are full of beneficial bacteria which may improve the health of your gut microbiome and overall gut health. Olives are low in carbohydrates and, like extra virgin olive oil, are rich in monounsaturated fats and vitamin E, which are beneficial to heart health. That being said, it is important to be aware that consuming excess salt may raise your blood pressure and contribute towards circulatory diseases. Inspired by the Mediterranean diet, moderation and balance are always key when trying to maintain a healthy diet.

Extra virgin olive oil, on the other hand, is safe to be consumed every day. With its high levels of antioxidants and abundance of monounsaturated fats, it’s a delicious and healthy oil that can be used to enhance any meal.

One such town is the commune of Offida. Perched atop a rocky outcrop, this ancient village is surrounded by 15th-century castle walls and is the home of the first of our speciality extra virgin olive oils for 2024.

Once nominated as one of Italy’s most beautiful villages, Offida remains relatively untouched by tourists. Characterised by its charming streets and Renaissance-style architecture, Offida is a haven for those seeking an authentic and tranquil Italian experience.

Offida is celebrated for its exquisite bobbin lace, a delicate and intricate craft practised by the women of the village for over 500 years. This art has been lovingly passed down through generations, with a devotion to detail that impresses even the most skilled craftsmen. Strolling through Offida, you can hear the gentle clacking of wooden bobbins as women twist and turn fine thread, using pins to craft the most exquisite lace designs. Traditionally used in everything from garments to altar covers, this place is now also fashioned into earrings and bracelets for visitors. This ancient tradition is honoured in a museum housed within the 19th-century De Castellotti Palace.

In contrast to the soft curves of the surrounding valleys, the Church of Santa Maria della Rocca (“on the rock”) dominates the town’s edge. Enclosed by cliffs on three sides, it is one of the area’s most dramatic structures, featuring unmissable Gothic architecture. Inside, religious frescoes from the 14th century by ‘The Master of Offida’ adorn the walls.

Agriculture occupies nearly half of Le Marche's territory, with viticulture being the most prevalent. Le Marche is renowned for its wines, with a heritage spanning millennia. Known predominantly for its white wines, the region’s prominent varieties include Trebbiano and Verdicchio.

Despite its rich agricultural tradition, extra virgin olive oil from Le Marche is rarely found outside Italy, making our regional oil this year a particularly special addition to our line-up. The region boasts several native olive cultivars, including Ascolana Tenera, Carboncella, Coroncina, Mignola, Orbetana, Piantone di Falerone, Piantone di Mogliano, Raggia, Rosciola dei Colli Esini, and Sargano di Fermo. Le Marche has the most recognised native olive cultivars of any region in the world. Its temperate climate and alkaline soils have supported the production of exceptional quality oil since Roman times.

The Ascolana olive is among the most cherished local varieties. Throughout the region, you can enjoy Olive all’Ascolane—olives stuffed with ground meat, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, and deep-fried—served with a crisp local Verdicchio as an antipasto.

Our extra virgin olive oil this year has been blended by our long-time collaborator, Tiziano Aleandri, and is produced from a blend of Leccino, Frantoio, Pendolino, Piantone di Mogliano, Coroncina, Orbetana, and Raggia.

Would you like to try Offida? Sign up to Completo and receive an exceptional regional oil for your first delivery.

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Italy, with its diverse landscapes and abundant natural beauty, serves as a home to a wide variety of bird species. Many of these birds choose to make their nests in the olive trees, finding safety and shelter within the branches. These migratory birds play a vital role in local ecosystems by helping to control insect populations and spread the seeds of native plants and wildflowers throughout the groves, contributing to the overall health and biodiversity of the region.

Unfortunately, the olive harvest period coincides with the migratory patterns of several bird species, which seek out the mild climate of the Mediterranean in the winter months. To save money and time, large-scale producers often choose to harvest their olives at night when the temperatures are cooler, and the birds are resting. Bright lights and heavy machinery are used, and the loud noise and bright lights disorientate the birds. The machinery, designed to vacuum the olives straight off the trees, unintentionally sucks in these birds, leading to their tragic deaths in shocking numbers. Despite being protected under EU laws, the bird populations are being negatively impacted. Among the species at risk are the European robin, warbler, thrush, wagtail, and several species of finches.

At Nudo, we only ever harvest the olives by hand, using specialised rakes to gently shake the tree branches, catching the olives below in large nets. Our farmers do not harvest at night, and instead begin the harvest in the early morning, sending the olives to a local mill within 24 hours of picking. It’s a long and hard day's work for our farmers, but it’s worth it, knowing that we are not contributing to the devastating loss of wildlife, which must be protected at all costs.

Although initially brought to the attention of the media in 2019, the Italian government has yet to publish any data on the number of bird deaths in Italy and has yet to enact any legislation to ban this destructive and disturbing practice.

How you can help:

Educate your friends and family on the harmful impacts of intense, modern olive farming methods.

Shop for extra virgin olive oil that is harvested by hand

According to Coldiretti (the association representing Italian farmers), Mediterranean olive oil production in 2023 was down by as much as 41%. Olive groves across Europe experienced the hottest summer on record and because of these extreme temperatures, farmers all over the Mediterranean experienced a devastatingly poor harvest.  

Italy in particular experienced erratic and extreme weather conditions throughout the year, from floods in the north to droughts and devastating wildfires in the southern regions.

Climate

Farmers around the world have long dealt with unpredictable weather, but they could typically count on the consistency of the seasons. Now even these seasonal changes are becoming erratic.

‘In the early years of developing Bestagno groves, I could count on what the weather would bring. By the end of January, you would see the first hints of Spring on the groves, and whilst the snowcapped alpine peaks behind our valley brought cold night air, when the sun was up, the earth started to warm and new growth appeared. You knew which weeks would bring rain, which would be dry and soon I had learned the change of the seasons to the week, knowing when to keep an eye out for the first gecko to wake and bask in the sun, the first swallow to swoop through the valley and the first firefly to buzz around the groves at dusk. But during these latter years everything has changed, and it is not just us humans who are trying to make sense of the changing environment.' -  Katharine, Bestango Groves.

The olive tree follows its annual life cycle from bud to harvest, a process heavily reliant on favourable weather conditions. When the weather aligns with the tree’s seasonal requirements, farmers can expect a bountiful harvest. But unseasonably warm springs can trigger premature budding, only to be thwarted by a late frost. Insufficient rainfall during the autumn months can cause the fruit to wither and drop prematurely from the branches, and heavy rains or hailstorms can strip the trees of their precious fruit right before the harvest. The olive harvest happens just once a year and there are no second chances for our farmers. 

The growing occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events pose a threat to present harvests and have enduring consequences for the viability of olive cultivation. As weather patterns become more unpredictable, farmers need to adjust their approaches and discover creative methods to safeguard their crops and means of living. 

These changing weather patterns also have implications for food security and global agricultural production. 

‘The entire agricultural sector has been in crisis for a long time.’ – Agnese, Nonno Tato Grove 

On a small-scale farm, the production of olive oil is labour-intensive. 

On a small-scale grove, each olive is harvested and sorted by hand. For farmers whose groves are in hilly regions, the olives need to be carried down the terraces since vehicles and machines cannot access the trees. This laborious task has resulted in a shortage of available workers as young people in rural Italy continue to migrate to urban areas in pursuit of more lucrative and stable employment opportunities. 

A farmer on Barone Pastore, sorting the olives. 

Food Fraud 

Where there is potential for profit, there will inevitably be individuals looking to exploit it.

Last December, Spanish and Italian law enforcement agencies conducted a joint operation resulting in the apprehension of 11 suspects. During this operation, 260,000 litres of adulterated oil were seized in Spain. 

‘Mixing consumer-grade olive oil with lower grade alternatives allowed the criminals to offer competitive prices while entering legal supply chains. This illegal practice cannot just cause a public health risk but also undermine consumer trust and thus have further economic repercussions,’ a statement from Europol read.

This is just one example of many similar incidents. The individuals will heavily dilute olive oil with refined seed oils, mixing in colourants such as chlorophyll to mimic the colour of true extra virgin olive oil. 

Scarcities have resulted in an increase in theft. There have been accounts of people cutting whole branches from trees in Greece, as well as incidents in Puglia where trespassers have invaded groves to harvest olives directly from the trees, transporting them to different locations to be pressed into olive oil. This crisis is causing hardships for the farmers, with the head of the agricultural consortium in Puglia comparing the lawlessness to that of 'the Wild West'. 

Photo from Europol 

Demand

All of this is happening at the same time as an increased worldwide interest in the remarkable health benefits of extra virgin olive oil. The popularity of the Mediterranean diet is steadily increasing and as people shift their attention to their health, there is a growing curiosity about the nutritional content of our food.  

Not only is EVOO delicious, but it has been scientifically proven to offer numerous health benefits. Research continues to surprise us with the benefits of this magical elixir. 

What is Nudo doing about it? 

Nudo Adopt works closely with our trusted, small-scale producers, purchasing their extra virgin olive oil at a fair price.

We continue to work hard to absorb the impact of price hikes and are dedicated to exploring every avenue to maintain affordability for our customers. 

Here are the steps we are taking: 

• Transitioning our subscription packaging from printed to plain card.
• Transitioned to using labelled cans rather than tins with printed aluminium for our packaging.
• Switched to an alternative E-commerce system to lower platform expenses.
• Moved to a different distribution hub in the United States to cut our distribution costs.
• Continuing to explore every avenue to cut our distribution costs.
• QR codes have been incorporated into our packaging as a measure to decrease the amount of paper waste and minimize printing expenses.

At Nudo, safeguarding soil health is our priority. We achieve this through the implementation of sustainable farming methods across all our groves. These practices aim to preserve or enhance soil quality, fertility, and structure, prioritizing low-impact, nature-based approaches.

One of the most straightforward ways we protect the soil in our groves is by refraining from using any chemical pesticides or poisons. By avoiding the use of chemicals, our farmers encourage the growth of wildflowers, grasses, and native plants, which in turn bolster the integrity of the soil and support a diverse array of insect and animal species.

The terraces on Bestagno grove.

Vegetation cover plays a crucial role in maintaining the health of the grove, particularly at Bestagno, where olive trees grow on terraces. Here, the plants and grasses between the trees help stabilize the soil, preventing potentially disastrous landslides during heavy rainfall. Allowing spontaneous vegetation to flourish also enhances carbon sequestration, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing water retention, which proves invaluable during periods of drought.

Intensive olive farming on a high-density grove (Image Source: Olive Oil Times)

For our farmers, choosing to work in this manner entails facing uncertainty regarding their harvests. With less control over pests like the olive fly, our farmers must rely on timing, luck, and experience. A miscalculation could lead to yield reductions of up to 50%. Conversely, in large-scale, industrialized olive groves, the use of chemical pesticides ensures a more predictable crop for farmers. However, this practice contributes to a barren landscape, heightened risk of summer fires, and heavy dependence on artificial fertilizers. Experts caution that intensive olive farming now poses a significant risk of desertification.
Through our subscription program, our farmers can continue to work their land in the tradition of their ancestors, secure in the knowledge that they have economic stability for the year ahead.

The four key ways our farmers protect soil and encourage biodiversity:  

• Companion planting on the grove, using plants such as fava beans to fix nitrogen into the soil and encourage pollinators.
• Encouraging the wild grass, flowers, and vegetation to grow naturally, only cutting it back after it has flowered and self-seeded.
• Using the spring prunings from the trees and cut grass as mulch for the groves. Mulching also means we are not releasing carbon from the land by turning the soil over. 
• Only irrigating if essential for the wellbeing of the trees using only water from natural sources, stored in the groves aquifers or pumped from natural water sources.

In the increasingly industrial environment of extra virgin olive oil production, the Nudo Adopt subscription program empowers farmers to continue their sustainable low impact farming methods protecting their trees and land for future generations.

Sign up today

Now that the harsh winter weather and the threat of frost has passed, our farmers have begun pruning their trees and giving them some much-needed TLC. This annual ritual marks the beginning of a new year in the life of the olive tree, and our eyes are on the prize: the best possible yield of extra virgin olive oil.

Pruning olive trees requires both skill and artistry and provides our farmers with a cherished opportunity to reconnect with their trees after the cold winter months. It also serves as a vital chance for farmers to inspect their trees for pests and disease.

Despite the myriad challenges and external environmental factors our farmers confront year-round, pruning remains a hands-on activity for our producers. It allows them to provide the trees with a good foundation for new growth in the upcoming year.

So, what is the purpose of pruning? Pruning serves to invigorate the olive trees by promoting new growth. There are several different reasons why a farmer will prune their tree, whether it’s rejuvenating abandoned trees, shaping their canopy for an easier harvest, or enhancing fruit production. Striking the right balance is important; inadequate pruning results in a low fruit yield, while excessive pruning can harm the health of the tree.

The olive needs sunlight at every stage of its life on the tree, from flowering to harvest. Cutting back excess dense foliage and removing old growth gives the trees the best start come spring when the trees will start to bud. If a tree is not pruned to allow light into the canopy, any olive flowers that remain in the shade may not develop into mature fruit.

Pruning also facilitates ventilation and air circulation in the tree, and this is essential to help prevent fungus and diseases.

Once the pruning is complete, it’s crucial to take preventative measures to protect the trees from potential disease or harm. Like many other fruit trees, our pollinator allies play an essential role in ensuring a successful crop. Once the buds on the olive trees start to blossom, it’s no longer possible to treat the trees as we risk disturbing our foraging friends. If needed, farmers will apply a mist of copper solution, an organic and natural fungicide, to safeguard the trees.

On our groves, the organic waste & branches are chipped and used to add nutrients back into the soil. However, not all producers adopt this practice. Instead, some choose to burn the branches and leaves, which is unfortunately a common practice. Given that a significant portion of the tree is pruned (typically between 30-50%), the scale of such fires across the country can be substantial.

• Look for the 'Extra-Virgin' Label: The term "extra virgin" refers to the highest quality classification of olive oil. To be labelled as such, the oil must meet industry standards regarding its production process, chemical composition, and sensory characteristics. These standards include factors such as low acidity, no defects in flavour or odour, and the use of mechanical methods (rather than chemical or heat-based processes) in extracting the oil from the olives.

• Country of origin: Look out for the country of origin so you know the provenance of your extra virgin olive oil – many labels will state that the oil is ‘packed’ or ‘produced’ in a certain country, but this does not reflect the actual source of the olives. This can be a loophole for large-scale producers to import oil from other countries and blend and produce them in their own and then label them as such. Traceability and short supply chains are key to obtaining an authentic, unadulterated product.

• Tasting notes and flavour profile: To make sure you're purchasing an oil that you'll get the most use out of (as we encourage you to enjoy EVOO liberally!), make sure you're reading the labels to find out which flavours suit your palate. As with wine, it's all about individual preferences. Once opened, your extra virgin olive oil is best consumed within 2-3 months, so ensure you choose a flavour profile that will work well with the food and recipes you cook frequently. We recommend trying a variety of Extra virgin olive oils to compare the flavour and aromas. (link to tasting page) Understanding the tasting notes will allow you to experience the unique characteristics of the oil.

• Look for a harvest date: When it comes to choosing high-quality extra virgin olive oil, one key indicator of freshness is the harvest date. The best producers are transparent about when the olives were harvested, and this information is crucial for ensuring that you're getting the freshest oil possible. Unlike other food products that may have sell-by or expiration dates, olive oil can be deceptive in this regard. Sell-by dates alone may not accurately reflect the freshness or quality of the oil. Large-scale, industrialised producers may have oils that have been stored in vats for extended periods, waiting to be bottled and distributed. This storage time can affect the flavour and overall quality of the oil.

• Avoid clear glass or plastic bottles: Understanding the vulnerabilities of extra virgin olive oil is crucial when it comes to maintaining its freshness and quality. The two main adversaries of olive oil are light and oxygen, and reputable producers are aware of this fact. Light and oxygen exposure can lead to oxidation, which will cause the oil to deteriorate, impacting its flavour, aroma, and nutritional properties. To avoid this, we recommend you steer clear of olive oils packaged in clear glass or plastic bottles. These materials do not provide adequate protection against the harmful effects of light and can accelerate the degradation process. Look for opaque tins or bottles.

• EVOO does not improve with age: Fresh is best! Unlike wine, extra virgin olive oil does not improve with age. EVOO's vibrant flavours, aromatic notes, and nutritional properties are most pronounced when the oil is freshly extracted from olives. Over time, exposure to factors such as light, air, and heat can lead to the degradation of the oil, resulting in a loss of its original qualities. After all, extra virgin olive oil is a fresh fruit juice. However, when stored and packaged correctly, extra virgin olive oil has a remarkable ability to maintain its freshness and quality for an extended period. Proper storage involves protecting the oil from light, air, and temperature fluctuations. Dark, opaque containers and cool, dark storage spaces will preserve your oils' integrity. It's worth noting that extra virgin olive oil has been employed as a preservative for centuries.

• 'First cold press': It's good to note that although widely used as a marketing term, this does not make your extra virgin olive oil any different from the next. There are strict legalities around the definitions for extra virgin olive oil, and EVOO only ever comes from the first cold pressing - without the use of heat or chemicals.

• Cultivar or Variety: High-quality extra virgin olive oil will disclose the types of olives used to obtain the oil. This will let you know if your oil is a blend or a monovarietal oil.

• Producer transparency: Good producers of extra virgin olive oil will be transparent about their producers and production line.

If you’re ever unsure about your extra virgin olive oil, contact the producer with any questions you may have about their product – in this industry, transparency is key.

We think of seeds as being healthy and packed full of nutrients, but the oil made from them is far from it.

Seed oils, such as sunflower oil, grapeseed and canola oils must undergo a lengthy processing to extract the oil from the seed. The seeds are heated to high temperatures and then processed with petroleum-based solvents, such as hexane, to maximise the amount of oil to be extracted. After the oil has been obtained, it then undergoes a process of deodorising and bleaching, using more chemicals, before it is fit for human consumption. After this, more chemicals, such as synthetic antioxidants are added to improve the shelf life and colour.

Unfortunately, the resulting seed oils are high in inflammatory fats, calories, and lacking in essential nutrients. The high levels of omega-6 fatty acids in seed oils have been shown to trigger inflammation in the body, contribute to chronic illness and there are links to an increased risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

The cost-effectiveness of producing such cooking oils, coupled with strategic marketing and unsupported health claims has contributed to the widespread popularity of seed oils since the early 1900s. Influential research in the 1960s suggested a correlation between high saturated fat intake, elevated cholesterol levels, and an increased risk of heart disease. This led to dietary recommendations encouraging people to reduce their intake of saturated fats and as a result, vegetable oils, particularly those high in polyunsaturated fats, were advocated as replacements for saturated fats. Vegetable oils like soybean oil, corn oil, and sunflower oil became popular choices because they were perceived as heart-healthy alternatives.

The understanding of dietary fats and their effects on health has evolved, and recommendations have changed accordingly. Current dietary guidelines emphasise a more nuanced approach, considering the types of fats consumed rather than advocating a blanket avoidance of all fats.

Even if you do not regularly cook with refined vegetable and seed oils, you’d be surprised by their widespread use in a variety of foods. You can expect to find seed oils in cereals & granola bars, condiments, sweets, salad dressings, baked goods, ice cream, dairy-free spreads, and milk alternatives. The list goes on and if you’re at all curious, go and look in your fridge and see for yourself where these refined oils are hiding.

The Environmental cost

Whilst cheap to produce, the environmental impact of the cultivation of these seed oils comes at a much higher cost.

The farming of the crops for seed oil production is incredibly industrialised and has a significant environmental impact. Widespread monoculture practices, particularly evident in the production of specific seed oils such as soybean and palm kernel oil, contribute to huge biodiversity loss.

The high demand for vegetable and seed oil relies on intensive farming practices, which involve the application of pesticides, fertilisers, and other chemicals. Unfortunately, these inputs can adversely affect soil health and compromise water quality. Additionally, the production of these crops is water-intensive, further exacerbating the environmental concerns.

Heart-healthy Alternatives

So, what’s the alternative? High-quality, extra virgin olive oil. Be sure to check the labels, as not all olive oil is created equally. When shopping, avoid labels such as ‘olive oil’, ‘light olive oil’ or ‘olive pomace oil’ – these oils have undergone processing by chemicals or heat.

The distinctive quality of extra virgin olive oil lies in its authenticity and minimal processing. Extra virgin olive oil is made from the whole fruit, with nothing added in the process. Always look for small-batch extra virgin olive oils from brands that focus on regenerative farming & authentic methods to get your hands on the healthiest EVOO.

What we love about extra virgin olive oil is its versatility as a considerate gift for all. In an industry plagued by fraud and deceptive labelling, Nudo Adopt eliminates intermediaries in the supply chain, providing genuine, fresh extra virgin olive oil directly from the groves.

Stocking Fillers

The ideal stocking filler, any of our 250ml tins are the perfect fit. These conveniently sized tins, brimming with fresh Italian flavours are the perfect addition to hampers or stockings and are a versatile kitchen staple that everyone will love. Among customer favourites are our best-selling chilli and lemon oils, perfect for pasta and pizza enthusiasts. If you’re unsure of the best combinations, our trio gift sets are carefully handpicked.

For those looking for something a little different – why not gift any one of our new balsamic condiments? These deliciously rich and tangy condiments are the perfect addition to a festive cheeseboard or sharing platter. You can read more about these special products here.

For an affordable gift that really makes a statement, our Sicilian EVOO, with its luxe packaging is a gift that tastes extra special. Made with organically farmed olives, this gift is a sophisticated option for those who like the finer things in life. 

Another timeless Nudo classic is the Insalata set – a combination of a beautiful balsamic, our classic EVOO, and our lemon oil. This fool-proof dressing set is perfect for those exploring the world of Italian cuisine.

Affordable Luxuries

Bottiglia di Oliva

A timeless and exquisite present, these ceramic olive oil pourers are meticulously hand-painted by artisans in the coastal town of Monterosso. Exclusively crafted for Nudo, each cruet is a one-of-a-kind piece. These bottles preserve your extra virgin olive oil by shielding it from oxygen and sunlight, ensuring its freshness lasts longer. For a limited time, enjoy a 10% discount when you add a 500ml tin of either our original extra virgin olive oil or our Sicilian extra virgin olive oil.

Gran Misto

Experience the entire collection from Nudo Adopt – featuring all seven of our 250ml-sized flavoured oils.

For the Health-Conscious

All our extra virgin olive oils and flavoured oils are entirely plant-based, and free from gluten and GMOs. Our flavoured oils contain no salt, sugar, or carbohydrates, and are devoid of artificial flavours or preservatives. Only pure, unadulterated Italian ingredients.

It is a festive must-have in Italy that has gained its fame (and rightly so!) around the world. It’s one of our customer favourites and is back this year for the holiday season.

Panettone is the lightest of breads, a soft pillow of pure indulgence. Somewhere between a brioche and a fruit cake, this Italian sweet bread is light and airy unlike its traditional English or American fruit cake counterparts. The dome shaped Panettone we know and love today was created by Angelo Motta in the 1920s but over the years, panettone has taken many shapes, with recipes dating back to 200 A.D.  

During the festive season, you will find mass produced panettone piled high on the shelves in supermarkets. These cheaper versions of ‘panettone’ will skimp on quality, using artificial colourings and flavourings to imitate the traditional cake. Most panettone available for sale in the USA are manufactured in Brazil.  

Due to the rise in production in South America, there has been significant effort made to obtain a ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ status for Panettone, but so far, attempts have been unsuccessful. If you want to enjoy the authentic taste, make sure you purchase artisanal panettone that has been made in Italy.  

How is Panettone made?

Making Panettone by hand, in the authentic way is notoriously difficult, requiring years of experience and intricate techniques, passed down through generations.

Central to the process is nurturing and perfecting the ‘lievito madre’, which directly translates as mother yeast. This natural raising agent gives the bread its distinct fluffy texture and slightly tangy flavours.

The flavour of panettone can vary from one bakery to the next. Not only is the flavour influenced by the ingredients and fruit used in the panettone, but also by the mother yeast itself. The microclimate of each bakery can impact the bacteria levels in the yeast, with temperature and atmosphere all playing a part.

Artisan bakers nurture their ‘lievito madre’ for decades. This temperamental natural rising agent must be monitored diligently round the clock and fed with flour and water every few hours. Bakers will wake in the night to tend to their yeast, ensuring it is kept at the perfect temperature and humidity in order for fermentation to occur.

To make the dough for the panettone, the bakers must pay attention to detail. The delicate processes and strict timings must be respected.

First, a portion of the lievito madre is carefully weighed and prepared by adding water and flour. This first ingredient of the panettone is then left to rise again overnight, until tripled in size.

Once ready, the bakers will make a start on the dough. The yeast is combined with flour, eggs, butter (or EVOO!). The addition of each ingredient is meticulously timed, and the temperatures of all ingredients must be monitored carefully to avoid the dough going into what is known as a thermal shock.

Only once the base of the dough is the perfect consistency and the gluten has the right structure, can the other ingredients be added.  

The panettone is traditionally studded with candied peels. In our panettone, we use raisins, candied Sicilian orange & diamante citron peel.  

You may mistake the small, green candied peels in our panettone for lime, but they are in fact the citron. This large and fragrant citrus fruit has a wide pith and unusually, the rind is sweet rather than bitter. The fruit originates from the coast of northwest Calabria and the area is often referred to as ‘Riviera of the Citron’. The citron takes its name from the small town of Diamonte, also known for its annual chilli pepper festival which takes place in the late summer.

Panettone is a labour of love.  

After yet another leavening, the dough is skilfully shaped by hand to ensure that there are no air bubbles present, as this would cause the dough to collapse.

It is then placed into the pirottino, the paper casing that holds the panettone in shape. The dough is then left to proof again until tripled in size inside the casing. In its final rise, the dough begins to form a crust, which must be cut in the shape of a cross, to allow the dough to continue to rise in the oven.

The panettone is placed into the oven and baked for around one hour and once ready, the cake must be turned upside down immediately to prevent the collapse of the delicate dough.  The Panettone is then hung upside down on specially made racks to allow the starches to set as the cake cools.

How to eat Panettone?

In our books, there is no right or wrong way to enjoy Panettone, though this may be disputed amongst the Italians.

Perfect with a cup of coffee, dunked in milk or paired with dry, sweet Marsala wine.  

It can be toasted with butter, served with whipped mascarpone or cream.

Our Panettone Collection

Nestled between the cities of Venice & Verona lies a small family run Pasticceria. The skilled pastry chefs at Scarpato create each of their artisan pastries by hand, using only the finest Italian ingredients. Each of their creations is a blend of tradition, innovation and sheer indulgence. They have been nurturing their lievito madre since 1888 and you can taste the passion and craftsmanship in every bite of their fragrant panatonnee made for Nudo Adopt.

	Nudo's Special Panettone all’Olio d’Oliva 750g Made with extra virgin olive oil, Panettone all’ Olio d’Oliva is an anticipated favourite every year. This Italian specialty always sells out so don’t miss your opportunity to try this classic. Carefully crafted using traditional techniques, this naturally leavened cake is a labour of love. Using only the best Italian ingredients, the dough is left to rise for 72 hours before being slowly baked to perfection. Beautifully presented in a gift bag, perfect for sharing with friends and family over the holidays. Shop Now
	Panettone al Limone di Sicilia 1kg In Italy, no meal is complete without a glass of limoncello and this year we have created a delicious festive twist on the tradition. Our new Panettone al Limoncello has soft fragrant lemon dough dotted with pockets of indulgent limoncello flavoured cream; a must try this Christmas. Beautifully presented in a gift bag, perfect for sharing with friends and family over the holidays. Shop Now
	Dolce Natale Vegan Panettone 750g At Nudo Adopt, we believe everyone should be able to indulge in Panettone. Why not try our Artisan Vegan Panettone? Our plant-based alternative is just as light and airy as traditional panettone. Carefully crafted using traditional techniques, this naturally leavened cake is a labour of love. Using only the best Italian ingredients, the dough is left to rise for 72 hours before being slowly baked to perfection. Beautifully presented in a gift bag, perfect for sharing with friends and family over the holidays. Shop Now

One of the joys of living in Italy is we get to sample the produce of so many small-scale farmers and producers. These are often family businesses with hands on expertise and knowledge passed down through the generations. 
 
Fresh regional food is revered in Italy and the customs and traditions around its production are celebrated in village festivals held nationwide in the Spring and Autumn, celebrating the changing seasons and new harvests. 
 
I have always been struck with the significant regional differences of so many Italian staples. It is not just with olive oil that the landscape, geography and microclimates influence both flavour and production techniques.  
 
Over the years Nudo Adopt has worked with several small-scale producers promoting Italian specialities such as sun-dried tomatoes and different pesto. But the economics of this for Nudo can be precarious. Consequently, we took the decision some years ago to focus on our core product, Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We now only consider promoting new products and producers if they are truly exceptional and not widely available elsewhere.

It was by chance, when visiting a friend in Modena, I tasted my first balsamic vinegar from the incredible range of Acetaia Castelli. I was simply blown away by the depth of flavour and a richness I had not found in any other balsamic. Returning home, I determined to find out more about the company, their traditions and what went into making this extraordinary balsamic. 

What is Balsamic?

Balsamic, with its dark, sweet and tangy flavour profile, is a condiment obtained from the cooked juice of crushed grapes (know as ‘grape must’) and aged in wooden barrels.

It has been produced in the Modena and Reggio Emilia regions for centuries. The art of creating balsamic vinegar has been meticulously perfected over four generations at Acetaia Castillo.The long and fascinating history of balsamic vinegar has solidified its status as an iconic ingredient in Italian cuisine.

Family run Acetaia Castelli is situated in the small village of Rio Salecito in the region of Regio Emilia where the hot, arid summers and cold winters lend themselves to the production of balsamic. 
 
I have found that typically many of the very best regional products have started life being made solely for a farmer's own family with no thought having been given to its potential commercial production. It is notable, especially since the pandemic, how many young Italians, having left their family homes to find work elsewhere in Europe are returning to their roots to establish micro-business ventures on their family land, centred around these wonderful, regional-specific products which they have savoured throughout their lives.

Giuseppe, great grandfather of Acetaia Castelli, made the first balsamic for his family's own use from his stone farmhouse now the headquarters of their thriving business. 
  
The range and quality of Acetaia Castelli's vinegars is unrivalled, as is their attention to detail in production and packaging. So, what better than an exceptional range of vinegars to make as our core product to complement our own range of oils? 
 
To kickstart our collaboration, for Christmas and the upcoming holiday season, we are offering five diverse vinegars in our shop.  These products have been carefully selected to showcase Acetaia Castelli’s range. Beautifully presented in their Vecchia Farmacia bottles, we are confident you will be blown away, as we are, with discovering these new flavours and learning about the traditions and history behind them.

All of our balsamic vinegars are currently on pre-order, with delivery in time for the holidays. 

Discover the range here

We have sourced this oil from family-run groves nestled in and around Vasta, a scenic coastal town in southern Abruzzo. This region lies to the east of Rome and is bordered by the Adriatic coast. Abruzzo is known as Italy’s saffron capital, famous also for its liquorice & abundance of wildlife.

The Leccino variety has bright and thick foliage which creates a dense canopy. It is favoured by farmers for many reasons including its tolerance of low temperatures and adaptability to different conditions. Most notably, the variety has gained popularity across Italy for its resistance to the devastating Xyella Fastidiosa, a blight that has plagued Italian agriculture since its arrival in the country in 2008.

While this pathogen poses no threat to human health, it is known to wreak havoc on 650 different species of plant. Xyella attacks the water system of the plant, disrupting the flow of water and nutrients which in turn leads to scorched leaves and eventually kills the plant.

There is little that can be done to manage Xyella, as it is transmitted from plant to plant by sap-feeding insects. There is currently no known cure, however, funded research is ongoing. Many farmers have turned to cultivating resistant varieties, such as Leccino.

The Leccino cultivar, with its purple-green olives, produces a delicate-tasting and light oil. Our Monovarietal extra virgin olive oil delivers a smooth and buttery texture, along with a fruity aroma and subtle sweetness. It has a well-balanced profile and boasts high levels of oleic acid.

Best used to complement simple, light dishes and enjoyed raw.

Water is a precious resource. I have known this for sixty years, since childhood growing up in Shropshire, in the heart of the British countryside. Our water was hand pumped from a small underground water source, which was, in turn, fed by one of the many underground streams that criss-crossed our land. We were taught to be economical, in case the water 'ran low'.

In time, the 'mains' supply arrived in the village and all my thoughts of streams drying up were forgotten. Forgotten indeed right up until fifteen years ago when we found our olive farm in Bestagno, Liguria and decided to throw it all in and move to the wilds of the Italian countryside.

As I engaged with the natural world once again, re-aware of the seasons' natural rhythms, I started to think about the viability of life in this rugged and remote landscape without that precious commodity, water.

My mother was a real country woman. She had talked about climate change and the impact of intensive farming on soil, water, other species and the environment all her life. As early as the 1970's she would berate local farmers as they sprayed their crops (and anything else they happened to fly over) with chemical pesticides and fertilisers.

As we developed our Italian land and garden, we invested in our borehole, drawing the water from the source under our land. Nudo's Sicilian farmers, their land being much further south, have been used to dry summers for generations, their aquifers and wells never being replaced by mains water or simply blocked up as the wells are further north. Seeing this, we felt we should be prepared for a hotter future where water was less plentiful.

At the time I was somewhat ridiculed by our neighbours, who pointed out the regular and plentiful seasonal rainfall and the multitude of streams running all year through our valley down to the Impero River. They had a point. Even ten years ago, plenty of water to be had and even at the height of a hot summer, water flowed in our valley.

But no longer. Across Southern Europe, there are serious water shortages impacting agriculture and more recently private gardens and drinking water. The Impero River no longer flows all of the year, and its tributaries are dry. People are once again looking to pump water from under their land and local mayors are reopening ancient wells that served remote communities before the mains was installed. Luckily our water source still fills during the year providing sufficient water for our garden and crops. But the man-made reservoirs dotted around the groves, their water traditionally used to combat summer wildfires are dry. Wildfires are doused with seawater.

When the rain comes in Southern Europe, it is often torrential, like a cyclone, flooding homes in towns and cities and wreaking havoc in the countryside.

Southern Europe, like many places in the world, is facing a crisis of water scarcity and drought alongside historic floods and storm events.

If ever there was a time to support farmers who work holistically it is now. The status quo or 'sustainable' is no longer enough. The natural world needs to be regenerated and healed; its rhythms and systems kick-started again.

Nudo's olive farmers all work regeneratively. They do not suck immense quantities of water for the irrigation of industrial-sized farms from the land, causing drought elsewhere and soil erosion on their land, as many large commercial producers do. They work in a measured way, putting back more than they take, mindful of the future fertility of their soil.

We think this one is a gem; the oil makes the mousse extra smooth and silky. You can also make this with plain extra virgin olive oil of course - or with any other flavours you fancy.

Ingredients

• Dark chocolate (85% cocoa) - 200g
• Eggs – 3
• Caster sugar – 100g
• Nudo Adopt Olive oil stone ground with mandarins - 100g
• Heavy/whipping cream – 200ml

Method

Before you start, make sure you have three clean mixing bowls and a metal or glass bowl to melt the chocolate.

•  Use your largest bowl for the egg yolks as you’ll add everything into this at the end. Slowly melt the broken chocolate in a bain-marie. Separate the egg whites and yolks into separate, spotlessly clean bowls. Beat the yolks and half of the sugar until the mix turns pale and thick. Then beat the egg whites and the rest of the sugar until the mixture just stiffens.
• By now the chocolate should be melted, so mix in the mandarin olive oil and put aside to let it cool.
• Now, in another bowl, whip the whipping/heavy cream until it's stiff – it should be ‘sticky’ and not ‘cloggy’.
• Take the bowl with the chocolate/olive oil mix and carefully fold in the contents of the other bowls using a metal spoon: start with the creamy egg yolks, then the stiff egg whites (you want to keep the bubbles intact, so use a figure of eight movements to mix) and lastly the whipped cream.
• Carefully spoon the mixture into some nice serving bowls or glasses, cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
• Garnish with whatever takes your fancy and enjoy this light and easy dessert.

Remember, not all ‘olive oil’ is created equal. If your product is labelled as olive oil, light olive oil or olive pomace oil then you are using a refined and processed oil. You can read more about olive oil terminology and the types of olive oil here. (link to terminology page)

What is a smoke point?

The smoke point of an oil is the temperature at which an oil or fat begins to break down and emit smoke. This can determine its suitability for cooking at certain temperatures. The smoke point of extra virgin olive oil is around 190 to 210 degrees Celsius.

Contrary to the popular misconception that EVOO is unsuitable for high-heat cooking, it is ideal for a variety of cooking methods such as sauteing, roasting and frying. When used in this way, extra virgin olive oil enhances the flavour and depth of your dishes with its unique fruity aroma whilst retaining all its nutritional benefits.

It is thought that the misinformation comes from a time when high-quality extra virgin olive oil was not readily available outside of the countries that traditionally produce it. It is most likely that the recommendations on cooking with olive oil come from studies based on refined or blended olive oils rather than the real deal.

Stability

One of the best features of Extra Virgin Olive Oil is that when the oil is heated it retains all its goodness. EVOO boast heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and antioxidants, and when heated to the recommended temperatures, the oil retains all its beneficial compounds.

There is a common myth that cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil at any temperature is detrimental to its quality. Research shows that when used within its smoke point, EVOO maintains its integrity and nutritional value.

Oils with a higher content of polyphenols (antioxidants) produce far fewer unwanted compounds when heated. The polyphenols present in EVOO protect the oil from breaking down during the heating process.

Below, you can find some common cooking temperatures to indicate how versatile Extra Virgin Olive Oil is:

The results of their hard work and tenacity in beating the weather has been borne out in the quality of their oil. Each grove is now dealing with the changing climate which has brought floods and drought, rain at the wrong time and fortunately enough rain at the right time to fatten the olives intime for harvest. 

This month of May has seen the new year's olives forming in Sicily and Marche. In Liguria, always a few weeks behind Nudo's more southernly groves, the trees are heavy with white olive blossom.

Nudo's groves and farmers are all individual family run businesses and between us we farm a wide range of diverse fruits, nuts and vegetables. 

The commonality between us though is our commitment to sustainable farming methods which use nature-based and low impact solutions to:

• Aim to reduce a farm’s carbon footprint to zero carbon
• Use only natural water sources and storage for irrigation 
• Reverse past soil erosion 
• Protect from future soil erosion and increase carbon sequestration
• Manage the farm’s soil to maintain its health and productivity 
• Add natural habitats for pollinators to sustain ecosystems

We hope you enjoy reading about your grove and look forward one day to you visiting your Italian olive tree. 

Aleandri Grove

Location: Offida, Province of Ascoli Piceno, Le Marche

Farmer: Tiziano 

Olives: Leccino, Pendolino, Moraiolo and Maurino 

Tasting Notes: A medium oil that is lightly fruity with aromas reminiscent of olive leaf, artichoke and almonds along with the scent of fresh cut meadow grass. You can taste the antioxidant polyphenols in the oil’s pleasant bitterness and spicy after taste. Use with flavoursome seafood or simply as a dressing on fresh salads to enjoy this dynamic oil with all its complementing taste properties.

The Groves: The rolling hills of Marche is the setting for the Aleandri family run groves. Farmed organically, the ancient trees of a once abandoned grove have been brought back to life by Tiziano's pruning skills and newly planted saplings are now producing fruit. 

The Harvest: Little winter rain and scorching summer heat in Marche meant a reduced harvest across the region. The quality of oil from the Aleandri groves  remains superb in no small part due to Tiziano's legendary skills as an olive oil sommelier, pruner and miller. Overseeing his

 own milling means Tiziano blends the oil each year himself ensuring a perfect balance of flavour between the fruity and bitter notes.

Bestagno Grove

Location: Impero Valley, Province of Liguria

Farmer: Nudo's home groves 

Tasting Notes: A subtle, fresh, herby oil with exceptionally high level of antioxidant polyphenols producing a good peppery after kick. An ideal accompaniment to fresh vegetables, salads and all seafood.

The Groves: The rugged terraces of the Impero Valley is the setting for the Bestagno groves. Situated around the ancient Castello di Bestagno the groves are populated by the Taggiasca varietal of olive which is practically the only olive tree found in the entire region.

The Harvest: After the disastrous 2021 season when the terrible climatic conditions meant there was no harvest at all, everyone was nervous for the Bestagno 2022 season. A tremendous drought across the North of Italy during the summer months caused mains water to run dry in villages across the region and the intense and prolonged heat forced the trees to become almost dormant to protect themselves from the dry and arid conditions. Luckily the rain came in October, just in time for the olives to swell and ripen much to everyone's relief. Although it was not the largest harvest, the quality of the oil is what we expect from Nudo's award winning Bestagno groves. 

Barone Pastore

Location: Alcamo, Trapanese coast of Sicily

Farmer: Saverio 

Tasting Notes: The scent and taste of Barone Pastore oil is simply fresh green olives. A smooth, mellow, bitter oil suitable for almost any occasion with a good peppery after kick due to the high level of antioxidant polyphenols. The wild herbs of the Sicilian hinterland are present in the fresh aroma of this lively oil.  

The Groves: The ancient Cerasuola olive trees of the Barone Pastore grove are situated in the hinterland looking over the Tyrrhenian Sea. The groves benefit from a coastal breeze and favourable coastal climate and are farmed organically by Saverio alongside his award-winning vineyards.  

The Harvest: Despite the spring floods and gales across Sicily in the first part of the growing season and then prolonged summer heat and little rain,  Saverio has produced another excellent oil. Unlike other parts of Italy, Sicily is used to drought and the old wells and water sources provide much needed irrigation during the summer months. Harvesting his olives at sunrise and milling them at sundown has produced another sumptuous oil as we expect from this fantastic grove.

Feudo Marchesa

Location: Solarino, Syracuse, Ionion coast of Sicily  

Farmer: Franchesca

Tasting Notes: A fresh fruity oil with intense grassy and herbal aromas. Delicately bitter with a good spicy after kick of antioxidant polyphenols.

The Groves: Sicilian native varietals of Cerasuola, Nocesllara Etnea and Nocellara del Belice grow in the rich red Sicilian soil alongside lemon groves and fields of potatoes. Wild herbs and flowers are left for pollinators and the old wells and aquifers are used for irrigation. 

The Harvest: Catania hit the world headlines as torrential storms caused flooding across the region. Fortunately, Feudo Marchesa groves and Francesca's farm was undamaged whilst the harvest was generally pretty poor elsewhere in Sicily.

Nonno Tato

Location: Situated in the stunning Val di Noto in the southeast of Sicily. 

Farmer: Agnese

Tasting Notes: A delicate floral oil from the exceptional Nono Tato grove with a real depth of flavour and a fruitiness we have not tasted in their oil before. Agnese says it is the best oil they have ever made.  

The Groves: An organically farmed family grove planted 35 years ago by Agnese's grandfather who she called Nonno Tato. Most of the oil is set aside for the family so Nudo is lucky to have 200 trees on this beautiful grove.  The family grow a wide range of fruit and vegetables on their farm for local markets as well as pistachios, hazelnuts and almonds. 

The Harvest: Fortunately the terrible flooding and high winds in Catania did not effect Nono Tatto and the old wells and acquifers supplied water throughout the summer heatwave.

Whilst their harvest was reduced from what they would usually expect due to the intense heat, the oil is exceptional and Agnese was rightly pleased with it. 

Il Fico

Location: Il Fico is situated next to the small hamlet of Fico on the eastern Trapanese coast of Sicily.  

Farmer: Nicola

Tasting Notes: An exceptional oil from Il Fico. Fruity, bitter and spicy which are always the hallmarks of this grove's oil. Made from olives that are picked just before they are fully ripe this oil is packed with healthy antioxidant polyphenols. Fresh olive leaves and green artichokes with secondary notes of artichoke and almond. A great all-round oil that can be paired with any food cooked or raw.   

The Groves: This organic grove is up on the Trapanese coast hinterland next to the village of Fico. 300 Sicilian olive trees of native varietals, Cerasuola, Nocellara and Biancolilla which make up the DOP 'Valli Trapanesi,' share the land with a wide variety of fruit including apricots, figs, oranges, lemons and grapes. 

The Harvest: The Trapanese coast did not suffer the worst of the Sicilian storms this year so Il Fico, other than enduring the prolonged summer heat, avoided the floods and winds suffered on the Eastern side of the Island. Nicola harvests his olives at daybreak and by late afternoon, everyday of the harvest, he is at the mill overseeing the production of his oil. 

Ingredients

• Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil: 120 ml (approximately 1/2 cup)
• Pecorino cheese slices: 4 slices, 1 ½ cm thick
• Taggiasche olives: 20 olives
• Fresh or dried oregano
• Red wine vinegar

Method

1. Cover the bottom of a shallow pan with extra virgin olive oil.

2. Place the cheese, olives, oregano, and a drizzle of red wine vinegar in the pan.

3. Cook over medium heat with a lid until the cheese is soft.

4. Serve immediately according to your preference.

This is a totally reasonable question but like most things in Italy it does not have a totally straightforward answer.

Olio Nuovo is the first of Nudo's quarterly subscription deliveries and as it is unfiltered, it is Nudo's most 'rustic' oil canned, literally, just after it is made.

All of Nudo's other oils have been filtered to remove the tiny particles of olive sediment. Filtering takes time, as each producer has to carefully filter the oil over a period of weeks. Filtering removes the tiny olive particles which will, if left in a can of oil, shorten the length of time the oil retains its 'Extra Virgin' status.

Olio Nuovo should be consumed shortly after it is made as the tiny olive particles, which give it its iconic green glow, also harbour tiny particles of water and these can potentially, over time, degrade the oil. Consume your Olio Nuovo quickly after you receive it and ideally no later than six months.

If the very same oil has been filtered, it will retain its Extra Virginity for a couple of years if stored properly. This means not exposing it to light, storing it in a temperature no higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit and no contact with air - so don't leave the lid off the can, don't pour your oil into a dipping bowl unless you are going to consume the entire amount immediately and if you use a bottle or pourer for your oil on the table, only half fill it and use up the oil quickly before you refill.

Nudo's oil is premium quality - you simply won't find better. The level of antioxidants found in olive oil can vary hugely amongst the different quality oils you can buy off the shelf. Nudo's premium quality oil has the highest level of antioxidants you will find and it is the antioxidant content, or polyphenols, which are beneficial to human health and keep your oil's 'Virginity' intact for up to three years.

Simply put, if you don't know how your oil has been made and stored before you buy it, you have no idea until you taste it, if it is indeed 'Extra Virgin' and no idea as to the polyphenol or antioxidant content.

Buying directly from Nudo you can rest assured you are buying a can of Extra Virgin Olive Oil packed with health-giving antioxidants.

The olive tree was first cultivated there around 3,000 years ago by the ancient Messapians and it is now estimated Puglia has around 60 million olive trees which supply around 40% of olive oil production in Italy, meaning about 12% of the world’s olive oil production comes from the ‘heel’ of Italy.

Our regional oil has been blended by our master miller from olive varieties that have been grown in Puglia for generations, including Leccino, Ogliarola and Coratina and is

This smooth buttery oil is characterized by hints of fresh grass with a sweet almond aftertaste. Its subtle taste is ideal for adding flavour to all kinds of dishes without altering the individual characteristics of the raw ingredients. Try it with steamed vegetables, baked fish, as an extra element in sauces, roast meats, or simply a salad or bruschetta to experience the individual qualities of the different olive cultivars expertly blended into one unique oil.

Imagine sitting at home on a bleak winter’s evening. You are dreaming of another life of sunshine, simple food and easy pleasure. In your reverie, you dunk a piece of bread into a little pot of indecently delicious olive oil and realise that you are experiencing a part of that dream….

That olive oil is yours. Made from olives carefully hand-picked from your very own tree in your very own corner of a small olive grove nestling in regional Italy.

This dream is possible because with Nudo you can adopt an olive tree and receive the extra virgin olive oil that it produces each year. You can also explore other premium oils through the year depending on the delivery package you choose.

 ADOPT AN OLIVE TREE

Katharine runs Bestagno olive grove with her son Toby, a grove in Nudo's olive tree adoption program which they brought back to life and now produces award-winning extra virgin olive oil. Each year Katharine takes Bestagno's olives to be pressed at Oleificio Tallone, the small local mill run by Alessandro and his family. So this year the first olives harvested from the Villa Guardia trees went up alongside. Katharine made her way up to the mill the morning after harvest to see the results and found Alessandro eagerly waiting outside as arrived, brimming with excitement about the exceptional quality of the oil.

Taste this oil to transport yourself to the Impero Valley in the Italian hinterland between the Mediterranean Sea and the foothills of the Alps where the Taggiasca olive tree reigns. Monovarietal Taggiasca extra virgin olive oil produced from a restored olive grove near our Bestagno olive grove in Liguria's Impero Valley. This is the first oil produced from these trees in generations and the results are truly exceptional. Beautifully packaged in a gold embossed tin, the striking design matches the striking quality.

Aromatic, grassy and with a great peppery kick, Taggiasca extra virgin olive oil is delicate and velvety with floral notes. A wonderfully versatile oil. Drizzle over a salad, fish or vegetables and be transported to the Impero Valley, in the Italian hinterland between the Mediterranean sea and the foothills of the Alps where the Taggiasca olive tree reigns.

Selecting Peranzana olives for this year's Monovarietal oil, Corrado was lucky to find a sufficient harvest available from one producer as this cultivar is only grown in the tiny region of Torremaggiore, 169 metres (554 ft) above sea level in the province of Foggia, Puglia in the Southeast of Italy.

The groves can be found on a small plain between the towns of San Paolo di Civitate, Torremaggiore and San Severo in the Alto Tavoliere. Formed over centuries on top of a pre-historic seabed, the fertile plain’s geography shelters the trees from the worst of the harsher coastal weather. The moderate seasons and rich red soils suit this particular cultivar enabling it to flourish in its micro-climate.

Local legend has it that the cultivar was introduced to Puglia from Provence in the 1770's by Raimondo di Sangro, Duke of Torremaggiore, but the local farmers we met told us it was actually introduced over one thousand years ago by the Angevins who ruled lands in France in the 12^th and 13^th centuries and were also well established throughout the South of Italy where their architecture still dominates many of the ancient towns and villages. These farmers rightly pointed out that the age of the trees, measured by a tree’s circumference, clearly means that they were introduced far earlier than the 1700’s. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between. Raimondo di Sangro is widely credited as being a keen botanist and herbalist and for developing his family’s lands. Maybe realizing the potential for this imported French cultivar in the local rich soil he was prompted to plant his own groves which still flourish today on the land which was once part of the di Sangro estate.

The large, round, fat Peranzana olive turns a dark purple when ripe but despite its size it only produces a fraction of the oil of other varieties. Subsequently, Peranzana olives are mainly used as table olives rather than being milled for their oil.

Corrado told us that the mill was filled with a rich aroma of unripe tomatoes, artichoke and wild herbs as the olives were being crushed and that the new oil had the legendary characteristics expected from the Peranzana olive - a rich emerald green oil with a distinctive fruity taste and a bitter, spicy kick. Peranzana oil has a low acidity and a high chlorophyll and carotene content which gives it its distinctive colour and flavour.

We have enjoyed welcoming Adoptive Parents to the farm and showing off our trees and all of the work we have achieved here over the years.

This month we have started to reap the real rewards of the vegetable gardens with an abundance of the Mediterranean vegetables we planted earlier in the year.

Now the temperature has dropped from the mighty 42 degrees we baked in during mid-August, to a much more manageable 30 degrees. It is as if the vegetables too have come back to life and are making up for some sluggish weeks over the summer.

There are beautiful blackberries growing in the woodland next to our groves and our fig trees are laden with soft gooey figs.

Whilst I love a good forage for wild berries and herbs it is the produce in our gardens that needs attention at the moment.

Now it is time to get out the bottles and jars to make jams and chutneys and to preserve as much of the harvest as we can for the winter months.

This week everyone is out and about in the groves keeping a watchful eye for any signs of the potentially devastating olive fly and generally preparing for the harvest in the coming months. Everywhere I go in the valley people are tidying their land, checking their nets and making sure everything is ready for the start of harvest that will be here before we know it!

The lovely essentials oils we produced last year remind me of the coming citrus harvest and I am hoping for another bumper crop of lemons and oranges from our trees.

As the temperature soars Italy’s beaches become jammed with holiday makers but along the Ligurian coast the summer sunsets are totally incredible.

It is high summer here in Liguria and I like to spend the hottest of days up in the mountains where the air is fresh and the mountain streams bring releif to the dogs from the hot, hot weather.

At our olive groves in Bestagno’s hills it is time to keep a sharp eye out for signs of the evil olive fly that can devestate the crop within a matter of days.

Here at Bestagno we only use an organic compound to deter the pesky fly and whilst it is not, I admit, as effective as the chemical option, it means that there is no risk of chemical residue being left in the oil as the organic compound is simply washed off the fruits before they are milled.

For me using the organic alternative is a risk worth taking as purity and taste are my absolute priority for the oil and organic controls and fertilizers are the only option for our land.

In the six years we have lived here I have only used a poison once. It was something I had pledged never to do but the alternative was too great a sacrifice.

All along the Mediterranean coast and as I understand it on the Adriatic coast too our palm trees are under attack from the Red Palm Weevil.

This ghastly bug infests a palm tree to lay its eggs in the crown and can tunnel its way into the centre of the tree sometimes even reaching the base of the trunk. One weevil can lay up to two hundred eggs every ten weeks. Unchecked infestation means the certain death of the tree and the bitter truth is that once the signs are visible it is often too late.

Our palms are the glory of our garden having been planted by a previous owner of this house over 100 years ago.

I heard their story shortly after we moved in and was amazed to hear that one of the trees was planted to celebrate the birth of the family’s 23 child! Once I had found out their story I had some signs made so their history would never be forgotten.

From the windows at the top of the house I can look straight into the crown of the palms and keep an eye on all of the birds who have made them their home over the years we have lived here.

Palms need to be trimmed every year to get rid of old flowers and all of the twigs and nesting materials the birds take up there during the course of the year.

From the day we bought the house I have been the protector of these mighty and venerable palms.

My first phone call after the purchase was complete was to the local palm specialist with instructions to remove all of the ivy and detritus that had grown up over them in the years the house had been abandoned and for them to be trimmed and checked for any disease or pest.

Over the years I have cared and loved these trees. I have enjoyed seeing generations of birds hatch in nests built deep into their canopies and have worried about the growing numbers of palms along our coast that are dying from the Red Palm Weevil.

I hoped being higher up in the hills where there are few palms and by using the available organic treatment  - a  compound to prevent infestation rather than to kill the weevils upon infection – our trees would be safe.

But last February just four days before the 100^th anniversary of the planting of one of the trees, I noticed a slight sag in its leaves.

Just a slight change but enough to set alarm bells ringing and for me to send for the palm specialist.  And there they were.  Larvae of the Red Palm Weevil.

As the leaves were shorn off I did not need the consequences explaining to me. The only hope was that the infestation was not bad enough for the critical cells of the crown to have been eaten.

Luckily I had spotted it in time and once Luigi could inspect the crown he gave me the thumbs up. The weevils had taken out a lot of the leaves but the crown was not damaged  - the tree would live.

But then the choice had to be made – to use a chemical to kill any larvae that had burrowed into the trunk or to stay chemical free and take the risk of leaving larvae deep inside the tree.

Five months on and the new growth is well established.

I love these trees so much I went for the chemical option which is a decision I still struggle with but the alterative of losing the tree was just too great a sacrifice.

Katharine
Nudo & Bestagno Farm Owner

Ingredients

• Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 large garlic cloves
• 2 large bunches of the freshest basil, leaves removed from the stalks
• 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt

For a Ligurian variation:

• Add a handful of lightly toasted pine nuts
• Replace half of the Parmesan cheese with Pecorino. Molto bene!

Method

1. Garlic: Peel the garlic, then pound it with a pestle and mortar along with a pinch of sea salt.

2. Basil Leaves: Gradually add basil leaves to the pounded garlic until the mixture turns into a paste.

3. Pine Nuts (Optional): If using pine nuts, add them to the mixture and continue pounding until smooth.

4. Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Slowly incorporate extra virgin olive oil into the mixture, pounding until a smooth green puree is achieved.

5. Cheese: Add cheese to the mixture and mix well.

6. Adjust Texture and Taste: Add more cheese and oil to achieve the desired texture and taste. Adjust seasoning accordingly.

Storage Tip: To keep fresh, store the pesto in the fridge for a few days with a drizzle of olive oil on top.

Pontente the western Riviera leans far more towards France as its history has been entwined with what is now the French region of Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur for millennia and the local dialect seems to me as much French as Italian.

Most people arrive in Liguria along the autostrada having landed at either of the international airports of Genoa or Nice. Imperia our coastal town is really equidistant between the two, if not in kilometres, certainly in time, as the drive from Nice is along a far easier section of this famous autostrada of tunnels and bridges than the precarious, primarily two lane, lorry laden route to Genoa.

The best way to arrive in the region though is from Milan or Turin driving down through the Ligurian Apennine hills through dimly lit tunnels from the fog bound plains of the Po valley.

Driving through the last tunnel you suddenly arrive in a new land  - one of light, warm air, brightly painted houses, exotic flowers and palms. Extraordinary faux gothic architecture, fantasy castles hidden behind estate walls and ancient pines.

Mar Ligure. Mare Nostrum. Middle Sea. Mediterranean.

Adopt an Olive Tree from the Bestagno grove.

Serves 2

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Caponata, a renowned Sicilian dish, bears a striking resemblance to its Provencal relative, ratatouille. Much like ratatouille, its flavours mature wonderfully overnight, making it a versatile dish suitable as a starter, side dish, or a hearty main course.

The distinctive Sicilian sweet and sour touch defines Caponata, but the key to its success lies in the choice of aubergine. Opt for young aubergines with fewer large seeds for the best results. Alternatively, if using more mature aubergines, eliminating any bitterness is crucial. To do this, place aubergine cubes in a colander over the sink or on a plate, sprinkle with salt, and let them sit for an hour. Gently press down on the aubergine with a small plate to drain excess liquid. Afterwards, rinse off the remaining salt and ensure the aubergine cubes are dry before beginning the Caponata preparation.

Ingredients

• 1 kg (2.2 lb) small young aubergine, cut into small cubes
• 375 ml (12.5 fl oz) Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or a few good glugs)
• 3 celery stalks, cut into roughly 1cm pieces
• 1 red onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 400g (14 oz) canned tomatoes
• A handful of rinsed and drained capers
• A handful of pine nuts
• 100g (3.5 oz) pitted green olives
• 1 sprig of fresh marjoram or dried oregano (as preferred)
• 75 ml (2.5 fl oz) red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar (optional)
• Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• Toasted ciabatta, to serve

Method

1. Heat Nudo extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan. Add aubergine chunks in batches, cooking until golden all over (about 4 minutes on high heat). Remove with a slotted spoon.

2. If needed, add more oil to the saucepan. Sauté celery until soft, seasoning with salt and pepper.

3. Add onion, garlic, and two-thirds of the parsley. Cook until soft, stirring to prevent burning.

4. Add tomatoes and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Stir in drained capers, pine nuts, pitted olives, and marjoram or dried oregano. Add red wine vinegar.

6. Mix in the aubergines and cook for another ten minutes, ensuring it doesn't catch.

7. Adjust seasoning to taste. Add more vinegar or a tablespoon of sugar if desired.

8. Drizzle with Nudo's extra virgin olive oil and stir in the remaining parsley just before serving.

9. Enjoy with toasted ciabatta.

Do not be fooled. Although they will humour you when you’re on holiday, Italians are anything but laid back when it comes to rules about food. Here are just a few which would never be transgressed by a self-respecting Italian:

1. Do not have cheese with seafood. If a waiter offers you parmesan for your spaghetti vongole, he is being mischievous and testing you. Look at him with a shocked expression and say ‘Sei pazzo? No grazie!’

2. Do not drink wine with pizza. Beer or a Coke are the correct partners. (Apparently it’s to do with bubbles aiding digestion, but my theory is that the physical wrestling involved in pizza consumption would risk upending an unstable wine glass – better to have a more anchored beer bottle.)

3. Do not drink a cappuccino after 11.30am. From that point it is strictly espresso – yes right until bedtime. Milk in the afternoon is only suitable for the under 3s.

4. It is perfectly acceptable to re-use your knife and fork between courses. But not your plate.

5. If you are served a pasta dish which involves chicken, you are not in a bona fide Italian restaurant. Chicken is a ‘secondo’ which should be eaten on its own. You wouldn’t put a loin of beef or a lamb chop in your pasta would you? Well same thing.

6. Don’t pour wine on wine – ie don’t refill a glass until it is empty, you vulgar beast.

Good luck and enjoy your relaxing stress free, laid back holiday.

To find traceable lamb, you'll need to venture just over the border into France, where the culinary traditions blend both French and Italian influences. This borderland has retained distinctive village and valley-specific differences in diet and culinary practices, shaped by the local landscape and microclimate.

In Provence, much like Sicily, the demand for lamb is high when raised in the traditional 'milk-fed' manner. Here, sheep roam freely, grazing on wild herbs, and lambs are born high in the hills, solely nourished by their mother's milk—free from added growth hormones or antibiotics.

This version of the recipe involves oven cooking on a bed of potatoes and onions, resulting in tender and moist meat from the prolonged, slow cooking process.

Prep Time 4 Hrs

Serves 6

Cook Time 4 Hrs

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 5/6 good-sized sprigs of fresh rosemary
• Shoulder of spring lamb, 1.5kg - 2kg/3.3 - 4.4 lbs
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• Roasting potatoes, 1kg/2.2 lbs, peeled and cut into large chunks, coated in Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Red onions, 1kg/2.2 lbs, peeled and roughly cut
• White wine, 250ml/8.5 fl oz
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4/6 tablespoons aromatic natural runny honey (depending on the size of the joint)

Things to note:

• You need a good-sized roasting tin; the lamb should fit snugly, and the potatoes should form a good layer at the bottom.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/Fan 200°C/Gas 7/425°F.

2. Use a sharp knife to score slits into the lamb's skin, cutting deep enough to reach the flesh.

3. Break two sprigs of rosemary into 2cm/3/4 inch pieces and stuff them, along with the garlic, into the slits, ensuring they go deep into the slits. Season the lamb with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

4. In a roasting tin, place chopped potatoes, onions, and two roughly broken sprigs of rosemary. Season with sea salt.

5. Pour about 200ml/6.7 fl oz of wine over the lamb. Use the last rosemary sprig as a brush to cover the lamb with honey, reserving some for basting during roasting.

6. Roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the lamb begins to colour. Then, cover the lamb with baking parchment, reduce the heat to 160°C/Fan 140°C/Gas 3/320°F, and roast for another 3 hours or until the lamb is a deep rich brown.

7. Every hour, use the rosemary sprig to add a little more honey and more wine (or water if needed) if the vegetables require additional moisture.

8. Allow the lamb to rest before serving.

All our flavoured oils are made with fresh and freshly prepared ingredients; it's one of the things that makes their flavours so good. At Nudo we feel strongly about authenticity, and this includes flavour.

Why make a flavoured oil without the real ingredients? It simply doesn't work in our books.

So, we are so happy that two of our flavoured oils, garlic oil and thyme oil, have been recognized in these prestigious awards. With over 12,000 entrants across many food categories, only 9% received two stars as our garlic oil did, and only 25% three stars. Plus, being up against other flavoured oils which weren't awarded, it feels good our hard work and vision has a sticker of accomplishment.

Here is more about the winning flavours and the awards.

Garlic

Our garlic flavoured oil is one of ours, and our customers, favorites. The fresh whole garlic that is ground straight in with the olives when making the oil gives it a pure flavour that comes through with the delicate oil flavour. We were so happy that the judges loved this as much as we did. Here's what they have to say:

"The beauty of this oil was in its subtly of delivery"

"A lovely, fresh grassy aroma, followed by the gentle hum of the garlic."

"There is a kick from the garlic but you can still get the pepperiness from the oil"

"Plenty of the fresh garlic flavour, followed by the intense grassy olive"

Thyme

Nudo's infused thyme oil is amazing drizzled of meats off the grill, or tossed through roasted potatoes. The warm aromatic thyme flavour infused over several weeks by packing freshly picked thyme in with our freshly pressed oil, have results of all that freshness clearly shone through. Here's what the judges had to say:

"Unashamedly straightforward product and all the better for it"

"This oil draws you in with a distinctive thyme aroma and the fresh thyme flavour notes."

"A lovely fresh thyme aroma with a flavour that shines through.  Fresh and light."

You can find these award winning flavours and more of our favorites here.

One dish that graces the menu of almost every restaurant in the region is Spaghetti alle Vongole. However, in true Italian fashion, there are numerous ways to prepare it, with passionate debates about the best approach. We prefer it 'Bianco,' without tomato but with extra chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon, occasionally adding the zest for an extra kick. Some enthusiasts include a knob of butter along with the oil.

Here on our coast, when you order vongole, anticipate a medley that includes mussels and various shellfish—essentially, whatever was available that morning at the fish market.

Prep Time 15 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 15 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Vongole (clams), mussels, or a mixture of the two: 1 kg/2.2 lb
• Nudo extra virgin olive oil: a generous glug
• 3 cloves garlic
• A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley
• White wine: 1 glass or roughly 100 ml/3.3 fl oz
• Sea salt and freshly milled black pepper
• Dried spaghetti: 400g/14oz

Method

1. Rinse the vongole under cold running water to remove debris. Discard any that aren't tightly closed. Soak them in cold salty water for about an hour to eliminate sand, then rinse under cold water until clean.

2. Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of salted boiling water with the lid on until it is al dente.

3. Finely slice the parsley stalks and roughly chop the leaves. Peel and chop the garlic.

4. Measure out 100 ml of white wine.

5. In a pan, add a generous lug of Nudo extra virgin olive oil. Fry the garlic and parsley stalks for about 5 minutes until soft, keeping the heat low to avoid catching.

6. Drain the vongole and turn up the heat on the pan. Add the vongole, giving the pan a good shake. As it starts to steam, pour in the wine and put on the lid. Cook for 3–4 minutes until the vongole has opened. Discard any that remain closed.

7. Drain the spaghetti and add it to the pan of vongole.

8. Add the parsley leaves and a generous drizzle of Nudo extra virgin olive oil. Toss it around in the pan for a few minutes, mixing it all together so that the juice absorbs into the pasta.

9. Serve with plenty of fresh crusty bread to soak up the juice.

The Ligurian diet is traditionally not rich in meat. Instead, herbs and vegetables often mixed with rice feature in dishes such as stuffed vegetables or the traditional Torta Verde - green pie.  We have created this simple recipe for spring greens. It's so delicious with a lashing of Nudo's extra virgin olive oil or any of Nudo's flavoured olive oils. Adding something like rocket or chicory into the mix can spice it up, but spinach, cavolo nero, or sprouting broccoli are terrific with lamb.

Prep Time 5 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 5 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• We used a mixture of chard, cavolo nero, nettles & asparagus but any other greens will work. Just remember variety is key as is freshness.
• Nudo's lemon-flavoured olive oil

Method

1. Wash all the greens thoroughly in cold running water.

2. Steam the greens over a large pan of boiling water until the stems are just tender. Exercise caution to avoid overcooking; achieving perfection can be delicate, especially when cooking a variety of leaves simultaneously.

3. Drain the greens well.

4. Serve with generous amounts of Nudo's lemon-flavored olive oil for those who prefer an extra tangy flavour. Alternatively, provide a small jug of freshly squeezed lemon.

5. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

So when the opportunity to team up with the Bestagno grove, in Liguria’s Imperia region, raised its head, we jumped at it. Not only do  these olive producers make an oil of exceptional quality, they also have a social conscience at the heart of their work.

The grove is worked on by Toby, a young man with profound autism and a deep love of olive oil. Toby’s parents have had to plan his life carefully since he was three – and their most recent focus was on seeking out meaningful work for him.  Olive oil led the way - so several years ago they arrived in the Imperia Valley, a rugged landscape dotted with medieval villages and thickly covered with olive trees. They bought an abandoned grove (also home to the ancient ruins of the Castle of Bestagno) which Toby and his team set about restoring. The results are as magical as the landscape.

 Our first encounter with him was on an innocent mission to buy some sausages. It was in the days when we thought it was essential to befriend all the culinary artisans in our local area, to try to shop and interact in the Italian way rather than the supermarket way. The first thing to say about this approach is that it immediately thrusts you into the arms of your host community, the second is that you realise just what a lot of specialism there is out there and how many people who have a deep appreciation of food, the third is that it takes an awfully, awfully long time. And you must cast aside any notion as conservative and focused as ‘coming in to buy x’. I went in to buy sausages and came out, a full 75 minutes later, with a piece of animal in the shape of a medieval shield.

 The first thing that happens to you when you enter Pepe’s small but packed butcher’s shop is that you are asked to go back out and come in again. Having taken his first impression of you (the 2 second rule) he must then find some appropriate music. He puts on a cassette into his 80s-not-in-a-retro-sense ‘boombox’. This being Le Marche and Rossini heartland, the music choice is usually, well, Rossini, almost certainly of an operatic bent. Music blaring,  you are then free to re-enter with suitable pomp, to the sight of Pepe miming the words and dancing around like some Frank Bough - Bruce Forsyth hybrid, fuelled by Italian speed.

The next thing is the guided tour of the meat counter, every bit as earnest as a curator in the National Gallery. But he’s not parading his wares, most things here aren’t even for sale (the very thought!) they are his carnal artworks. His bovine breast dinosaur, his porcine gristle dormouse, an abstract offal work which talks to ‘the origins of life’. You’re not kidding.

Then the tasting. People are so boring, laments Pepe, they put a piece of salami on a bit of bread and gulp it down like an animal. The thing is to revere the food, to elevate it, to treat it (help) like a beautiful woman. As he is talking, he is slicing a piece of ciauscolo, a deliciously soft local cured meat speciality that is half way between salami and pate, into the shape of a heart. He changes the music (Verdi now, no regionalist he), pours out two glasses of vino cotto (another local speciality, a sweetly toxic sort of sherry-ultra) and positions the salami heart, sliced up the middle a bit, betwixt the two glasses. It’s a bit like a rejected cover shot for ‘It’s my wedding’ magazine.

‘Um, sono vegetariano’ says Jason as Pepe pushes the glasses in our direction.

‘It doesn’t matter’ says Pepe, still pushing, as if to say he won’t hold that against Jason (as long of course as he still eats).

‘I’ll eat your half of the heart shall I?’ I say, ever the peacemaker and shove the heart in my mouth before manwar breaks the love scene.

Jason sips the vino cotto, from the ungreasey side of the glass.

We buy the nearest thing (the meaty shield affair) and hotfoot it to the supermarket.

Prep Time 30 Minutes

Serves 6

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 355 ml (1 ½ cups) warm water
• 120 ml (½ cup) sweet wine (e.g., Passito)
• 1 packet of dry yeast
• 60 ml (¼ cup) Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 480 g (4 cups) unbleached flour
• 60 ml (4 tablespoons) Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil (for Focaccia topping)
• 60 g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
• 2 handfuls of seedless black or red grapes

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius or Gas Mark 7.

2. For the focaccia dough, combine water and sweet wine in a bowl. Stir gently and add the yeast. After 5 minutes, incorporate the Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

3. If using a food mixer, attach the dough hook. Slowly add the yeast mixture to the flour at a low speed. Increase the speed gradually until you achieve a smooth, moist, and slightly sticky dough that doesn't cling to the bowl or hook. Alternatively, on a dry wooden board, create a well in the flour and slowly add the yeast mixture, kneading by hand until it forms a firm yet moist dough.

4. Coat a large bowl with oil, transfer the dough, cover with a moist tea towel, and let it rise for about 30 minutes in a warm place or until it doubles in size.

5. Oil a baking sheet and spread the dough using your hands to cover the surface. As this is a rustic bread, it doesn't need to be overly neat.

6. Press down on the dough with your fingers to create a random pattern of wells, being careful not to puncture through.

7. Cover and let the dough rest for another 30 minutes in a warm place until it doubles in size again.

8. Before baking, top the dough with 4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, ensuring it covers the entire surface and seeps into the wells. Sprinkle sugar over the oily dough, press some grapes into the dough, and generously scatter rosemary leaves on top.

9. Bake for 30–35 minutes or until it turns golden brown.

10. Serve with fresh Extra Virgin Olive Oil or dip into Nudo Rosmarino oil.

Prep Time 20 Minutes

Serves 2-3

Cook Time 0

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 250 g (approximately 1 cup) black olives
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or a splash of Nudo Adopt Lemon Oil as an alternative
• 3 tablespoons chopped capers
• Small bunch of parsley
• 4 tablespoons Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Begin by preparing all the ingredients.
2. Pit the olives and set them aside.
3. Peel the garlic clove and cut it into four pieces.
4. Roughly chop the parsley.
5. Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend, gradually adding the extra virgin olive oil until it reaches a smooth, creamy consistency.
6. Serve on freshly toasted bread or as a dip with taralli or olive oil biscuits.

Prep Time 15 Minutes

Serves 12

Cook Time 15 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

For the Buns:

• 3 ¼ cups (390g) flour
• 5g active dried yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup (240ml) milk
• 2 eggs
• Zest of an orange
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• A pinch of salt
• 150 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ½ cups mixed dried fruit
• ½ cup mixed peel

For the Oven Glaze:

• 1 beaten egg
• 1 teaspoon milk

For the Cross:

• 200g flour

For the Icing:

• 230g icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 teaspoons milk

For the Sticky Glaze:

• Hot water
• A few spoons of honey, apricot jam, or sugar

Method

1. Sieve the flour into a large bowl. Mix through the yeast, honey, milk, eggs, orange zest, salt, and spices until all combined.
2. Slowly add the olive oil until it’s all mixed in, then stir in the dried fruit and mixed peel.
3. Pour out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic. This will take roughly 6-7 minutes.
4. Put the dough back in the bowl and cover with a slightly damp tea towel. Leave in a warm room for 1.5 hours until it has doubled in size.
5. Pour out onto a floured surface and knead again for a couple of minutes.
6. Divide into 12 equal balls, shaping them in your hands into smooth buns, and arrange them equally on a baking tray.
7. Cover again and leave to rise until they double their size.
8. While they are proving, prepare the mixture for the crosses.
9. Whisk together the flour, icing sugar, milk, and olive oil, and then spoon this into a piping bag and pipe crosses onto the risen buns.
10. Whisk the egg and milk together for the glaze and brush over each bun.
11. Bake the buns in a preheated oven at 425F/ 220C for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
12. While they bake, make a sticky glaze. Mix a little honey, apricot jam, or sugar into a small quantity of warm water, and as soon as the buns come out of the oven, brush them with the glaze for lovely sticky, hot, fresh buns.

Nudo tip: If you love the citrus flavours in hot cross buns, use mandarin oil instead of the extra virgin to enhance the flavour.

Prep Time 2 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 2 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 4 Lemons
• 4 Eggs, beaten
• 100g (3.5oz) Butter
• 450g (16oz) Granulated sugar

Method

1. Finely grate the lemon rind and strain the juice (optional; if unstrained, remove the pips for desired texture). Be cautious not to include any white pith while grating.

2. Place all the ingredients into a double saucepan (Bain Marie or a basin inside a saucepan) over simmering water.

3. Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves and it begins to thicken. Cook for two minutes, allowing the water in the pan to boil. Start timing the cooking only when the mixture starts to thicken.

4. Transfer the mixture into sterilized jars.

Prep Time 30 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

For the Pastry:

• Plain flour: 125g / 4oz / 1 cup
• Salt: a pinch / 1/4 tsp
• Sugar: ½ tsp
• Cold butter: 75g / 2.5 oz / 1/3 cup
• Cold water: roughly 2 tbsps

For the Custard Filling:

• Lemons: 2 good-sized & unwaxed if possible
• Eggs: 3 large
• Sugar: 100g / 3.5 oz / 1/2 cup
• Butter: 30g / 1 oz / 1/8 cup
• Milk: 1 cup

For the Gelato:

• Double cream / whipping cream: 1 cup
• Egg yolks: 3
• Sugar: 1/4 cup
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: 1/4 cup

Method

Pastry:

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Mix in 2 tablespoons of cold water to form a firm dough. Knead on a floured board without overworking. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
4. Grease an 18cm/7-inch pie dish or flan tin. Roll out the pastry to about 5 cm/2 inches larger than the tin. Lay it across the dish, press into the corners, and leave the edges untrimmed.
5. Cover the pastry base with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Bake for about 20 minutes until it starts to change colour and firms up.
6. While the pastry bakes, peel the zest from one lemon, cut into strips, and squeeze the juice from both lemons.

Custard:

1. Mix eggs, sugar, and butter in a pan over a bain-marie. When it thickens, add lemon juice and zest, stir, and remove from heat.
2. Remove the baking beans, pour the custard over the pastry, and decorate with lemon slices. Bake for about 10 minutes until set. Cool and serve warm or cold.

Olive Oil Gelato:

1. Use Nudo extra virgin olive oil for a flavorful ice cream. Bring milk and cream to a boil in a saucepan, then quickly remove from heat.
2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk in olive oil. Slowly whisk in the hot cream and milk.
3. Return the mixture to low heat, stirring until it thickens and reaches 185°F on an instant-read thermometer. Let it cool.
4. Pour the cooled mixture into an ice cream maker and churn for about 10 minutes or until creamy.

In Nice and along the French coast, it is Pissaladiere or the Pizza of Nice. Just across the border into Liguria, legend has it that ‘Pizza d'Andrea’ was the favourite of our local hero, Admiral Andrea Doria Genovese (1466–1560), meaning Ligurians were savouring this speciality before another local hero, Christopher Columbus, had reached the Americas!

A few tips from Nudo chef Jake:

"Pizza d'Andrea is all about the onions, set against the salty sharpness of the olives & anchovies; their sweetness is delicious. Make sure you prepare lots of onions, as they decrease in volume hugely as they simmer away and slowly caramelize; they just get sweeter & sweeter the longer you cook them.

Don’t be shy with the oil either; use loads, as it helps to prevent them from burning and going bitter, and you can always drain off excess oil when they're done and use it for something else.

One last thing, it's nice to lay the anchovy fillets in a lattice that is quite close together so that the pattern is clear. You may want to cut the anchovy fillets in half lengthwise if you’re not too keen on a lot of anchovies."

Prep Time 30 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Your selected dough, enough for 4 generous-sized servings (Find a recipe here if needed)
• 1.2 kg / 2.2 lbs of onions, peeled and sliced
• 6 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 100 ml / 3.5 fl oz of Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Sea Salt and Freshly ground black pepper
• Caster sugar
• 15 salted anchovy fillets, well-rinsed
• 15 black olives

Method

1. In a shallow pan, combine the onion and garlic with the olive oil, a teaspoon of salt, and sugar, adding about 100ml of water.
2. Cover the pan and cook the onions for approximately 10 minutes, ensuring they become soft and creamy without colouring.
3. Remove the lid, increase the heat, and stir the onions for about 15 minutes until they achieve a dark and caramelized colour, and most of the liquid evaporates.
4. Roll out your dough – either use 20 cm round tins or a large pizza tray.
5. Spread the onion mixture evenly over your dough and decorate with the anchovies and black olives in the traditional lattice design used along the Mediterranean coast in both Italy and France.
6. Bake the Pissaladiere for 20 minutes or until the base is crispy and the topping is golden brown.

Prep Time 1 Minute

Serves 4

Cook Time 1 Minute

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• ½ cup lightly steamed fresh peas
• Small bunch of basil
• Small bunch of mint
• 1 clove of garlic
• Zest and juice of a fresh lemon
• 3 tablespoons grated Pecorino cheese
• Nudo’s Lemon Olive Oil

Method

1. Blitz all of the ingredients together in a blender adding the olive oil until you have a good pesto consistency.
2. Season to taste.

Prep Time 30 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Flour – 150g/5.3oz
• Salt - a pinch
• Milk – 300ml/10.1 fl oz
• Eggs – 2
• Butter - 40g/1.5oz
• Radicchio trevigliano – 600g/21oz - For the filling
• Gorgonzola – 150g/5.3oz
• Milk – 70ml/10.1fl oz
• Butter – 80g/2.8oz
• Parmesan cheese – 100g/3.5oz grated
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Sieve the flour into a bowl, add a pinch of salt and the milk. Energetically whisk it to get out any lumps. Crack the two eggs into a bowl and briefly beat them before whisking them into the milky batter. Leave the mix in the fridge for an hour.
2. While the batter is chilling out, wash and chop the radicchio. Melt 50g of the butter in a pan and add the radicchio leaving it to cook for 10 minutes covered. Then into a saucepan add the gorgonzola and milk, stirring it on low heat till you have a nice creamy mixture. Add the radicchio to the cheese sauce along with 30g/1oz of grated parmesan.
3. Now cook your pancakes - Heat 40g/1.5oz of butter in a non-stick frying pan over a medium flame. Cool a little, then pour the melted butter into the batter and whisk it in. Wipe the pan with a kitchen towel so that there is very little fat left, and when it’s slightly steaming pour in enough batter mixture to cover the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes then ease it over (air flip if you’re feeling cocky) and cook the other side.
4. Fill up each pancake with some filling, roll it up and place it in an oven-proof dish. Once the dish is cooked, sprinkle over the rest of the parmesan, add a few dollops of butter and place in the oven at 180oC/350oF/GM4 with the grill on for 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Prep Time 20 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 160 ml of Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 6 rinsed and chopped anchovy fillets
• Salted capers - 2 teaspoons or as you like
• 2 good-sized cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• Chopped flat-leafed parsley
• 5 small tomatoes or 4 whole canned tomatoes
• Thick spaghetti for four people
• Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Make sure you do as the Italians do and use plenty of well-salted water.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium shallow pan, then add the anchovies, capers, garlic and about half of the parsley. Cook for 4 minutes being careful not to burn the garlic.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook until you have a nice sauce. Add the rest of the parsley to the sauce and check the seasoning.
4. Drain the pasta and mix it into the sauce adding a drizzle of olive oil and serve.

Like all of these ancient recipes, there are many interpretations and variations but this is ours, using Nudo’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

A few tips from Nudo chef Jake:

"Don't be tempted to make this in smaller quantities as the aubergines lose a lot of their volume once cooked. They also lose a lot of water when you leave them to strain, which is one of the reasons that the flavour is so intense & concentrated...if you do decide to make a half batch you'll probably find there is not enough to fill the blender!"

Prep Time 40 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 40 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 4 large aubergines
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• Grated zest and the juice of a lemon
• 5 tablespoons / 88ml of Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oi
• A handful of flat-leaf parsley roughly chopped
• 3 tablespoons /53ml  of tahini
• 1 teaspoon / 6ml of ground cumin (toasted in the oven until brown, then ground is best!) 

Method

1. Place the aubergines, one at a time, directly on a naked flame of the gas hob and roast for about 15 – 20 minutes (depending on the size of the aubergines). They are done when the skin is chargrilled and the flesh is soft and the aroma of smoky aubergines will fill your kitchen. I usually finish them off in the oven once the skin is nicely charred as they tend to cook more evenly that way
2. If you do not have a gas hob you can use the same method on an electric ring or bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 200 C fan/gas mark 7 but I do not think the flavour is ever the same.
3. Once cooled cut each aubergine open and scoop out the flesh, (discarding the skin and any flesh not fully cooked) putting the flesh into a colander over the sink with a plate on top for at least an hour or two (ideally overnight if you can fit them in the fridge) to let as much water as possible drain away.
4. Put the aubergine in a food processor, adding the tahini, cumin, lemon zest, garlic and olive oil and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Blitz well.
5. Before serving mix in most of the parsley and check the seasoning.
6. Garnish with the rest of the parsley, mint & pomegranate seeds.

Prep Time 2

Serves 2

Cook Time 2

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• White wine, 1 cup/ 240ml
• Peppercorns, 5 
• Fresh cleaned octopus, about 800g/ 28oz – ideally the baby red-brown polipetti which have two lines of suckers on each tentacle
• Celery, 1 stick diced
• Garlic, 1 clove crushed
• Taggiasche olives, 15 
• Nudo extra virgin olive oil, 5 tbsp
• Flat leaf parsley, 1 handful roughly chopped
• Lemons, juice of one lemon & a couple of lemon wedges
• Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Boiled new potatoes, 400g/ 14oz skinned and chopped into cubes (if very new you can leave the skins on)

A few tips from Nudo chef Jake:

Before you begin your quest for baby octopus, prepare yourself for a wild goose chase (unless you happen to be somewhere on the Mediterranean coast where it's a lot easier to find). In the UK it's relatively easy to source frozen octopus (usually the Mediterranean ones, with the two rows of suckers which are frozen) but baby octopus is a bit more elusive. There are a lot of really tiny Pacific baby octopuses around but if you want to be true to the origins of this recipe you might want to stick with the Mediterranean variety and may find yourself buying a rather large octopus. Don't worry. They just take a lot longer to cook.

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the cup of wine, peppercorns, one lemon wedge, a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley and a generous pinch of sea salt.  Put the octopus into the boiling water, cover and allow it to come back to the boil. Simmer until tender - this may take an hour or two depending on the size of the octopus. You'll need to top up the water as it cooks too.
2. Make a dressing by mixing the extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice together, adding the rest of the parsley roughly chopped and the crushed garlic. Season well with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
3. Drain the octopus (discarding the peppercorns, lemon and parsley) and leaving the tentacles whole (if small), slice the bodies in slanted rings or pieces of about 2 cm/ 1 inch.
4. Mix the octopus with the celery and olives, pour over the dressing and leave to infuse for at least an hour.
5. Steam the potato cubes until they can be easily pierced with a knife and mix them with the octopus just before serving. Adjust salt, pepper and lemon to taste serve at room temperature with the lemon wedges.

Prep Time 10 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 10 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 130 g of semolina
• 100 g of plain flour
• Sea salt
• 2 tablespoons of Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 90 ml of warm water
• Sea salt flakes or dried herbs

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C / 350F and line a good-sized baking tray with baking paper.
2. Put the semolina, flour and sea salt into a bowl and mix together. Stir in the extra virgin olive oil adding enough water to make a dough which you can bring together with your hands.
3. Dust a wooden board or your work surface with some flour and knead the dough until it can be rolled out; be careful to not overwork the dough at this stage. Roll the dough out until it is about 5mm thick and then either cut into oblongs or use a shaped cutter to stamp out your biscuits. It is best to use two pieces of baking paper to roll out the dough if it is a little sticky, one below and one on top.
4. Put the biscuits onto the baking tray, brush them with oil and sprinkle with dried herbs or salt to your taste. If you like, you can brush with any of Nudo's flavoured oils for a twist; we love them with Rosemary oil.
5. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until they are golden brown. You might want to rotate them halfway through cooking depending on your oven.
6. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm or cooled. Particularly delicious served with soft goat cheese mixed with a little Greek Yogurt and some very fine lemon zest.

Prep Time 20 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 1 small onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 4 tablespoons of Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• 250 ml of single cream
• 1 ½ litres of vegetable stock 
• Juice and zest of a large unwaxed lemon
• Ground nutmeg
• Bay leaf
• 3 tablespoons of roasted almonds
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Nudo Stone Ground Lemon Olive Oil

Method

1. Finely chop the onion and crush the garlic with the back of a wooden spoon.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the onion and garlic until it browns gently.
3. Add the flour and stirring constantly cook over low heat for a minute.
4. Add the stock and bring to a boil using a wire whisk to avoid any lumps forming.
5. Add the lemon juice and zest, bay leaf and nutmeg.
6. Season to taste.
7. Simmer for 20 minutes.
8. Add 2/3rds of the almonds, discard the bay leaf and blitz in the blender.
9. Return to the pan to add the cream whisking gently.
10. Garnish with a little lemon zest and remaining almonds.
11. For an extra lemony hit drizzle some Nudo Lemoni oil over also.

So what makes panettone so special?

Panettone, The Cake Protected by Law

Well, panettone is so special in fact that it is a protected by law. Much like the DOP for extra virgin olive oil ensuring protect authenticity and quality, panettone has legislation to protect the traditional and authentic processes of the Italian speciality. Panettone is actually a type of sourdough, made with a mother dough, so the law states to be called 'panettone' it must contain natural yeast so that this can't be faked.

Traditional, Delicious and a Little Healthy!

Aside from the value in protecting the traditions themselves, it does make a real difference to the product quality and taste. You know how sourdough bread is tastier, longer lasting, and easier to digest than regular white bread? Well panettone is the same. The natural yeast from the mother dough and the authentic processes used to make it result in a panettone noticeably different to industrial and regular baked products. So, much like sourdough, you can immediately taste the difference between the real and the fake stuff. A real panettone has a stronger fragrance and flavour, is noticeable in the bouquet and taste, the shelf life of the product and in its digestibility.

Here’s why:

• These natural yeasts release more fragrant aromas and more often = tastier.
• The yeast microorganisms have natural anti mould agents = it lasts longer.
• These also help to break down the gluten = more digestible.

Delicious Christmas treats that are better for you? Yes please!

What About Panettone Made With Olive Oil?

A few years ago at Nudo we decided to take panettone one step further on this goodness front; we swapped out butter for our extra virgin olive oil.

We have used extra virgin olive oil in baking recipes before and know that it often creates results with softer textures and moist yet light bakes, plus has the benefit of being a healthier option to use. So we really wanted to try this with the traditional Italian Christmas cake and create an exclusive Nudo recipe, merging two of the Italian greats into one new one: extra virgin olive oil panettone.

What could be more Italian than extra virgin olive oil panettone, right? 

So, we worked closely with the experts at Pasticceria Scarpato to adjust the original recipe to use our extra virgin olive oil instead of the usual butter. After several trial and error batches, tweaking things here and there, we got the result. The delicious, delicious result. The panettone that came out after the 3-day making and baking process, was light and fluffy yet soft and moist, and the extra virgin olive oil gave the flavours depth bringing out the aromas even more.

Now, obviously we love our extra virgin olive oil here at Nudo so may be a little biased, but we shared this around and we aren’t the only ones who loved it...

New York Times
“A panettone that will be reduced to crumbs in minutes…moist, rich and aromatic.”

The Guardian
“Opened just to taste, the entire thing was gone in 30 minutes…wonderful tearable texture, moist crumb, perfect amount of fruit, lovely squidgy crust…. practically panettone perfection.”

We make our panettone once a year in a limited run, so if you want to try our exclusive and original recipe olive oil panettone make sure you get in quick before they go!

The nicest feedback was from Kim who said that the mandarin chocolate spread was like ‘kissing a cloud of citrus fruit’. The saddest feedback so far is from Sophie in London – we sent her a bar of dark chocolate with Nudo chilli olive oil, one of only 3 bars that existed in the whole world. Mysteriously, when the package arrived the chocolate bar was missing. So if you see a postman with a smudge of chocolate on his chin and a guilty look on his face, please let us know.

Our terrace garden is full of tropical flowers and stunning Hibiscus and the geckos that populate the stone walls come out to sunbathe. At night these squidgy little creatures run around the terrace walls and the indoor ceilings gobbling up mosquitoes and sleepy spiders and when the evenings are hot the cicadas sing until dawn.

The young swallows hatched in nests in our buildings dash around together showing off their flying prowess and at noon and again at about 4pm swoop down to drink in the pool brazenly dive bombing anyone taking a dip!

After every welcome shower of rain, and we have been fortunate to have a few this month, the olives on the trees swell a little more.

My main concern during this period is forest fire. The grass is dry and it only takes one spark. There has only been one bad fire in the six years we have lived here and that was in the valley next to ours. Throughout the groves there are small reservoirs of water kept clear and available for the Vigili del Fuoco – the firewatchers.

It is true to say no-one especially the dogs, who are flat out during the day, is doing very much. The only time there seems to be any movement in the valley is at dawn when gardening is possible.

I love to get up early to water the terraces and to let the dogs race around enjoying the cool air before the sun comes up over the hills.

This is when I know I truly live in paradise.

Katharine
Nudo & Bestagno Farm Owner

Prep Time 20 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Olio Nuovo is the first extra virgin olive oil off the press each season and is bottled right away, unfiltered. Each year on the groves olio nuovo it is celebrated and anticipated, so do as the Italians do and enjoy it lavishly as the seasonal treat it is. A typical way to taste it is to make the most of the fresh oil and its strong flavours, grassy with a peppery kick, with Fettunta. And even better, if you make your own ciabatta for this.

Ingredients

• 250g/ 8.8oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 5g/ 0.1oz salt
• 5g/ 0.1oz instant yeast
• 20ml/ 1 US tbsp olive oil
• 200ml/ 6.8 floz tepid water
• Fine semolina for dusting (optional)

Method

1. Lightly oil a 1-2 litre square plastic container. (A square tub helps shape the dough).
2. Put the flour, salt and yeast into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook (don’t put the salt directly on top of the yeast). Add the olive oil and three-quarters of the water and begin mixing at a slow speed. As the dough starts to come together, slowly add the remaining water. Then mix for a further 5-8 minutes on a medium speed until the dough is smooth and stretchy.
3. Tip the dough into the prepared tub, cover with a tea towel and leave until at least doubled, even trebled in size – 1-2 hours or longer.
4. Heat your oven to 220°C/ 428°F and line 2 baking trays with baking parchment or silicone paper.
5. Dust your work surface heavily with flour – add some semolina too, if you have some. Carefully tip out the dough (it will be very wet) onto the work surface, trying to retain a rough square shape. Rather than knocking it back, handle it gently so you can keep as much air in the dough as possible. Coat the top of the dough with more flour and/or semolina. Cut the dough and divide lengthways into 2 strips.  Stretch each piece of dough lengthways a little and place it on prepared baking trays.
6. Leave the ciabatta dough to rest for a further 10 minutes, then bake for 25 minutes, or until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack.
7. To enjoy this with your Olio Nuovo, toast some of your fresh ciabatta on a grill, then rub with some fresh garlic cloves while the bread is hot and crunchy. Generously pour over your olio nuovo and season with a good amount of course salt. Buon appetito!

There is nothing I like more than pottering around at the market but there is work to do in the groves! We have been busy giving the trees an organic feed and spending time checking each tree to make sure there is no sign of disease.  The feed is absorbed through the leaves which is the most effeicient way of feeding them meaning each tree needs a good drenching.  This is the first feed of the year after pruning and it takes about a week to treat all of the trees. Once the wild flowers have seeded the grass will be cut back and we pray for good weather whilst the flowers bloom and the new crop of olives set.

One thing for sure though is that I will be making cherry jam this weekend as the cherry trees dotted about in our olive groves are laden with their wonderful juicy fruits.

Prep Time 40 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 40 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Dark chocolate 250g - Cake
• Nudo extra virgin olive oil 150ml
• Caster sugar 270g/9.5oz
• Lemons 2, juiced and zested, plus extra zest to garnish
• Free-range eggs 4
• Cake flour 300g/10.5oz
• Baking powder 2 tsp
• Greek-style plain yoghurt 2/3 cup
• 3/4 cup icing sugar - icing
• 2-3 tbs cocoa powder
• 1/3-1/2 cup of hot water
• 1/3 -1/2 cup Lemoni olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F. Grease and line 2 x 9 inch/22 cm cake tins. Melt the dark chocolate in a glass bowl over boiling water and cool until lukewarm.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and creamy, then add the lemon zest. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour after each egg to prevent the mixture from curdling. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl. Sieve the remaining flour baking powder and fold it into the batter.
3. Mix the yoghurt and lemon juice and fold into the mixture. Lastly, fold in the lukewarm chocolate until well combined. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 1 hour. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Beat the icing ingredients together until smooth and then spread the chocolate icing to cover the top of each cake. Carefully place one layer on top of the other, keeping the cake with the most crema for the top layer. If you feel extra indulgent, round off the icing by spreading a layer of crema around the sides of the cake also. Garnish with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios nuts and lemon zest. Also lovely served with a dollop of whipped cream.

Prep Time 40 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 40 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 70g / 2oz cocoa 
• 125ml / 4fl oz boiling water
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 150ml / 5fl oz Nudo extra virgin olive oil
• 200g / 7oz caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150g / 5½oz almond flour (or 125g / 4½oz plain flour)
• ½ tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

For the Icing

• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 2-3 tbs cocoa powder
• 1/3-1/2 cup of hot water
• 1/3 -1/2 cup Mandarin olive oil

Method

1. Heat your oven to 170C / 325F / Gas 3. Grease a 23cm / 9in cake tin with oil. If you have one, a springform tin is best and line the base with parchment paper.
2. Sift the cocoa powder into a bowl and whisk in the boiling water drop by drop until you have a smooth runny paste. Whisk in the vanilla then set aside.
3. In a bowl or standing mixer, beat the sugar, olive oil and eggs until they are thickened, pale and creamy (this should take about 3 minutes).
4. Continue beating at a slow speed as you slowly add the cocoa mixture. Once that is all mixed in, then slowly add the almond flour (or flour), baking soda and a pinch of salt.
5. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes. The cake is ready when the sides are set and the top of the centre still looks a little damp – a skewer will come out clean.
6. Cool for 10 minutes in the tin then ease out. It is a moist cake so be careful and don’t be afraid of under-cooking.
7. To make the Mandarin olive oil icing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl and add the hot water and olive oil to the icing consistency you like.
8. Leave to cool completely before icing, or if you prefer to eat it hot then serve up slices and drizzle the icing over.

Jake has worked as a chef in London since 1995 & started catering for events in 2000. Soon after Octopus Food was born. They have catered for rocket scientists, rock stars, in amongst icebergs in Greenland & much more.. Jake’s food is down to earth, tasty & focuses on great ingredients, without unnecessary fuss. ‘after all, its just food isn’t it?’ says Jake.

 TO THE RECIPES

Today on International Women's Day we are celebrating the wonderful women of Nudo Adopt and their achievements in the extra virgin olive oil world.

Three of Nudo's six olive groves are run by women: Katharine, Francesca and Agnese. Three unique and inspiring women who are taking the world of extra virgin olive oil by storm by producing award-winning oil, restoring olive groves, and bringing modern twists to production whilst sharing their expert knowledge. Meet them here.

Katharine

Meet Katharine Doré, the director of Nudo Adopt and owner of Bestagno grove which she runs with her son Toby. They started life in Italy in 2014 when Katharine discovered that Toby, who is severely autistic, had a passion for extra virgin olive oil and thrived outside in the groves. She took on the feat of restoring the abandoned Bestagno olive grove, bringing it back to life to now produce award-winning extra virgin olive oil.

Find out more about Katharine and Bestagno grove here >

Francesca

Meet Francesca Olive, the face behind Feudo Marchesa olive grove. Francesca returned home to regional Sicily from city life in Milan to get back to her roots and run the family grove. Her mission was to create the best oil around, as she says, "with a name like "Olive" what else could I do?!". Francesca combines traditional authentic methods with modern technology putting her at the forefront of extra virgin olive oil production.

Find out more about Francesca and Feudo Marchesa grove here >

Agnese

Agnese Graziano runs Nonno Tato grove in Sicily, a grove which sits on land passed down to her from her grandfather. Agnese has fond childhood memories of family time on the grove and this deep connection carries through to her production. She is passionate about organic practices and looking after the land for the future as well as the importance of quality and purity of extra virgin olive oil and will make no sacrifices with either.

Find out  more about Agnese and Nonno Tato here >

Prep Time 2 Hours

Serves 3

Cook Time 2 Hours

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Dried yeast – 7g/0.25oz
• Slightly warm water – 200ml/7 fl oz
• White bread flour – 350g/12oz
• Salt – 5g/0.2oz
• Extra virgin olive oil – 1 tbsp

Method

1. Sprinkle the yeast into the tepid water. Stir it around then let it sit for about 15 minutes to activate; when it turns a bit fluffy. Ensure your water isn't too hot to it will kill the yeast - you will be able to tell if this has happened as your yeast won't turn fluffy!
2. To make the pizza dough, sift the flour with the salt onto a clean surface then make a well in the centre. Add yeast water along with the extra virgin olive oil into the well and draw in the flour with your hands mixing it all together.
3. When it has all come together evenly, knead it for 5 to 10 minutes until it is an elastic dough which is strong. If you have an electric mixer with a dough hook, you can simply put all the ingredients in the mixing bowl and knead for 5 or so minutes on medium.
4. Allow the pizza dough to rise for 1½ - 2 hours, you can tell when it is ready as it will have doubled in size and spring back when you touch it.
5. Knock the pizza dough in the middle (that's why it is called knocking back the dough!) and divide it into 3 evenly sized balls for each of your bases. Or if you have the tray/oven to size, you can make larger pizzas!
6. Roll out your pizza dough balls to about ½ cm thick and place them on a lightly floured baking tray or pizza stone, and it is now time to make your pizza.
7. Spread your tomato pizza sauce on the base with the back of a spoon then add your toppings.
8. Bake in an oven preheated to 240oC/475oF/GM9 for about 10-15 minutes. The cooking time depends on the thickness of your pizza base and also how you like it. Watch it closely and take it out when the cheese is melted and the base is starting to turn brown and note the best timing for you.
9. Drizzle with your favourite flavoured oils to taste, our favourites and the classic are basil oil or chilli oil.

Here in Liguria the lemon has been entwined with the region’s history, culture and landscape since it was cultivated commercially in Genoa in the 15^th century. They feature in many dishes and are seen in displays all over. Just over the border from our olive farm Bestagno into France is the historic town of Menton where since 1934 the Menton Lemon Festival uses over 145 tonnes of citrus fruit to create spectacular floats and sculptures.

Lemons & oil, together at Imperia lemon festival

This "Queen" Cookery Book which belonged to my great grandmother, is a compilation of recipes published in the cookery columns of the "Queen" magazine between 1895 and 1902. The preface assures the reader that all the recipes are well within the capacity of the ‘good plain cook’.

It suggests an ingenious way to keep lemons for a longer time in its ‘Lemons to Keep’ method, using just resources from the land which I love:

"These may be kept by the same recipe as is recommended for walnuts, i.e. in sand. Put a layer of very dry sea sand at the bottom of a jar and on this a layer of lemons, then more sand and more lemons till the jar is full, but be careful that the lemons never touch each other in any of the layers."

Maybe it was the salt in the sand that helped preserve the lemons? Here is my recipe for preserving lemons, not with sand but still with salt!

Thinking about the benefits of the Mediterranean way of eating, lemons are certainly up there at the top of the list of essentials alongside Extra Virgin Olive Oil. They are packed full of antioxidant and anti-cancer properties, have an impressive list of essential nutrients, and are respected for their antibiotic properties. Scientists believe that it is the zest that holds all of the health giving properties so try and buy unwaxed lemons and always cook with the zest.

Is the consumption of lemons another reason why the Mediterranean way of eating is proven to be so health giving? I believe it is.

Olives, herbs, garlic and lemon: the essentials in the Mediterranean diet

The combination of these Mediterranean essentials of lemon and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) was something that inspired Nudo's Lemoni, our most popular flavoured oil, an agrumato bursting with pure lemon flavour. It is made by crushing whole Sicilian lemons with the olives in the traditional cold-extraction method of producing EVOO. This process, vs. infusing, creates an oil with flavour that is pure and intense; you can really taste the whole lemons. Although not technically an EVOO anymore as it EVOO must always be pure and meet specific guidelines, this 'condiment' is made with high quality olives in the EVOO process. It is particularly delicious on fish and chicken, or tossed through pasta or salads; see our recipes here.

Nudo Lemoni agrumato oil

Explore all out flavoured oils here, or see more recipes here.

Katharine, Nudo Director & Bestagno Olive grove

Why try?

Being fans of coffee, healthy food and or course Extra Virgin Olive Oil we wanted to combine all three to make our own "Bullet Proof Coffee". We all know the health benefits of olive oil, so why not combine it in a famous rich coffee drink, and try replacing the coconut oil of bullet proof coffee with our olive oil?

What is Bullet Proof Coffee?

Bullet Proof Coffee is a recent phenomenon from our friends in the USA.  Being sold as part healthy energy drink, part brain function drink, as well as a weight loss aid (the idea is that the drink replaces your normal breakfast). The concept originated from Dave Asprey who whilst trekking in the mountains in Tibet, was fed a highly rejuvenating butter based “Yak butter tea”, and found it gave him a lot of morning energy. You can read Dave's full story here.

Here's what's in it:

• Coffee (surprise!)
• Grass fed butter (for the extra nutrients to regular butter)
• Coconut Oil (or in our case, extra virgin olive oil)

What are the claimed benefits?

• Coffee/Upgraded coffee, as well as the providing energy boost in the morning, coffee provides various benefits and is high in anti-oxidants.
• Grass fed butter is claimed to be full of grass fed fats, nutrients and vitamins, which provides the nutritional value to “keep you going until lunch time”.
• Coconut Oil is the "brain octane oil", like olive oil it's a known super food and great for weigh loss.

Is it ok to drink?

Naturally we were a bit wary about drinking high doses of butter, mainly as it’s fatty and adds to cholesterol levels. Plus, doesn't it just sound wrong?! But we wanted to try it and see what it was all about. We went for it as a healthy energy boost rather than a weight loss/meal replacement exercise, so still ate a normal breakfast in addition to drinking the one cup of coffee.

The Nudo bullet-proof coffee recipe

What you need

• Ground Coffee – we just used our standard Italian grind supermarket coffee
• Grass fed butter – bought from a local producer in Borough market
• Nudo Extra Virgin Olive oil – many proven health benefits, is full of vitamins and nutrients, and oh so tasty!

Instructions

1. Brew the coffee as you would. We used a 1 cup French press as advised, although for a purer coffee we prefer the more traditional Italian method by using a Bialetti Moka Expresso Maker.
2. Once the coffee is ready, pour into a smoothie maker.
3. Add 1 Tblsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and 1 Tbsp of grass fed butter
4. Blend until smooth and creamy
5. Drink!

So how did it go?

Day 1:  Here it goes...

We were a little unsure about how much olive oil to put in 1 or 2 tablespoons, we started tentatively with one table spoon. The colour and consistency of the finished brew looks very appetising so we are eager to try. To our delight, there is no oily taste or consistency, and the addition of butter makes the brew creamy so even if you usually have milk with your coffee, this mellows it out. Day one feels like a success.

Day 2:  Actually this might be ok

After facing the intimidation of the first cup of coffee, we felt a little bolder and expertly brewed the coffee as per yesterday. Our thoughts were that the brew is actually pretty good. The colour and delicious smell of the coffee makes it far more appetising than it sounds on paper.

Day 3:  Ok yes we can get used to this

Now in the full swing of things we are looking forward to our next cup. In terms of an energy boost we do feel good, however is this just down to the caffeine hit? It’s difficult to tell.

Day 4:  Time to up the dose

So after our tip-toed start, we decide to up the ante and double up on the ingredients. Dave Asprey does warn you to slowly increase the dosage, but being as this is only a week’s trial, we go for it and add 2 Tblsp of EVOO.

The results were a bit oily though (even for us!). This dosage doesn’t work so well and although the mixture is drinkable, it's not as enjoyable as the lower 1 Tblsp dosage of olive oil.

Day 5:  Do we feel different?

So after the fifth day we still don’t feel that much different than normal. Yes we have an energy boost,  but we feel we would get that from the natural caffeine boost from coffee anyway.

Day 6:  Difficult to tell if it’s just the coffee or the other ingredients

We do feel a little perkier today and we guess a little more “on it” but given the lack of any scientific backing in the experiment it’s difficult to tell. As a side note the ease of making the concoction is actually very useful in a small office space.

Day 7:  The end of the trial

Again feeling a bit perkier than normal, but (call us cliche), we are looking forward to getting back to our Italian espressos!

Feedback and findings

• The coffee tasted much better than we expected (as you have to admit, bullet-coffee is an odd sounding recipe!). Plus it’s an easy way to get a dose of olive oil.

• We would probably make it again, but possibly if we were going for a run or had cycled into work, but not as a replacement for normal breakfast.

• The brew does suppress your appetite until lunch time so in effect does work in that sense as a meal replacement, but unsure of the long term health consequences of doing this!

• The one claim we can validate is that it is indeed “fast energy with (seemingly) no crash” although to be fair we have never suffered from an energy crash when drinking coffee. 

Get your olive oil fix straight from the grove from your very own tree.

With the harvest over and our oil being dispatched to customers all over the world we have been busy here in Liguria pruning our trees and generally giving the groves lots of TLC. With the weather set fair the new flowers will soon start to show and then the new harvest olives will form and so the cycle goes on.

We bought the majority of our trees ten years ago in 2007.  Since then we have cleared the groves of their bramble jungle and ivy canopy and with careful annual pruning there has been transformation from total abandonment and decline to the beauties they now are producing their golden harvest.

But all around the vicinity of our groves trees are left abandoned and it breaks my heart to see them as they too could be whipped into shape and once again be producing their health-giving oil.

But the truth of the matter here in Liguria is that many folks have given up caring for their few family terraces of trees which in the past were enough to provide them with oil throughout the year. On their own they are not commercially viable and ‘why go to all that work to make your own oil these days’ people say when you can buy it from the supermarket?

One of the joys of owning olive trees I have discovered is tracing their growth and age from their roots once the land has been cleared.

In the middle of this ancient’s roots you can see an old trunk that we cut shortly after we cleared the groves leaving three new side shoots which have now grown into substantial trunks themselves. The actual base of the tree is more than a metre in diameter and with a close inspection you can trace how many times she has been cut in this way over the years to keep her in production. I think she is about 250 years old and had been abandoned for over 60 years before we cleared the groves and pruned her back into shape.

After they have all had a good prune and been individually checked over, we chop the old branches into small pieces and rotovate them into the land. Then a good natural fertilizer is given to each tree to give it a boost before the flowers start to form.

I love this time of the year as the groves start to fill with spring flowers and the odd fruit trees dotted around the terraces come into blossom.

The bees are already working in the aromatic gardens and it is thrilling to see new growth and vivid flowers in the early morning sun.

Katharine

Nudo & Bestagno Farm Owner

Head out for a meal in Italy during harvest season and you will undoubtedly be encouraged to try Olio Nuovo, the “new oil”. As with most food or drink sampling in Italy, do not turn this down! Not just because it would cause offence to your host but also to avoid missing out on something amazing.

After presenting you the fresh Olio Nuovo, thick and green, lathered across toasted bread, your host will linger nearby eagerly awaiting your “mmm, molto bene!” seal of approval before walking away bursting with pride.

UNFILTERED
The taste of fresh olives

Most extra virgin olive oils are filtered to remove the sediment which remains after the olives have been pressed, this leaves a translucent oil to be bottled. But Olio Nuovo is bottled unfiltered, the olive sediment left suspended in the oil giving it its iconic cloudy green appearance.

As filtering takes some time, this also means Olio Nuovo is the freshest oil you can get as it is bottled immediately after pressing. The tiny flavour packed particles that remain deliver the vibrant and robust character unique to this oil and the extreme freshness means that Olio Nuovo also has one of the highest levels of polyphenols. Olio Nuovo really is the ultimate extra virgin olive oil experience.

Taste your Olio Nuovo

To make the most of Olio Nuovo’s unique flavour & freshness it is best to use for ‘finishing’ rather than cooking. The hearty nature is suited to anything you feel the robust flavour will compliment - mix through fresh pastas, drizzle over meat and vegetables, or enjoy simply as bruschetta.

However you decide to use it, our main recommendation is to eat it copiously, liberally and most of all often to enjoy the seasonal treat in its absolute prime as if you were right there in the oil mill. Find more recipe ideas & inspiration here.

Buon Appetito! 

Tom Mueller is an investigative journalist. The only thing he loves more than tasting delicious food is sniffing out a great story. At his home in Liguria, these two passions came together for his book on olive oil. Liguria is home to some large, powerful olive oil producers who are often accused of mislabelling ‘normal olive oil’ as ‘extra virgin olive oil’, or imported olive oil as ‘Italian’.

I’ve spoken myself to Ligurian olive growers who openly admit to selling their olives to such companies, to be blended with imported oil, but still sold as ‘Ligurian’. Mueller’s book is full of such stories. And not just from Liguria. He travels the world exposing the widespread fraud in the industry and discovering how it threatens artisan olive oil producers like Nudo. It’s a shocking book!

It describes how skilled oil fraudsters are flooding the market with, cheap, fake extra virgin oils, reaping profits and undercutting honest producers - whilst the authorities in Italy, the US and elsewhere turn a blind eye.

We caught up with Tom to ask him some more about his book and whether he can offer practical advice to consumers about how to avoid being fooled.

NUDO: What most shocked you in your investigation of the olive oil industry?

TOM: Not the criminals – they were merely the foot soldiers of a much bigger and uglier picture.  What really shocked me were the multinational companies who knowingly deal with the criminals, and the governments who wink at fraud without acting against it, lest they interfere with free (and corrupt) trade.  The current absurd situation of "extra virgin" olive oil costing €1.70 in the bulk market in Jaén is an open joke, yet no official agency seems willing to intervene.

NUDO: In American supermarkets, it is possible to buy ‘100% Italian, extra virgin olive oil, first cold press’ for under $10 per litre. Can this possibly be a good buy?

TOM: Again, it depends on the source, though it’s expensive to ship olive oil to the US, and the retailer must have a mark-up.  It’s safe to say that most extra virgin olive oils sold at $10 per litre are wrongly labeled, and some are downright frauds.

NUDO: Why is it hard for small scale olive oil producers to make a living?

TOM: It’s not so much a matter of scale as of quality.  It’s very expensive to produce true extra virgin olive oil, cheap to make poor oil.  But many poor oils are sold under the extra virgin label.  So 2 completely different products, one valuable and the other low-quality, are being sold under the identical label.  Honest producers are victims of unfair competition.

NUDO: I'm often asked 'what is so bad about importing oil from Spain to Italy and calling it “Italian”? Aren’t Spanish olives as good as Italian ones?' What would you say to this question?

TOM: If the label leads the consumer to believe they are buying Italian oil, yet the oil is made in Spain, this is misleading, and therefore wrong.   It’s purely a matter of truth in labelling.

NUDO: Apart from publishing books on the subject, how best to educate consumers about good and bad olive oil? I often hear unconfident consumers worry that they won’t even recognise a good olive oil when they taste one.

TOM: They need to taste more olive oil.  And taste cheap supermarket oils side by side with fine oils.  To do this, one needs a competent guide – a reputable shopkeeper who knows his or her oils, for example.

NUDO: What is your best advice for consumers faced with a shelf full of olive oils of varying provenance and varying price? How can they know what the label means and who to trust?

TOM: The label must say “extra virgin.”  It ideally should tell you the date of harvest, and the specific spot on the globe (typically the estate) where the oil was produced – as well as by whom.  Dark glass bottles or tins, which shield the oil from light, are also important.

NUDO: You say in the book that €60 billion of counterfeit Italian foods are sold annually. Is there something unique to Italy about this?

TOM: Merely that Italian food is so superb, and deservedly famous – fraud occurs when an item has inherent value.

Tom’s book Extra Virginity: the sublime and scandalous world of olive oil’ is available on Amazon.

Like all the best ideas, it’s so simple you can’t believe you didn’t think of it before. Rosemary!  We’d said "Hey people, give us your ideas for new flavoured olive oils we should be making.”

You rose up. You spoke with one voice. That voice said “Rosemary, please.”  We said, “Respect people, bloomin good idea.”

So we collected up our freshly harvested olives, sourced a few crates of the best Italian rosemary, hand plucked its leaves, then crushed the whole caboodle together under huge granite millstones.

And then we pimped up this pizza.

Prep Time 2 Hours 

Serves 4

Cook Time 2 Hours 

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• White bread flour – 350g/12oz
• Salt – 5g/0.2oz
• Tepid water – 200ml/7 fl oz
• Dried yeast – 7g/0.25oz
• Rosemary olive oil – 1 tbsp
• Onion – 1 medium
• Garlic clove – 1
• Chopped plum tomatoes – 400g/14oz tin San Marzano if possible
• Dried oregano – 2 tsp
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sugar, salt and pepper to taste
• Rosemary olive oil to drizzle - For the topping
• Buffalo mozzarella – 125g/4.4oz ball torn into pieces
• Taleggio – 50g/1.8oz
• Courgette – 1
• Sliced unsmoked pancetta (optional) – 50g/1.8oz
• Rosemary – a few sprigs

Method

1. First put the yeast in the water, stir and let it stand for 15 minutes to activate. Then make the dough by sifting the flour and salt together on a work surface and make a well in the centre. Add the water and the oil to the well in the flour and mix together with your hands. When it all comes together knead it for 6-10 minutes until you have a strong elastic dough (or if you have a mixer with a dough hook, put all the ingredients in the bowl and knead for 6 minutes on a medium setting). Allow the dough to prove for 1½ to 2 hours, until it has doubled in size and is springy to the touch.
2. Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce – gently fry the onions in extra virgin olive oil, till soft, but with no colour. Add the tomatoes, the crushed garlic and slowly simmer it until thickened. Then add the dried oregano, and season with a little sugar, salt and pepper to taste. You may have more sauce than you need, so don’t think you need to use it all on the pizza as you could overload it.
3. Heat the oven to 240oC/475oF/GM9. Knock back the dough and divide it into 3 balls, and roll them out to ½cm thick. Lie them on a lightly floured baking tray (you might have to do this in batches, depending on your oven), then spread with tomato sauce and drizzle a little rosemary olive oil over the crusts. Add the toppings you wish. If you want to make a pizza bianca without the tomato sauce, just drizzle the base with oil before adding your toppings. Cooking time depends on the thickness of your base, but you want the cheese to be melted and the crust to be browned.

Prep Time 2 Hours

Serves 3

Cook Time 2 Hours

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 3 cups bread flour - Makes 12
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup Rosemary olive oil
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ GM 4. Combine all the ingredients in the large bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook. Knead on medium speed to make a soft, smooth dough, about 8 minutes. Adjust flour and water as needed.
2. Then place the dough in a covered and lightly greased bowl and leave to rise for 60 to 90 minutes or until it’s just about doubled in bulk. Move the dough to a lightly floured counter top.
3. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and shape into round balls or roll into logs and shape into knots.  Place the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet or sheets, leaving about 2 inches between them. Cover and let rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until they are quite puffy.
4. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown.  Transfer the rolls to a cooling rack and brush lightly with a little more rosemary olive oil.

Prep Time 30 Minutes

Serves 30

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Almonds – 60g/2.2oz whole blanched
• Pistachios – 80g/2.8oz shelled.
• Eggs – 2 large
• Flour – 250g/8.8oz
• Caster sugar – 150g/5.3oz
• Baking powder – 1 tsp
• Mixed peel – 4 tsp
• Vanilla bean paste – 1 tsp (an alternative is 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• Stone Ground Mandarin Flavoured Oil  – 6 tsp
• Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC/GM4/350oF. Spread the almonds on a baking tray and roast them for 5 minutes. Make sure that you don’t burn them though, they turn in an instant. I like to then skin the pistachio – it’s time-consuming but makes the biscuits so much prettier. Toss them into a bowl of just boiled water, leave for 10 minutes, then start slipping the loose skins off.
2. Lightly beat the eggs, and then grab a big mixing bowl and chuck in the flour, sugar and baking powder. Give a quick mix and then add the nuts, eggs, peel, vanilla and mandarin olive oil. Mix it all well together with a spoon. Then with your hands scoop out a quarter of the mix and mould it into a thick sausage shape. Roll this in icing sugar and place it on a baking tray lined with bake-o-glide or parchment paper. Press down on the top of the sausage to flatten it a bit. Repeat this process with the rest of the mixture, and make sure you leave a decent space between the 4 sausages. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.  
3. Once they are ready take them out of the oven and using a decent serrated knife carefully cut the sausages into 1cm thick slices. It’s tricky cutting through the nuts, and if it starts to fall apart squash it back together into the right shape. Lay these out on the baking tray and pop them back in the oven for a few minutes. Leave to cool and store in a sealed container or eat once they’ve cooled down. I like to bake extra and give them as gifts in one of our Nudo tins.

Serves 4

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 1 Butternut Squash
• Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3.5 oz/ 100g Parmesan
• Salt & Pepper
• 14 oz/ 400g Plain Flour or Italian ‘00’ Flour
• 4 Large free-range eggs
• Rosemary Flavoured Olive Oil

Method

1. Cut the butternut squash in half and remove the seeds. Drizzle in Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil, place cut side down in a baking dish and cook in the oven for around 35 minutes at 180 degrees.
2. Remove the butternut squash and scoop out the flesh which should be nice and soft from cooking. Puree the flesh in a blender or roughly with a fork and let it cool. Once cool, stir in the grated parmesan and season with salt and pepper to complete your ravioli filling.
3. To make the ravioli pasta, place the flour, eggs and a teaspoon of olive oil in a food processor and mix until it takes the form of breadcrumbs. Tip the mix out and knead for 5 minutes, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
4. Take the pasta dough from the fridge and cut it into 4 manageable pieces. The trick is to roll the pasta through the machine 10 times on the widest setting, folding it back in half each time. The dough should be beautifully smooth. Now work your way down the thicknesses on the machine to the lowest setting and you should have beautiful sheets of pasta, which you need to lay out on a floury surface.
5. Put a teaspoon of the filling mixture at regular, well-spaced intervals. Brush around them with a little water and lay another pasta sheet on top, pressing down over the mounds of filling. Cut into ravioli shapes with a pasta cutter.
6. Bring a pot of water to boil, with a bit of salt and olive oil. Cook for about 2 minutes. Spoon out the ravioli into your serving dish, drizzle with some Rosemary Flavoured Olive Oil, season with pepper and serve.

Prep Time 10

Serves 4

Cook Time 0

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Fennel seeds – ½ tsp
• Basil leaves – 15
• Mint – 15 leaves
• Garlic – one clove
• Olive oil with garlic – 4 tbsp
• Lemon – 1
• Salt and pepper
• Mozzarella di bufala – 250g/ 8.8oz
• Vine tomatoes – 2

Method

1. Dry fry the fennel seeds until they start to pop. Bash them up and put them in a bowl.
2. Chop the mint, basil and finely chop the garlic. Add them to the bowl along with the oil, the grated zest of the lemon, ½ tsp of salt and some pepper.
3. Pull apart the mozzarella with your hands and mix it into the bowl of marinade.  
4. Leave for half an hour and then serve with the chopped tomatoes and a few chunks of lightly toasted ciabatta.

Our panettone is made with our extra virgin olive oil, with an exclusive recipe developed by us and Pasticceria Scarpato, you can read about this here. But in the meantime here are five things you might not know about panettone showing just how special it is.

1. Panettone is actually a sourdough

It’s a leavened sweet bread and the yeast comes from “lievito madre”, the mother dough, which is passed along to each new batch. The process, compared to regular baking methods, makes it more fragrant and tasty, and actually easier to digest.

Nudo Panettone  comes from the mother dough of the original panettone made by Signor Scapato in 1888. Vecchio madre!

2. Panettone's dotted origins

There are more than a few theories about the origin of the panettone. Among the legends of the invention of panettone are servants offering their yeast to save a failed cake, suitors trying to impress fathers of their loved one, and an old law around who could bake with wheat to make bread. But the true origin isn’t really known, and like many great things the mystery surrounding it is part of it's charm. We do know that it originates from Milan, and the word itself comes from “panetto” meaning a small loaf cake, with the suffix "-one" changing it to "large cake". Though the rest remains legend and hearsay.

3. Panettone is hung upside down after baking

When panettone has finished baking, it is flipped upside down until it cools. This prevents the bread falling in on itself it and keeps the lovely soft and fluffy texture.

4. Panettone takes three days to make

Panettone takes three whole days to make between the mixing, leavening, baking, and resting. That’s three days of patience and respect of the natural cycle and ingredients (well worth it we think).

5. Panettone is protected by law

To protect the traditional and authentic processes of the Italian speciality, panettone is protected by law. We value traditional and authentic processes with our extra virgin olive oil production so this is right up our alley. The law states that to be called panettone it must be made with natural yeast. This was declared by decree to protect some of the best-known specialties of Italian confectionery characterization and traditions. Just like extra virgin olive oil, there are is a lot of fraud out there so beware of the fakes.

Nudo’s Panettone is made using our extra virgin olive oil to instead of the usual butter. Using extra virgin olive oil makes for a panettone that is soft and light in texture but still moist and with even more full of flavour. Plus that bit better for you (always good at Christmas time!). Read more here about the story behind our olive oil panettone.

It’s a best seller and anticipated favourite each Christmas, so get yours while you can.

These bottles were designed in a collaboration with ceramic artist Michelle Freemantle, whose work is inspired by her surroundings - a perfect fit with Nudo. Katharine Doré, Nudo's director and owner of Bestagno olive grove, worked closely with Michelle to create these pieces. Both feeling a similar connection and passion for the land, Katharine and Michelle designed three colourways inspired by the Ligurian landscape.

The base colours flowing through each bottle are drawn from the olive trees on the groves.

Glazed in a deep, dusty blue just like ripe olives alongside the green of the trees foliage and of course their treasured, fresh extra virgin olive oil. These are designed with a deep and direct connection to your adopted tree and it's extra virgin olive oil you receive.

To match with this base, three contrasting colours stood out to both Katharine and Michelle. The lead colour is the yellow, inspired by the famous golden Italian sun which ripens the olives each year. The pink draws from the soft colours of the rooftop tiles in the Italian villages which are dotted on hilltops and in valleys all across the country. The red is inspired from the bright facades of the famous houses of the coast of Italy, particularly on the Ligurian coast.

Continuing the fit, the colourways also match back with our favourite oil flavours - lemon yellow, garlic pink, and chilli red, so these make a great additional gift to give alongside the certificate and bottle. You can even build them into your own gift set to give in a lovely eco-style gift box.

These bottles are exclusively available with our gift adoptions, you can choose your adoption package then choose the bottle colour to gift. Gift with your personal gift message to be printed on the certificate and they will then get to choose their olive grove for their tree.

Prep Time 20 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Hazelnuts - 300g/ 10.5 oz
• Caster sugar - 300g/ 10.5 oz
• Medium Egg whites - 6
• Ground almonds - 150g/ 5.3oz
• Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
• Cocoa - 1 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6.
2. Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and toast in the oven for about 8 minutes or until the skins start to split. Rub the hazelnuts with a tea towel to remove as much of the skin as possible. Turn oven down to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Put the hazelnuts in a food processor with 100g of the sugar and grind until coarse but well mixed. Add the almonds, vanilla extract and cocoa, and pulse the mixture a little bit more.
3. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar until soft peaks form. Then slowly fold in the hazelnut mixture.
4. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and heat gently while stirring. It should dry a little and come away from the sides of the pan. Line a baking tray with non-stick paper. Scoop 2cm/ 1 in diameter balls of the mixture onto the tray and leave 2cm/ 1 in between each ball.  Bake for about 18 minutes, until golden brown.
5. Leave to cool before serving.

Become part of the Nudo community by adopting an olive tree and help support small-scale sustainable olive farming in Italy.

Prep Time 30 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Trout - four whole fish (250g/8.8 oz - 300g/10.5oz each)
• Extra virgin olive oil with lemons - 2 tbsp
• Flat-leaf parsley - a bunch
• Garlic - two cloves, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/370 F/ GM5.
2. Wash and gut the fish. Chop up the parsley.
3. Place each fish on a piece of aluminium foil. Stuff some parsley in each one with some chopped garlic and lemon oil.
4. Then sprinkle an equal amount of the parsley/garlic /lemon oil combo over the top. Add a goodly dose of salt and pepper.
5. Wrap up each one carefully in the foil, making sure that there is air inside and the foil isn't touching the fish at the top.
6. Place on a baking tray and pop in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Goes nicely with a fava bean salad, or new potatoes. Or both.

Prep Time 1 hour

Serves 4

Cook Time 1 hour

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

Base:

• 25ml extra virgin olive oil
• Handful of ground cacao nibs
• 25g (0.9oz) butter
• 150g (5.3oz) Amaretti biscuits; crushed

Cheesecake Layer:

• 500g (1.1lb) Mascarpone
• 250g (8.8oz) Ricotta cheese
• 3 Eggs
• 180g (2.8oz) Sugar
• Oranges: zest of 2
• 1 Vanilla Pod
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.
• Small handful of ground cacao nibs

Strawberry Topping:

• 250g (8.8oz), fresh strawberries
• 1 bunch fresh basil, torn
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Basil olive oil: to drizzle

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F).

Grease the sides and base of a 20cm (7.8″) springform/loose-bottomed cake tin. Place a disc of greaseproof or silicone paper on the bottom.

 Base

• Put the amaretti biscuits into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Mix the crushed biscuits with melted butter, olive oil, and crushed cacao nibs.
• Tip the base mixture into the prepared tin and press down to form an even layer using a spatula.

 Cheesecake Layer

• Place mascarpone, ricotta, eggs, sugar, olive oil, remaining crushed nibs, orange zest, and vanilla extract into a mixer.
• Mix until smooth.
• Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base in the tin and gently shake the tin to level the cheesecake mixture.

Bake

• Bake in the center of the oven for 45-50 minutes or until the cheesecake is golden. It should still have a bit of a wobble in the middle when it comes out of the oven, but the residual heat will set this last bit as it cools.
• Cover and leave to cool completely before putting it in the fridge overnight.

Prepare the Topping

• Run a knife around the edge to loosen the cheesecake and remove it from the tin. Transfer to a serving plate.
• Place strawberries in a bowl with torn basil (always tear basil, never cut it with a knife to avoid bruising).
• Spoon the strawberry mix over the cheesecake.
• Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil or basil olive oil.

   

Serve to insane applause!

The Nudo Adopt olive tree adoption program supports small-scale farmers on sustainable olive groves in Italy to continue their authentic practices, by providing economic stability of their harvest each year. The benefits to those who adopt an olive tree is not only enjoying premium and authentic extra virgin olive oil product from a trusted source, but the knowledge of supporting the production of this and building a connection with it.

The adoption program also give the farmers the opportunity to share their oil worldwide, where otherwise it may not have made it out of the region. The farmers have such pride in their product (as they should!), so the chance to share it with people all over the world is a stand out part of being in the Nudo community.

Watch here to learn more from our olive farmers on why the Nudo olive tree adoption program is important to them.

Help support small-scale sustainable olive farming in Italy by adopting an olive tree with Nudo Adopt.

Until that moment we had always cooked Pasta al Burro con Formaggino (pasta with butter and cheese) for Toby as a quick on the go option but the Italian chef in this tiny French cafe presented Pasta Aglio e Olio (pasta with garlic and oil).

After one careful sniff and a tiny nibble a great big smile was the chef’s reward. That and a very clean plate. But the thing we noticed (it was hard not to notice) was how many extra helpings of olive oil Toby wanted on the pasta, that and how much he relished mopping up yet more oil with piles of crispy baguette. It was definitely the oil he was onto and this was affirmed in my mind at each and every meal thereafter.

Soon, olive oil and then olives themselves became one of the mainstays of Toby’s diet. Every meal had to have a side order of olives and we started to get through a litre of oil a week.

Like most British mum’s of my generation I had grown up with olive oil being something that was in the medicine cupboard to be warmed and poured  - to what end I am not quite sure even to this day – down your aching ears.

My only other experience of olive oil was from my late father, an Anglican clergyman or country parson as he preferred to be called, keeping a bottle of ‘Precious Oil’ locked in the church to anoint the sick and the dying.

But as my son was developing such a passion for the stuff and everything I read talked about its health benefits, I decided to learn more about this mystical oil and that was the very start of our olive oil adventures.

FINDING the FARM

We had in our mind’s eye a picture of a romantic idyll – a little farmhouse with its groves of silver green olive trees all beautifully pruned and gently swaying in a light breeze and maybe a few vines to tend.

After months of searching for a region where we could build our business we drove deep into the Ligurian hills and stumbled into the Impero Valley a rugged landscape dotted with medieval villages hugging the hillsides and covered thick with olive trees many of which had been abandoned since before the war and were lost under a huge canopy of ivy, brambles and overgrowth.

We drove around looking at abandoned mills and derelict rusticos (little cottages built for olive pickers in the groves) but it was the ancient ruin of Castello di Bestagno that won our hearts and facing it across the valley a totally derelict ruin of a house, encircled by other derelict buildings, boasting yet more abandoned land, terrace walls broken by torrential rain and the activities of wild boar and gardens full of dead fruit trees. It was love at first sight. We knew then our journey had taken an unexpected turn.

Now after five years we have largely cleared the jungle of overgrowth, mended metres of terrace walls and have pruned most of the trees into a manageable size and shape.

Before and after renovations on the terrace

But it will take a few years yet for Bestagno’s trees to be in full production, the house to be finished and the gardens fully planted as the whole enterprise was abandoned for so long it is going to need a lot of love for years to come.

Building the future

Big plans and lots more work to do.

Our plan is to start an Agriturismo, a sort of Italian version of a working farm holiday option, but in our case structured around olive picking and oil making, working in the vineyard, the vegetable gardens and the fruit and nut orchards we are planning around the castle ruin.

We hope that this will not only provide Toby with a lifelong job where he can be usefully engaged both in the company offices in London and on the farm in Italy but that we can develop another side to the business, one where we can share our little piece of Italian paradise with other families with autistic youngsters like our son.

This oil is from the Siracusa region in the southeast corner of Sicily. Siracusa is rich in ancient Greek and Roman history and was once one of the key powers of the Mediterranean world. You can see this while wandering the streets of the city, such as the grand Cathedral of Siracusa built in the 7th century but the building actually dates back to 480BC when it was the Temple of Athena.

Sicilian spice

This extra virgin olive oil is a blend of characteristic olive cultivars of the Siracusa region which were handpicked from selected small groves near the city and pressed the same day by our trusted local miller.

It has the classic spice kick of Sicilian oil but with softer flavour notes than many of the more robust oils typical of the island. You will notice the scent of fresh olives as with all quality oils, followed afterwards by tastes reminiscent of green tomatoes and wild fennel. Allow this oil’s unique properties to shine through by using this as a finishing oil.

Taste your Siracusa oil

When you start to explore this oil, you will find that it pairs well with many dishes but truly comes to life with fresh fish and seafood. Surrounded by the Mediterranean, seafood is a central part of the Sicilian diet and in Siracusa it is no different with the local fish market bustling from the early hours of the morning with the days catch.

Bring your Siracusa extra virgin olive oil to life with fresh seafood dishes à la the region itself.

Prep Time 10 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 10 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Aubergines – 2 fairly large ones
• Salt – 2 tablespoons
• Extra virgin olive oil – 4 teaspoons
• Ricotta - 150g/ 5.3oz. - For the filling:
• Pecorino - 400g/ 14oz. cut into small cubes
• Egg yolks - 2 - For the sauce:
• Sapa – 100ml/ 3.4 floz
• Vegetable broth – 50ml/ 1.7 floz
• Balsamic vinegar – 10ml/ 0.33 floz
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Cut the aubergines longways into thin slices of 0.5 to 0.8cm/ 0.2 in to 0.3 in. Cover them with plenty of salt and a bit of water and leave for at least 15 minutes. Rinse them and then pat dry. Lightly brush each side with olive oil and brown them a bit in a non-stick frying pan for about 5 minutes.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta and the pecorino. Add a little salt and pepper. Then take one aubergine slice at a time and put a teaspoonful of the cheese mixture at one, thin end. Roll up the aubergine all the way to the other end, like a Swiss roll. Put the roll onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Do this with all the aubergine slices. You’ll want about 4 rolls per person.
3. For the sauce, beat the egg yolks with salt and pepper, add the sapa, the stock and the balsamic vinegar and mix well. Put the mixture on a Bain Marie (a heatproof mixing bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water) and carry on stirring at high heat for a few minutes.
4. Now cook the involtini (rolls) at gas mark 7/220oC/425F  for about 5 minutes. Take them out, lay them on your plates and pour your sauce over the top. Garnish with a bit of parsley and some chopped tomatoes. According to Chef Biagiali it should be enjoyed with a very cold glass of white, such as a Falerio from Vigna Solaria.

Watch here how the adoption program continues family traditions on the groves.

Prep Time 20 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Artichoke hearts – 120g/4.25oz jar
• Butter – 45g/1.6oz, plus a bit for greasing the dish
• Milk – 300ml/10 fl. oz
• Plain flour – 30g/1oz
• Parmesan cheese – 25g/1oz grated
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cannelloni – 6 tubes, about 60g/2oz

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C/390 F/ GM6. Roughly chop the artichoke hearts. Heat the butter on low heat and add the hearts.
2. While they are gently softening, make a béchamel sauce. I do it by first melting 2/3 of the butter in a saucepan and then adding the flour. Mix the flour in with a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes. Heat the milk in another saucepan till it nearly boils (or you can do it in a jug in the microwave).
3. Off the heat, add the milk very slowly to the flour/butter mixture. Add it slowly at first then the second half altogether.
4. Put the pan back on low heat to thicken up, but make sure you carry on stirring. Once it’s the right consistency season it to taste.
5. Put about a fifth of the sauce aside and add the softened artichoke hearts to the remainder. Fill the cannelloni tubes with this mixture. To avoid making a right mess I just prop them up on one end in the saucepan and spoon the mix in. It’s still a bit messy, but worth it.
6. Get an ovenproof dish that fits the pasta well and grease it with a bit of butter. Snuggle in the filled cannelloni tubes and cover with the béchamel that you set aside.
7. Grate over the parmesan and whack in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.
8. Eat with impunity. And, if you like, a green salad or vegetables.

Prep Time 6 Weeks

Serves 2

Cook Time 6 Weeks

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Asparagus – 500g / 1.1 lbs
• White wine vinegar – 300ml/10 fl oz
• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Shallot – 1
• Peppercorns – 1 tsp
• Rosemary – 2 sprigs
• Lemon juice – 100ml / 3.4 fl oz
• Extra virgin olive oil – 500ml/ 17 fl oz

Method

1. Cut or snap the woody bits off the asparagus and discard then cut the remaining spears in half lengthways.
2. Put the vinegar in a saucepan with 200ml/7 fl oz of water, boil it and then take off the heat. Grill the asparagus on a griddle pan, and then transfer it to the vinegar water. Leave for a few minutes and then drain.
3. Find a jar a bit taller than the length of your asparagus. Sterilise the in the oven for 10 minutes.
4. Finely chop the garlic and shallot and put them in the bottom of the jars with the peppercorns. Then carefully pack the spears into the jars, along with a sprig of rosemary. Fill the jar up to about a 5th of the height with lemon juice, then fill to the top with extra virgin olive oil.
5. Close the jars and then store them in a cool dark place for 6 weeks. Consume within 4 months, and once open keep the asparagus covered in oil and in the fridge.

Mary creates unique and high quality ceramics on the potter's wheel in her studio, Interlude Ceramics, in the Lake District. She has a background filled with impressive experience and accolades, including a first class honors degree from the University of Cumbria, plus, the Guinness World Record for most pots thrown on the wheel in an hour!

But, what shines through even more is her creative talent. Mary is inspired by her surroundings and the textures and colours of the changing seasons, and her designs are a lovely combination of contemporary and rustic. With our similar values, we couldn't help but feel it was a perfect match with Nudo. We are very excited to be working with Mary to bring these three gift sets to you this year.

How are they made?

We went up to visit Mary in her studio to see her talent first hand and how it's all done. We watched her skilled work crafting the bottles as she talked us through the steps. We had a go ourselves, but decided it's probably best if we left this up to her...

Here's what we learnt:

Step 1:  Throw the clay

As the name suggests, you literally throw the clay in this first step! You start the potter's wheel and then throw the lump of clay in the middle of the spinning disk, then with both hands steady it into the centre. Water is essential at this point to help guide it to the middle as the friction of dry hands or clay make this very difficult (we learnt this the hard way when we tried it with her!)

Step 2:  Pull it into a cylinder

This is the start of how the vessel is created. Whether it is a pot, bowl, or bottle, anything made on a potter's wheel starts at this stage. The cylinder is the basic shape that will then be moulded into the form of the final piece.

From the lump of clay we started with, an indent is created in the centre with your thumb and the fingers pull up the sides. There is a real knack to it and if you don't have your clay centred, the off balance will cause it to collapse. Mary is a pro at this, and fun fact: she has a record for the most pots thrown on a wheel in an hour!

Step 3:  Create your shape

This is where the skill and creative talent really come into play on the wheel. The cylindrical shape is pulled and pushed into the final creation. We watched as Mary guided the clay with ease to form our bottles, showing us an example of how much of a master in her art she is.

As she finished shaping each bottle, she casually puts in the finishing touch; a subtle spiral up the bottle giving just a hint of extra texture. This extra detail is like Mary's little signature, giving a unique and varying flare to each creation.

Step 4. the finishing touches

When each bottle is finished they are carefully removed from the wheel and placed to dry. The clay must dry out for several days to remove all the moisture before it is then fired. If it isn't dried properly it may crack in the kiln and all that beautiful wheel work is gone to waste. As these bottles are handmade on the wheel, they all have a beautifully subtle variance in their shape showing this personal touch. This comes through even more in the next step when they are glazed. The bottles are dipped and the glaze drips a different way each time. The bottle you gift will be one of a kind.

Make your gift the centre of the table

We have created gift sets from Mary's beautiful work ready for you to take for Thanksgiving.

For a small token of thanks, take them an Aperitivo of our Ligurian Taggiasche olives with the hand thrown and glazed ramekin to enjoy them in. We have also paired the bottle above, with our Nudo extra virgin olive oil in the Olio set, for a thoughtful gift of a beautiful piece to use every day. Or, if you want to have your gift centre table, gift all together in the A Tavola set with Mary's paired handmade bottle and ramekin along with Nudo's fresh extra virgin olive oil, and the Liguria Taggiasche olives.

Prep Time 1 Hour

Serves 2

Cook Time 1 Hour

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Unbleached all-purpose flour: 1 1/2 cups (180 grams)
• Baking powder: 2 teaspoons (10 ml)
• Pinch of salt
• Zest of one lemon
• Plain whole-milk yoghurt, stirred: 1/2 cup (120 ml) or (120 grams)
• Granulated sugar: 1 cup (200 grams) or (240 ml)
• Large eggs: 3
• Nudo Lemon oil: 1/2 cup (120 ml) or (120 grams)

For the lemon syrup:

• The juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons or 45 ml)
• Powdered sugar: 1/4 cup (30 grams) or (60 ml)

For the lemon icing:

• Powdered sugar: 1 cup (120 grams) or (240 ml)
• Lemon juice: 2 tablespoons (30 ml)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C/Gas Mark 4). Grease and flour a 9-inch (22cm) square cake pan.

• In a large bowl, combine the yoghurt, sugar, and eggs, mixing well. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and lemon zest. Then, add the flour mixture to the yoghurt mixture and blend until combined.

• Mix in the lemon oil and stir until everything is well combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then transfer it to a rack to cool completely.

• Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the sugar and lemon juice until it forms a syrup similar to what you would use for lemonade. While the cake is still warm, spoon the lemon syrup over it.

• Allow the cake to cool completely. While it's cooling, prepare the lemon icing. Whisk it well and then spoon it over the cooled cake. The icing will firm up completely in about 1 hour.

• Serve and enjoy!

Prep Time 50

Serves 2

Cook Time 10

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Milk – 1 cup/250ml/8.4 fl oz
• Instant yeast – 4 tsp
• Eggs – 3
• Sugar – 4 tbsp, plus a load for coating
• Salt – a pinch
• Butter – 45g, melted/1.6oz
• 00 Flour – 300g/10.6oz
• Raisins – ½ cup
• Citrus peel – ¾ cup
• Pine nuts – ½ cup
• Lemon – 1 grated zest
• Extra virgin olive oil – around 400ml/13.5fl.oz depending on the pan

Method

1. Gently warm the milk and put it in a mixing bowl with the yeast. Add in the eggs, sugar, salt, and melted butter and mix it all together. Then add the flour and mix it with a wooden spoon until it becomes smooth. Now you can throw in all the other ingredients (except the olive oil which is for frying!). Knead this together for 10 minutes with a spatula, scraping around the bowl and mixing from bottom to top. Now you need to let it rest for half an hour with a damp cloth over the top to stop it from drying out. The doughy mixture should double in size.
2. Now heat your olive oil over a medium flame. Once the oil is hot, use two spoons to mould a cherry tomato-sized ball of dough, and scrape it into the hot oil. Fit a few in at once then take them out with a pair of tongs, drain them on some kitchen towel for a minute, then transfer them to a plate of sugar for a darn good coating.

Tonda Iblea monovarietal extra virgin olive oil has some of the best aromatic notes of Sicily. An intense fruity aroma of fresh olives and green tomatoes followed by herbaceous notes of basil and oregano and a delightfully enveloping ending of pleasant piquancy and bitterness. Perfect for those who enjoy oils with a forceful yet balanced aroma. Best in dishes with contrasting flavours where the aromas can intensify and the oil contributes to the ingredients with its unique character.

Tonda Iblea will add another dimension to meals with strong flavoured ingredients which enhance its aromas. This makes it well suited to meats and raw vegetables. Try drizzling over beef carpaccio or bresaola and taste the complex flavours emerge. Or douse fresh mozzarella and homegrown tomatoes topped with basil and discover the fresh complementing aromas.

Prep Time 5 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 5 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Pork chops (1 per person)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 orange
• 1 lemon
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 3 whole cloves
• ¼ cup (60ml) lemon olive oil 

Method

1. Season the chops with a light sprinkling of salt and pepper.

2. In a bowl, combine the citrus zest, crushed garlic, chopped rosemary, whole cloves, and lemon olive oil.

3. Add the chops to the marinade, mixing thoroughly with your hands. Squeeze the juice from the orange over the mixture.

4. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight, the longer the chops marinate, the better the flavour.

5. Remove the chops and pat them dry.

6. Preheat a cast-iron grill pan with a little EVOO and cook each chop over medium heat for 4 minutes on each side.

7. Serve with roasted carrots.

Serves 2

Cook Time Variable

Difficulty Easy

The base of any shape of course is a good recipe for fresh egg pasta. Here is an easy base recipe for gorgeous pasta noodles you can make at home and some classic shapes and sauces you can use for your culinary explorations. This egg pasta recipe works by hand, in a stand mixer, or with a food processor. See the directions below and become a pasta master!

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups semolina flour (or all-purpose flour, or "00" flour, or a combination)
• 1 tablespoon Nudo extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon fine salt (sea salt)

Method

1. The method in a food processor Put all the pasta ingredients in your food processor using the normal blade attachment. Pulse for 10 seconds or till the mixture becomes crumbly.
2. Remove the dough, forming it into a ball using your hands, and then place it on a countertop or a cutting board dusted with flour. Knead the dough for about 2 minutes, or till it's smooth and elastic. If the dough looks to be too dry, add a tablespoon of water. If it looks too wet or sticky, add in some extra flour. Overall, you do want your dough to be drier rather than moist.
3. Make the dough into a ball again and wrap it in plastic wrap. Let the ball of dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes, then either use it or pop it in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
4. Roll out the dough into the shapes you want, either with your hands or using an Uno Casa or another pasta maker.
5. Cook your pasta till al dente in salted water (about 1 to 5 minutes, depending on your pasta's thickness). Drain and serve with your favourite sauce.
6. The method in a stand mixer Add all the pasta ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer using the dough hook. Next, knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes at low speed till it is smooth and elastic. Adjust the texture of the dough with a bit more flour or water, if needed (see above).
7. Continue as in step 3 above.
8. The method by hand Make a mountain out of the flour on a cutting board, with a well in the middle. Add eggs, salt, and olive oil (in that order).
9. With a fork, whisk the middle till combined. Gradually incorporate the flour into the centre till the mixture is nice and thick.
10. Using your hands, form a ball with the dough, kneading it for 10 minutes or till smooth and elastic. Sprinkle in a bit of extra water or flour to adjust the consistency, if needed.
11. Continue with step 3 as above.

Now that you've got a great recipe for fresh egg pasta, let's look at some of the different shapes you can try your hand at making. Among the very numerous different types of pasta shapes, there are a few main categories. Types of shaped or short pasta include macaroni, fusilli, orecchiette, penne, rigatoni, rotini, and many more. This pasta is excellent for catching the sauce and each shape has a specific use or recipe.

While in Italy each pasta has a specific recipe and use and it is blasphemy to mix and match, a rule of thumb for us mere mortals is to serve short pasta with thick and chunky sauces that have lots of veggies or meat. Long pasta types include pastas such as bucatini, fettucine, pappardelle, spaghetti, linguine, tagliatelle, angel's hair and vermicelli. Thick long pasta like fettuccini works well with thick and chunky sauces, whereas thinner pasta is best with lighter sauces. Any long pasta goes well with a cream-based sauce. Sheet pasta comes in long, thin sheets and is perfect for lasagna and casseroles. Any sauce works with sheet pasta. The moisture from the cheese and sauce is usually enough to rehydrate the noodles without cooking them separately beforehand. Examples of filled pasta are ravioli, tortellini, manicotti, cannelloni, and jumbo shells. Filled pasta is perfect for any filling to your taste: cheese, vegetable, meat or other protein-based filling (think tofu or soy). Any sauce that complements your filling works with filled pasta, but drizzling with extra virgin olive oil or complementary flavoured olive oil is a delicious way to serve to focus on the rich filling and the art of handmade shapes.

Serves 4

Cook Time 5 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Salad leaves, 4oz/115g, a mix of lettuce (mix of colours), rocket, lambs lettuce etc.
• Radish, 2 - 3 thinly slice
• Fresh mint, 1 small bunch 
• Extra virgin olive oil, 4 tbsps
• Frozen peas, a large handful
• Pine nuts
• Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Wash and prepare the salad leaves.
2. Finely slice the mint leaves.
3. Blanch the peas.
4. Mix all but the olive oil together and season well.
5. Finally dress with Barone Pastore's fresh extra virgin olive oil.

Prep Time 20 Minutes 

Serves 4

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Spaghetti – 300g/10.5 oz
• Garlic – 2 cloves,
• roughly chopped Tomatoes – 4 big ones, peeled and deseeded 
• Salt – to taste 
• Olive oil – 8 tbsp 
• Basil – a big bunch 
• Almonds – 150g skinned/5.5 oz 
• Ricotta salata – 150g/5.5 oz 

Method

1. Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the packet.
2. Put all the other ingredients, apart from the ricotta, into a blender and mix to a rough paste.
3. Grate the ricotta and mix into the sauce.
4. Add the sauce to the cooked spaghetti and stir together well. You can also use this deliciously nutty pesto-ish sauce on bruschetta or on grilled fish.

Without our usual gang of helpers in the groves and gardens we have had to get super organized to try and keep on top of all the jobs. Toby our 26-year-old autistic son does not understand why his routine has changed so dramatically or indeed where everyone has gone. Occasionally I see him looking longingly at the car, but he has adapted really well so far and is more than pulling his weight with jobs about the home, garden and groves.

Last week the first early swallows arrived - we always get a few coming and checking things out before the entire mob return which should be within weeks. The arrival of the swifts and swallows for me is the real start of the spring for whilst we have all sorts of birds already sorting out nesting places and materials and the buzzards, occasional eagle and hawks are out hunting, it is the swallows and swifts that herald the start of the real spring weather. Very soon the Jackdaws will start nesting in the bell tower and that part of our village piazza will be covered in the sticks they collect and scatter messily around the place.

Fortunately, our organic fertilizer had arrived prior to lockdown (and Christopher and I had our annual conversation about my storing fertilizer in the garage, a space he seems to believe is only for cars!). This means the olive trees have had their spring feed and luckily there is enough left over to use on the new vegetable garden Toby and I are building.

The land we are building our garden and fruit orchards on was abandoned for literally generations before we moved here. The stony Mediterranean soil is so badly compacted it is impossible to turn over with a spade.

People in the village whose gardens have been worked for generations have amazingly fertile and stone free soil but with the greatest will in the world our soil will never become so enriched, well not in in my lifetime.

Only native Mediterranean plants can cope with the arid soil such as those we have in the aromatic garden by the house.

To save time and effort all of our vegetables and herbs are grown in raised beds where the garden soil has been mixed with lashings of our home-made compost to create a soil which is fertile and relatively stone free.

Having eaten our way through the spring greens, foraged for wild herbs and picked, eaten and frozen a wide variety of brassicas in the first weeks of lock down we are now picking our first broad beans although I discovered a few of the shells have already been emptied by nighttime guests.

The flowers are just starting to show on the olive trees and with some fine weather the valley will soon be covered in white fluffy olive blossom. The blossom stays for thereabouts two weeks when pollination takes place and as the flowers fall to the ground creating white carpets allover the valley’s lanes the tiny olives emerge.

For several weeks the almond and other nut trees and our cherries have started to blossom and the garden and groves are full of the spring flowers and fresh grass we leave to flower and self-seed to attract bees and other pollinators.

The pomegranate trees had a good pruning earlier in the year and new growth is emerging although I am not certain if they will fruit this year having been so drastically cut back.

We have lost four people in our little valley to Coronavirus already. We are not the most isolated community in Liguria but you can feel pretty much shut off from the outside world here in the Impero valley. Apart from just a few incomers like ourselves, our local community is made up of a few extended families; everyone seemingly cousins to everyone else.

So whilst there are times when not being able to pop out for a coffee or meet up with a friend is frustrating, I hope all the three of us need to do is sit tight quietly and try to make the most of being together as a family during this dreadful time. Certainly some members of the family are enjoying everyone being at home!

Prep Time 5 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 10 days

Difficulty Easy

In Italy, 100% pure alcohol is used as the main ingredient to make limoncello which can be bought from your typical Italian supermarket. Since most of the rest of the world can’t be trusted with such easy-to-access pure liquor (hic), here we have used vodka instead. It’s simple and the results are great.

This makes a great homemade gift and a great way to bring a slice of Italy home. Keep it in the freezer as the Italians do to serve ice cold!

Ingredients

• Lemons – 6 unwaxed
• Vodka, or white spirit – 500ml/17 fl oz
• Sugar – 200g/7 oz
• Water – 200ml/7 fl oz.

Method

1. Take six organic unwaxed lemons and wipe them with a wet cloth. Don't wash them as you will be washing away some of the citrus oil which you want to keep for the best lemon flavour in your limoncello.
2. Peel off the rind (or zest) with a potato peeler. Try to avoid the including pith (the white part) which is bitter. Put the lemon rind in the vodka and leave for ten days in a dark place. Your limoncello is in the process!
3. After ten days, melt the sugar in the water on a low heat, take it off the stove and then mix it with the alcohol and lemon. Wait for it to cool thoroughly, then filter the resulting liquid. You can use a coffee filter for this. Store in the freezer and drink ice-cold.

Prep Time 10

Serves 4

Cook Time 10

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Shallots – 80g/3oz
• Garlic – 1 clove
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Pancetta – 160g/5.6oz cubed
• Spaghetti – 350g/12oz
• Parsley – 20g/0.7oz roughly chopped
• Dried chilli flakes – 1 tbls
• Salt and pepper for seasoning

Method

1. Finely chop the shallots and garlic. Fry in a good drizzle of olive oil and after a minute add the pancetta. Once the pancetta starts to colour, add the chilli, season with salt and pepper and cook for a couple more minutes.
2. Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water. Once it’s ready, drain and add to the pancetta. Mix in the chopped parsley and serve with a generous grating of parmesan cheese.

Prep Time 20

Serves 2

Cook Time 20

Difficulty Easy

My friend Gianluca Giorgi is a bit of a guru. He’s the man Jamie Oliver turns to help his under-chefs get under the skin of Italy and Italian cooking. Gianluca regularly takes Olivettini on gastronomic tours of the hotspots of Le Marche, showing them the olive groves, and introducing them to the artisan pasta makers and chefs of the region. I asked Gianluca for his favourite recipe the other day.

Ingredients

• Onion – 1 from Tropea
• Pancetta – 70g/2.5oz diced
• Extra virgin olive oil - for frying
• Varnelli – 1 espresso cup
• Cherry tomatoes – 150g/5.3oz
• Spaghetti – 160g/5.6oz
• Freshly ground black pepper – to taste

Method

1. Chop the onion and pancetta into small cubes. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onion and pancetta. When the onion is golden, turn the heat up a bit and add the Varnelli, and enjoy the smell. (It’s a chef’s privilege to have a soupcon yourself, just not straight from the bottle). Once this has more or less evaporated add the chopped-up tomatoes. Cook this all together for a further 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in very salty boiling water.
3. Taste and season the sauce. Drain the pasta once it’s cooked but keep a cupful of pasta water aside. Add the pasta to the sauce. Mix together well and add some of the pasta water if it needs loosening up. Season with some freshly ground pepper and enjoy.

Prep Time 5 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 5 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Garlic cloves – 4 peeled
• Olive oil with chilli – 2 glugs
• Red chilli – 1
• Aubergine/eggplant – 1 large
• Ciabatta – ½ loaf
• Mozzarella di bufala – 125g/4.5oz
• Parsley – handful

Method

1. Squash three of the garlic cloves and mix with the olive oil and finely chopped chilli. Slice the eggplant into ¼-inch thick pieces and mix in with the oil. Cook the slices in a griddle pan for 5mins on each side until tender.
2. Cut the bread into 1-inch thick slices, brush each side with chilli olive oil and then grill until golden on each side. Rub the last piece of garlic onto the bread. Thinly assemble the ciabatta with a slice of aubergine, then a slice of mozzarella and top off with a sprig of parsley.

The suspects were importing olive pomace olive which is what remains of the pressed fruit pulp after milling. They were then extracting the remnants of olive oil from this using chemical solvents and bottling and labelling this as extra virgin olive oil to be sold through retail chains in New York, Boston and Chicago.

By the way, this is pomace...

Meanwhile it has been a busy start to the year in the Nudo Office with the rush to get our Olio Nuovo shipped to our olive tree parents across the globe.

Here in Liguria the harvest seemed to be quite a late one but luckily whilst the yields per tree were low the quality remained top notch. Rumour has it that yields were as much as 50% down this year in Italy…another reason to absolutely know what is in your bottle or tin as many less ethical producers may start to top these up with other oils like pomace oil, or even nut and seed oils.

It is always such a real thrill to meet customers when they come to visit their trees and the oil mill here in the Liguria. One of the questions I am always asked is why is Nudo extra virgin olive oil so good. I explain how it is to do with the freshness and quality of our olives - we never use olives that have been picked up from nets that have been lying around under trees for weeks, something that has unfortunately become custom here in Liguria. We also ensure to press it immediately after picking, whisking them off to the mill straight away. This is how you must make real extra virgin olive oil, but again unfortunately many are trying to cut corners and hope people don't find out. But the proof is in the punch.

I decided this year to take a few pictures to try and demonstrate the difference in olives, as of course you can't tell when it is in the bottle (before you taste it that is). These are Bestagno olives picked by hand from the trees. See how fat and firm they are and with a nice fresh glow about them.

And this is a sneaky picture I took of, well shall we just say NOT Nudo olives. A few are nice and juicy and have just been picked but you can see the ones that have been lying for weeks in nets under a tree. Here every fruit, even those which were rotting away on the ground in nets for weeks, were milled to get their oil.

I know which olives I would want to consumer the oil from...what about you?

Prep Time 5 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 5 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Just to fill you in, there are two types of mozzarella – those made from cows' milk, called fior di latte, or those from buffalos' milk, called mozzarella di bufala. The first I’d use for pizza and lasagne, the latter, higher quality stuff, I’d use for eating raw - and it's perfect with Nadia's tomatoes. If it’s a good cheese it should leak milky water everywhere and be soft and creamy inside.

Ingredients

• Mozzarella di Bufala - 200g
• Sundried tomatoes - 50g
• Basil leaves – several
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – a good glug
• Basil olive oil - to drizzle
• Salt

Method

1. Cut the cheese into thick wedges.
2. Intersperse the slices with the sun-dried tomatoes and basil leaves.
3. Drizzle some good extra virgin olive oil over the top and a sprinkling of salt.
4. If you are a basil lover, or don't have any fresh basil at hand, drizzle with our Basil olive oil
5. Serve immediately.

Prep Time 1 Hour

Serves 4

Cook Time 1 Hour

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Lemon - 1
• Extra virgin olive oil with lemon – 1/3 cup
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• Chopped fresh mint, plus sprigs for garnish – ¼ cup
• Large garlic cloves – 2 chopped
• Thin swordfish steaks – 4 each about 6 oz/170g

Method

1. Grate the zest from the lemon, then halve the lemon and squeeze out the juice. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
2. Stir in the chopped mint and garlic.
3. Rinse the fish and pat dry. Place in a shallow bowl and pour the lemon mixture evenly over the top.
4. Turn to coat well. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.  
5. Preheat a stovetop griddle or griddle pan. Remove the fish from the marinade and place on the griddle.
6. Cook, turning once, until the fish is just opaque throughout, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
7. Transfer the fish to warmed individual plates and garnish with mint sprigs and lemon slices and lemon olive oil. Serve immediately.

These taste variations can be subtle, extreme or anywhere in between and your preference is just that: it is yours. Some love a robust oil with the strong spicy kick in your throat, while others prefer a more delicate oil with softer flavour notes coming through.

To help you choose the olive grove that is best for you and your taste buds, here is a guide for the oils from the Nudo olive tree adoption groves.

Liguria: delicate & velvety

Home to Bestagno, Nudo's own grove, Liguria produces oil with a delicate properties perfect for those who prefer a subtle and fragrant taste. 

Bestagno grove

The Taggiasca olive is the pride of Liguria with 99% of region's oil made from this cultivar. Taggiasca is a herby floral oil which is splendidly aromatic whilst retaining the peppery kick of the antioxidant polyphenols. The smooth and velvety oil is very versatile: use for finishing to enjoy its subtle and sweet flavour, or enjoy in your cooking without overpowering your meals.

Marche: fresh & grassy

Located in Central Italy, Marche sits between the mountains and the coast providing constant temperature moderation for the region. This oil is perfect for those who love the grassy flavour of fresh olives and the kick that polyphenols provide. 

Aleandri

Set in amongst ancient vineyards, Aleandri is an olive grove of four different cultivars producing a blended oil with a strong grassy scent and incredibly fresh olive flavours. Fruity and herbaceous with hints of almond, artichoke and ripe tomato and a pleasant balance of spicy and bitter notes.

Sicily: robust & spicy

For those who prefer a more robust taste, Sicilian oils have a stronger kick to them due to the characteristic cultivars and more extreme climate.

Barone Pastore

In south-western Sicily on the Trapanese coast, Barone Pastore is a grove of Cerasuola olive trees, the characteristic cultivar of the area producing a characteristically robust oil. In the words of Saverio, this oil tastes as if "you had just squeezed the freshly picked olives with your own hands". Try it on a warm baked soft roll with anchovies, tomato slices, and oregano, the strong flavours complementing the strong oil.

Feudo Marchesa

On the south eastern side of the island, Feudo Marchesa groves grows a mix of native Sicilian cultivars to produce a perfectly blended oil picking up the strength of Sicilian oils flavours with a softer finish. Find light olive aromas and a light fruity taste, then more complex scents and flavours such as artichoke and almond emerge, finished with the lovely spicy and bitter notes of the antioxidant polyphenols in the oil.

Nonno Tato

A blend of cultivars Carolea, Biancolilla and Nocellara, characteristic of eastern Sicily where the grove lies. Nonno Tato oil has a soft, sweet and clean palate with bright fruity notes of green tomato and fresh herbaceous scent. Take close note to pick up the subtle flavours of the nearby citrus and almond groves.

Il Fico

Named from the tiny village of Fico nearby, Il Fico olive grove produces a medium flavour oil with fruity notes, a grassy scent and a well-balanced spicy and bitter finish. Nicola recommends enjoying the full robust flavour of the oil by drizzling onto crunchy lettuce with a squeeze of lemon and some cracked salt.

Like all the best Italian secrets, it is simplicity itself.

Prep Time 30 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil, 6 tsp
• Onions, 2 medium
• Italian plum tomatoes, 800g/ 28 oz tinned
• Dried oregano, 1 tsp at least
• Fresh basil, a couple of sprigs
• Garlic, 3 large cloves
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Milk or sugar, to taste

Method

1. Pour a generous amount of olive oil into a non-stick pan and heat it up. Finely chop the onions and add them, with a generous pinch of salt and grind of pepper. Stir. When the onions begin to colour, add half a glass of water and cover. Let them cook for a few minutes at very low heat so they become nice and soft and will melt into the sauce later on.
2. Add the plum tomatoes and using a wooden spoon mash them to a pulp (or use a tin of chopped tomatoes, but I rather enjoy the tomato squashing). Once all mushed up, squeeze in the garlic, add the dried oregano and a few leaves of fresh basil. Check again for seasoning and either add a splash of milk or a good pinch of sugar to take off the tang.
3. Let this cook, uncovered, on very low heat for at least 30 minutes. The sauce will thicken up, so stir occasionally, and add more water if it gets too thick. Again check for seasoning and if the sauce is slightly acidic add a touch more sugar or milk.

We are proud to have supported our groves through a particularly challenging year when it has mattered more than ever. We want to thank all our olive tree parents for their support of the Nudo olive tree adoption program and of the small-scale olive groves in Italy.

Prep Time 1 hour

Serves 8

Cook Time 1 hour

Difficulty Easy

Torta al Testo literally means "cake of the tile". In ancient Roman times the "testo" was a stone disk placed on the embers of the fire on which the dough was cooked on.

Classically, it was filled with sausage meat or wild herbs, but here we have a more modern incarnation featuring cheese and prosciutto. These are often eaten as a meal in themselves, but you can also have them as a delicious starter or simply a snack.

Ingredients

• Flour – 500g/18oz
• Instant dry yeast – 1 packet (9g/0.3oz)
• Salt – 1 level tsp
• Warm water – 350ml/12 fl oz
• Extra virgin olive oil – 1 tbsp
• Prosciutto from Norcia – several slices
• Stracchino cheese – 50g/2oz
• Arugula/rocket – a bunch

Method

1. Mix the flour, yeast, salt, water and olive oil together in a bowl until a ball of dough is formed. If it’s too sticky add a little bit more flour.
2. Knead the dough with your hands for 10 minutes until it becomes a smooth ball. Put the dough into a large clean bowl and cover it with a tea towel. Let it rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until it’s doubled in size – around 1 hour.
3. Roll the dough into a disc, about 1cm thick. Place directly onto preheated testo or griddle pan, without any oil. If you’re worried about it sticking you can use some parchment/baking paper cut to the size of the pan.
4. Prick the disc with a fork and cook it over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes on one side. Carefully flip it over and continue to cook the other side. It should take about 10 minutes to cook, depending on the thickness of your disc.
5. Take the torta off the heat, cut it in half horizontally and put in as much or whatever filling as you like. Do as the Umbrians do and fill with sausage meat or wild herbs, or as we have here with a modern twist with stracchino, ham, and rocket.  
6. Cut it up into slices and serve while it still hot.

Tiziano at Aleandri olive grove is a professional extra virgin olive oil taster. Hear him talk on the different properties of extra virgin olive oil and then try your hand at tasting your extra virgin olive oil with his professional technique here.

Prep Time 3 hours

Serves 6

Cook Time 3 hours

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Mascarpone – 200g/7oz
• Sugar – 150g/5.3oz
• Eggs – 2 (separate yolks from whites)
• Savoiardi biscuits – 25-30
• Cocoa powder – 2 tbsp
• Instant coffee – 2 tbsp, or 200ml brewed coffee
• Ameretto - (optional)

Method

1. Dissolve the coffee in 200ml of lukewarm water. Add the Ameretto to your taste.
2. In a separate bowl mix mascarpone and sugar until smooth, then add one yolk at a time while working out with some forceful mixing.
3. In another bowl whip the egg whites until stiff (make sure that the bowl and whisk are completely clean and dry). Carefully fold the whites into the cream.
4. Crumble the biscuits into the coffee.
5. In a fairly deep dish, 20cm in diameter, make a layer of the coffee saturated biscuits, than add a layer of the cream. Sprinkle a dusting of cocoa powder over the top and then pop it in the fridge for at least 3 hours before serving.

If you haven’t tried olive oil in ice cream before it gives a deep flavour and a smooth texture. So try it now!

Prep Time 0

Serves 1 

Cook Time 0

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Milk – 1 ½ cups/350ml
• Heavy Cream/whipping cream – ½ cup/120ml
• Sugar – 1/2 cup/115g
• Salt – a pinch
• Egg yolks – 3 large
• Extra virgin olive oil with coffee – 50ml/1.7 fl oz
• vanilla – ¼ tsp or less

Method

1. Bring the milk and cream to boil in a medium-sized saucepan, then immediately remove from the heat and set aside. With an electric or stand mixer beat the egg yolks and sugar and salt, on high, until the mix triples in volume.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally to ensure thorough mixing.  Reduce the speed to low and slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Slowly add all the hot milk mixture to the eggy sugar, then pour the whole concoction back into the saucepan. Whisk constantly over a medium-low heat until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.  Be careful not to overheat it or the eggs will curdle. This can take about 8 minutes. Place a fine mesh sieve (or a piece of muslin) over a large bowl and strain the gelato mixture through it.  Mix in the vanilla and chill it for 4 hours or even overnight. Then add the mixture to an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions for freezing. Stop the churning as soon as the gelato is just frozen.

Prep Time 30

Serves 4

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy\

Ingredients

• Potatoes – 600g/21oz
• Wheat flour – 180g/6.3oz
• Eggs - 2
• Parmesan – 1 spoon
• Spinach – 1 large tablespoon of spinach puree
• Tomato puree – 1 spoon
• Mixed mushrooms – 300g/10.6oz cleaned and sliced - Ingredients for the mushroom sauce
• Garlic – 1 clove, finely chopped
• Onion – half, finely chopped
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Single cream – 80ml/2.7oz
• Orange – for the zest
• Parsley
• Olive oil with chillies

Method

1. Boil the potatoes whole in salted water with their skins on. It’s important to leave the skins on so they don’t absorb too much water. When they have cooled slightly, peel the skins off. Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer then mix in all the ingredients. To make the three colours, divide three ways: add the spinach to one third to make green, add tomato to another third to make red and leave the final third as is. Take a palm sized lump of mixture at a time and roll it into long sausages about 1cm thick. Cut into inch-long pieces to make the gnocchi, adding a little flour to prevent them from sticking. Cook the gnocchi in salted boiling water for a few minutes – the gnocchi should all rise to the surface, drain and cool them in cold water. Drain well and add some olive oil or vegetable oil to prevent them from sticking. You can keep the gnocchi like this in the fridge for up 4 days. Brown the onion and garlic in olive oil over a low heat, add chopped mushrooms and cook them very quickly with salt and pepper. If you wish, add a little (80ml/2.7fl oz) of fresh cooking/single cream and orange zest. Cut the zest into tiny julienne-style pieces and put into boiling water for one minute (to take the bitterness off). Cook the gnocchi in boiling water for one minute, remove with a strainer and season with the mushroom sauce. Once served, drizzle with Nudo olive oil with Sicilian chillies.

Serves 2

Cook Time 65 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Plain flour – 500g/1lb/3 1/3 cups
• Lukewarm water – 300ml/10floz/1 ¼ cups
• Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tbsp
• Dried yeast – 1 packet
• Salt – pinch
• Pesto – 2 tsp (see our pesto recipe here)
• Sundried tomatoes in oil – 8, finely chopped
• Garlic – 2 cloves crushed
• Egg – 1 beaten, for brushing

Method

1. Put the first five ingredients in a bowl, mix, turn out onto the kitchen surface and knead for 10 minutes. Leave in a warm spot (an airing cupboard is ideal), covered with a tea towel for 1 hour. Divide into three equal parts and knead pesto into one, the finely chopped sundried tomatoes into the second and garlic into the last.
2. Roll each part into a long sausage, then braid them together. Pinch the ends and brush the braid with a little beaten egg. Place the braid on a baking tray and allow to rise for 30 minutes.  
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/GM4. Bake the braid for around 35 minutes. It is done when, like a baby which needs feeding, it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom Tear apart, give your sister a punch while your Mum’s not looking and dip in some more extra virgin oil.

Serves 4

Cook Time 15

Difficulty Easy

Our friends from Rome, the Mancinis, came to stay with us on the farm for Easter. Guido Mancini is a great cook and we often swap recipes, chat about new things we’ve cooked and I make him taste things like Marmite (which he tried with a pancake of all things) and strange liquors made with juju berries.

When I was showing him and his daughter Maria around the grove, Guido got very excited by all the wild chicory growing there. I’d never really noticed it before, and I can’t say I was convinced that it would be edible, let alone tasty. Anyway, playing the accommodating host I helped him and Maria collect a decent bucketful of the stuff and we carted it back to the house with a rumbling tummy ready for lunch.

Proving what an accomplished cook he is, Guido made one of the most delicious pasta dishes I’ve ever eaten.  His trick was to half cook the pasta in water and then finish it off by mixing in the chicory, chilli and anchovies so that it soaks up the flavour and gives a nice starchy gooey consistency to the sauce.

Ingredients

• Spaghetti – 400g/14oz (or any pasta you fancy)
• Wild chicory – 500g/18oz (plain chicory is available in most supermarkets)
• Dried Chilli – 1, chopped
• Anchovies in olive oil – 3 fillets (optional)
• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 5 tablespoons
• Parmesan – 75g/2.6oz grated
• Black olives (optional)

Method

1. Wash the chicory well, cut it up roughly and put it to boil in plenty of salted water. Boil for 15 minutes or until the thicker bits are soft. Drain.  Boil a pan of water for the spaghetti. Heat the oil on a low flame in a big pan or wok and add the garlic roughly cut into quarters, the anchovies and the chilli pepper. After a few minutes add the chicory and cook slowly for another 10 minutes. Add the spaghetti to the water and cook for about 5 minutes until ‘half’ cooked. Then spoon out the semi-cooked spaghetti into the chicory mixture (keeping the spaghetti water) and mix well.
2. Add the spaghetti water to the pasta/chicory one ladle-full at a time (like cooking risotto) and keep on stirring. When the spaghetti is nearly cooked add the grated parmesan, leaving a bit to sprinkle at the end, and mix well. This method gives you quite a creamy sauce, so that’s what you should be aiming for. Check for salt and serve. If you use short pasta instead of spaghetti it’s a bit easier because as Guido says ‘non si fa casino’, ‘you don’t make such a mess’.

Prep Time 0

Serves 6

Cook Time 0

Difficulty Easy

Today a mind-boggling array of sauces go by the ‘pesto’ name. Amongst them are combinations of ingredients which any self-respecting Italian would, quite frankly, disdain. All pounded together in a mortar and the pestle which gives the sauce its name. Basil is at its best and most flavoursome when it is raw. So pesto should be served raw, ideally served at room temperature and never cooked.

Ingredients

• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Basil leaves – 100g/3 ½ oz
• Extra virgin olive oil – 8 tblsp
• Pine nuts – 3 tblsp/100g lightly toasted
• Salt
• Parmesan – 50g/2oz grated
• Butter – 45g/1 ½ oz at room temperature
• Why not try some of these variations on the recipe? -
  • Pesto with a punch – give it a kick with extra virgin olive oil with Sicilian chillies.
  • Toasted walnut pesto – replace the pine nuts with double the weight of toasted walnuts, and add parsley and ricotta.
  • Parsley and lemon pesto – replace the basil with parsley, add a squeeze of lemon juice and use extra virgin olive oil with real lemons.
  • Rocket pesto – replace or supplement the basil with some rocket and blanched almonds and ditch the garlic
  • Red pesto – add sundried tomatoes for a touch of summer sun.
• Which pasta should I use? -
  • Spaghetti – mix in some pesto, fresh basil leaves and extra pine nuts
  • Gnocchi – can you get a better match?
  • Fettuccine – or what the locals call trenette
  • Tonnarelli – this square spaghetti is rounded off with pesto
  • Lasagne – homemade pasta sheets layered with pesto and ricotta
  • Risotto bianco – with a big dollop of freshly made pesto
  • Minestrone with pesto – a local classic
  • Silk handkerchief pasta with pesto – thin and silky sheets of paster slathered in pesto
  • Beans with potato and pesto – indulge in homemade pesto with no pasta.
  • Portobello mushrooms baked with pesto

Method

1. Roughly chop the garlic and put it in a food processor – or a large mortar – with the basil, olive oil, and a big pinch of salt.
2. Blend it to a smooth paste and then add the pine nuts and blend to rough paste. The pine nuts should be broken up rather than turned to a mush.
3. Transfer it to a bowl and mix in the grated cheese, then the butter by hand. When you mix the pesto with the pasta you can loosen it with a tablespoon of the pasta water.

Prep Time 25 Minutes

Serves 2

Cook Time 25 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Potatoes, 600g/21oz
• Wheat flour, 180g/6.3oz
• Eggs, 2

If you like a recipe that you can follow precisely, right down to the number of grains of salt, you might struggle with gnocchi. Different varieties of potato (even different potatoes in the same box) will absorb different amounts of water and change the amount of flour you need, so it’s impossible to be precise. Naturally, most Italians would have learnt this visceral skill through years of languorous Sunday mornings with Nonna. For the rest of us humble mortals, here are our top tips for knocking up great gnocchi:

• Use potatoes which are neither too waxy (won’t mash) nor too starchy (will turn to mush).
• Don’t peel the potatoes before cooking them: peel them by hand once they’re done.
• Use the least amount of flour possible: you shouldn’t taste flour in the finished thing.
• Don’t overcook the gnocchi: as soon as it floats, it’s done.
• Give the gnocchi some grooves: to keep their shape and hold more sauce.

Method

1. Boil the potatoes whole in salted water with their skins on for 20 minutes or until tender. It’s important to leave the skins on so they don’t absorb too much water. Peel the skins off as soon as you can handle them and pass them through a potato ricer.
2. Mix the flour, mash and eggs in with your fingers and then knead it in, to make an even dough
3. Cut the dough in half and roll each piece into a long sausage shape about 2cm 3/4 inch in diameter
4. Cut the lengths of dough cross wise into small pieces. Mark the pieces with the back of a fork, a cheese grater or a specially made wooden paddle.
5. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and drop in the gnocchi. The bob to the top when they are cooked, after about 2 or 3 minutes.Scoop out the gnocchi and toss in your favourite sauce or favourite olive oil.

Prep Time 30 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

It is said that this goes back to the time when the church was a big landowner in Le Marche. The farmers’ wives would make this pasta to grease the palms, or rather fill the bellies, of the local clergymen. But the farmers would go wild with jealousy (eating your wife’s pasta is tantamount to bedding her we told) and so wish for the pasta to choke the gluttonous priests to death. Anyway, we’ve had fun making our own strozzapreti at home. It’s just a shame we have no priest friends to invite round for dinner.

Ingredients

• Plain flour – 300g/10.6oz
• Eggs – 4
• Lemon olive oil – 1.5 tablespoons
• Salt and pepper (optional)
• Butter – 40g/1.4oz

Method

1. Make the pasta according to the instructions for ravioli. Lay the thin dough on a floury board and cut into long strips about 3cm wide. Take two wooden barbecue skewers and roll a length of dough around first one skewer then the next.
2. How to make Strozzapreti pasta 9 (link deactivated)

Prep Time 20 Minutes

Serves 6

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Flour - 300g/10.6oz
• Honey - 200g/7oz
• Eggs - 4
• Almonds - 130g4/6oz toasted and skinned
• Dry yeast – 1 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC/350oF/GM4.
2. Combine all the ingredients and mix well into a gooey dough.
3. Roll a flat cylinder about 4cm/1¼ inches wide.
4. Place on some greaseproof paper on a baking try and cook in the oven for 20 minutes, until golden.
5. Cut into biscuits 1cm/½ inch thick and put them back in the oven on the baking tray.
6. Serve cold with a cup of Darjeeling tea every afternoon for the next week.
7. Makes 30-40 biscuits.

Serves 2

Cook Time 0

Difficulty Easy

Bruscetta is a classic antipasto of Italy which is simply grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with salt and extra virgin olive oil. While many think the classic is topped with tomatoes or salad, it is actually referring to the this simple bread - the word bruscetta comes from the Italian word “bruscare” meaning “to roast over coals”. However, that's not to say it can't be enjoyed with other flavours, it is a wonderful base to make and top with other bits. 

Ingredients

• Ciabatta (See our recipe here)
• Garlic clove
• Sea salt or salt flakes
• Extra-virgin olive oil

Method

1. Slice the ciabatta into ½ inch slice and then grill over a stove-top gas flame, BBQ, or simply in the toaster. Remember colour is flavour, so a bit of char is good. 
   
   
   
   
2. Cut the end of a garlic cloves and rub across the ciabatta.
   
   
   
   
3. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt flakes.
   
   
   
   
4. And generously drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
   
   
   
   
   

"The skill in perfecting a flavoured oil is finding the right subtlety between the ingredient and olive flavours to produce a balanced taste each time."

Our gran misto of seven flavours have been created with Corrado over the years through flavour experiments and trial and error to perfect the method. But these flavours have stuck and for good reason -  they have even won awards for their great flavour and their eye-catching packaging.

The skill in perfecting a flavoured oil is finding the right subtlety between the ingredient and olive flavours to produce a balanced taste each time. As different flavour ingredients behave differently, we use two different methods: infused and fused (which we refer to as our agrumato method).

Fused & infused flavoured oils:

• Infused flavoured olive oil is when the dried ingredient is left in the extra virgin olive oil over a period of time. The flavour is created through the infusion of the ingredient's taste into the fresh olive oil.
• Fused flavoured olive oil is when we grind the whole, fresh raw ingredients directly with the olives in the oil press. The essential oils of the ingredients are released together with the olives' oil, fusing them together at a deep level. We refer to this method as ‘agrumato’.

Agrumato method of fused olive oils

Agrumato is the term for the method of making a citrus flavoured olive oil which originated in Abruzzo, where the whole citrus fruit is crushed directly with the olives in the press to make the flavoured olive oil.

In Italian agrumato means ‘citrusy’

Agrumato lemon and mandarin oils were the first flavours we started to make using this method. With citrus fruit much of the flavour comes from the skin which holds the citrus oil and thus the flavour. This is why with the agrumato method using and the whole ingredient the flavour is so powerful.

With Corrado we expanded on this idea and experimented with other flavours to see what else would work crushing the whole ingredients such as fresh herbs and garlic. While agrumato directly refers to citrus in the meaning of the word, we call our fused oils agrumato style as it refers to the origin of this method of grinding up the ingredients with the olives.

You can find all our agrumato fused flavoured oils here

Infusing flavour into olive oil

Chilli and thyme oils are our two infused oils in the gran misto. Why are these infused instead of agrumato method? Very good question.

Corrado found that when using the agrumato method that grinding up the fresh chillies created more of a capsicum or pepper flavour rather than chilli. Agrumato is about the fresh ingredients, so Corrado moved on to testing infusion with different timings and chillies. By sourcing good quality dried chillies, Corrado was then able to adjust the technique, timings, and quantities and find the right balance in the chilli oil between taste and spiciness.

While crushing fresh rosemary worked well, crushing fresh thyme did not. Perhaps the clue was in the name - when it was ground fresh with the olives the flavour lost its clarity however infusing the dried herb over time created the best result.

You can find all our infused flavoured oils here

But even with a perfected method, you must ensure one thing above all to make a good flavoured oil...

Real, Raw, Quality ingredients

All Nudo flavoured olive oils are made with freshly harvested olives and high quality raw, real flavour ingredients. No cutting corners by adding flavours afterwards and certainly no artificial additives. This is why they have a pure and authentic flavour, as if they are fresh from the garden.

The flavours

Many flavoured olive oils on the market are made by adding flavour additives to the olive oil rather than using the real ingredient. This creates a flavoured oil with at best a simpler taste and at worst an artificial taste. For all Nudo flavoured olives oils we use real, raw Italian ingredients. The flavour is pure and real and is combined with the olives and olive oil directly from the source.

This means that the ingredient's quality is paramount. The flavour comes from the components of the whole ingredient being suspended in the olive oil. If the ingredient is compromised through damage, pests, or additive this is going to impact the oils flavour. Likewise, it goes without saying that the higher quality your flavour ingredients the better your oil will be - flavourless lemons will produce flavourless lemon oil.

The olives

Flavoured olive oils cannot be classified as extra virgin as they have the other ingredients in them, however with Nudo flavoured olives oils the quality is still the same. The olives we use are extra virgin quality, pressed the same day they are harvested from the local Le Marche groves. This is crucial to the quality of the flavoured oil; while the flavour ingredient may be the star of the show, the olive flavour is supporting every step of the way and in flavoured oils subpar olives or olive oil would be make or break in the overall flavour.

You can find all our infused and fused agrumato flavoured oils here, as single tins or packed into gift sets. If you are an adoptive parent of an olive tree, you even get 20% off automatically!

Serves 2

Cook Time 25 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Panettone – 750g/26oz
• Butter – 75g/2.6oz
• Milk – 400ml/13.5fl oz
• Cream – 150ml/5fl oz single or double
• Eggs – 2 free range
• Sugar – 125g/1oz
• Ground cinnamon – sprinkling
• Ground nutmeg – sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/GM4.
2. Cut your panettone into slices about 1.5cm/½ inch  thick. Butter one side of each slice and then cut it into triangles.
3. Lay the pieces on an oven proof baking dish. Continue until you fill the dish, nice and cosy.
4. Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and gently whisk them with the sugar. Heat the milk and cream in a saucepan (you can add vanilla too if you like) until it just below boiling. Slowly pour the milk/cream mixture into the mixing bowl with the eggs, stirring continuously.
5. Pour the mixture evenly over the panettone soaking each bready peak, and then put it in the oven for about 25 mins, or until the exposed panettone starts to brown. Eat straight away with cold single cream. (You can also cool it, take to a friend’s house, receive adulation, reheat and eat there).

Serves 4

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Pandoro one which is 1.65lbs/750g 
• Mascarpone cheese – 9oz/250g
• Whipping cream – 4.5oz/125g 
• Egg yolk – 2 
• White sugar – 4.5oz/125g

Method

1. Whip the cream into stiff peaks using an electric whisk (the colder the cream is at the start the easiest).
2. Then beat the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until they are pale and smooth.
3. Next add the mascarpone and then gently fold in the cream.
4. Cut the pandoro horizontally into thick, even slices (with our pandoro it will probably be 5 or 6 max).
5. Starting with the lowest slice first spread each one with the mascarpone cream and place each slice on slightly rotated so the points of the star don’t align.
6. Finally dust the cake with the pack of icing sugar that comes with it.

It is strangely quiet in our valley and with no-one able to come to work we have had to think about how we are going to live for the next few weeks or even months.

My husband Christopher and son Toby both have underlying health problems that would put them in the vulnerable category if they contracted the coronavirus, so we have implemented a complete lock down in the house and groves. This means for the next few weeks, or for as long as it takes, the three of us will be living in isolation.

For me the most important thing is to remain positive, productive and to have a plan! We have decided everyday we must exercise, eat well, do all we can to keep healthy and to use the time to get as many jobs done in the garden and groves as we can do together without help from the outside. Luckily, we were well stocked up and with our own fresh vegetables, fruit and eggs I think we will be in good shape.

Of course, in such circumstances, food becomes all important and keeping your immune system in peak condition is key. With our citrus trees groaning under the most spectacular crop we have ever had we have a vitamin C boost to hand with the lemons, oranges and tangerines. Our first vitamin boost is fresh lemonade with honey.

The wonderful wild spinach in the groves and early spring greens growing in the veggie garden are also great sources of vitamins. For the next few weeks Toby and I will be picking, preserving and cooking with this wonderful bounty. Tonight we are making spring greens with olive oil.

We are in touch with all of our groves and everyone is fit and healthy. We hope all of our adoptive parents and families and our Nudo customers stay safe and healthy and we will keep you updated with news from the groves.

Katharine Doré, Bestagno Grove

Serves 4

Cook Time 10 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Mint – 4 sprigs
• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Capers – 100g/4oz
• Pistachio – 50g/2oz
• Lamb chops – 2 per person
• Lemon – one unwaxed
• Extra virgin olive oil – 6 tbsp
• Olive oil for frying

Method

1. Roughly chop the mint leaves, garlic, capers and pistachio nuts and put them into a bowl.
2. Grate in the peel of one lemon and mix well in the olive oil.
3. Put your chops in there to marinate for an hour or two.
4. Heat the frying pan with a little oil and add the well coated chops.
5. Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes depending on the thickness of the cut.
6. Serve immediately with a crunchy green salad and new potatoes.

Serves 2

Cook Time 10 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Portobello mushrooms – 200g/7 oz
• Basil olive oil – a couple of tablespoons
• Salt and pepper - to taste
• Floury white bun/bread roll – one per person
• Sundried tomatoes – 3
• Mozzarella – 140g/5 oz of the fresh gooey stuff
• Basil – 12 leaves

Method

1. Brush the caps of the mushrooms with the basil olive oil. You either want one large mushroom per bun/bread roll or a couple of smaller ones.
2. Grill with the cap up for 5 minutes. Then turn over, brush the gills with more oil, season with salt and pepper and grill until cooked through.
3. Cut the bun in half and put both halves on the grill, cut side up.
4. Lay the sliced mozzarella on one of the halves while its still grilling.
5. Chop up the sundried tomatoes, and when the cheese is melted pop in the mushroom, sprinkle over the tomatoes and basil leaves and enjoy.

About Basilicata

Basilicata is the region of Southern Italy sitting between Puglia in the east and Campania in the west, then meeting the Ionian Sea’s crystal-clear waters in the south where the small sandy beaches dramatically alternate with steep promontories.

Inland the region’s mountainous landscape is covered in thick forests and small villages at high altitudes overlooking over the land. This is likely why Basilicata’s ancient name, often still used by those who live there, was Lucania derived from the Latin “lucus” meaning “sacred wood”.

In 2019 the ancient city of Matera became the European Capital of Culture. This prestigious award created renewed international interest in the region of Basilicata and the city of Matera which is thought to be the third oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Matera has been a UNESCO site since 1993 and is an extraordinary place to visit.

Traditional Regional Oil

Basilicata is a very traditional region where olive producers often still use the old style stone wheels to mill their oil. Unlike its neighbouring regions, Basilicata’s extra virgin olive oil is still relatively unknown with most of it only used locally. But it is excellent.

The olives for this oil are from groves around Montescaglioso, a small town just adjacent to Matera. It is a blend of local olive varieties Ogliarola, Frantoiana and Majatica, which is the unique haracteristic cultivar of Basilicata.

The taste is medium fruity and is more peppery than bitter. Its aromas are reminiscent of fresh cut grass on the Matera hills with a unique and intense herbaceous aroma.

Tasting Your Basilicata Oil

Agnello al Forno

Traditions are kept passionately alive in Basilicata and as region has always been a land of sheep, naturally a local culinary tradition is lamb. Try this delicious recipe for roast lamb with oregano and pecorino.

About Coratina

The Coratina olive tree is a robust variety adaptable to different growing environments and conditions. It is happy in a variety of soils and climates as well as having good resistance to the cold, droughts and even pests. This hearty nature on top of the high-quality oil that the olives produce is probably why it is a proud favourite in its home region.

The name Coratina is coined from Corato, the variety’s town of origin situated near Bari in the southern region of Puglia and where we sourced these olives. The Coratina olive is the prevalent cultivar in the Protected Designation of Origin “Terra di Bari” and the prized extra virgin olive oil has come to be known as l’Oro di Corato, “the gold of Corato”. We hope you agree.

Quality & Quantity

Coratina is an olive variety with one of the highest levels of polyphenols, the antioxidants in extra virgin olive oil which makes it so good for you. The olives are large with a small pit so the Coratina trees tend to also have a high yield of oil each harvest. When the fruit hangs heavily from the branches and the tips start to turn black, the farmers know it is now time to start picking the olives for the perfect balance of quantity and quality of oil from the press.

It is these polyphenols which give Coratina extra virgin olive oil its renowned bitter and spicy notes, the indicative flavours of the antioxidants. The tastes are complimented by fruity notes and the fresh olive scents of freshly cut grass and bitter almonds.

Tasting Coratina

Being extracted from a single olive variety, monovarietal oils have the well defined flavour of the cultivar, so they are a great way to expand your tasting knowledge of extra virgin olive oil. The intense and vigorous character of Coratina extra virgin olive oil makes it a perfect match for equally strong dishes such as bruschetta, hearty soups and red meat.

Drizzle generously on top to compliment the robust flavours and see if you can pick out the tasting notes.

Buon Appetito! 

Serves 2

Cook Time 4 days

Difficulty Easy

I have experimented adding bay leaves, coriander and black peppercorns. There are many ways to preserve a lemon, some people do them whole, some cut them in to pieces, so experiment till you find your favourite method. Our Moroccan builder Fayaaz told me that the traditional way was to cut the lemons in quarters leaving them attached at the top where they have been picked from the tree. He also advised sterilizing a heavy stone as a weight to press them down for the first four days and to add a layer of olive oil as a seal before the jar is closed.

Ingredients

• Lemons
• Sea Salt
• Herbs & spices to taste

Method

1. Give the lemons a good wash and pat dry and then cut into quarters leaving them attached at the top so that they open up like a flower.  Stuff each lemon with plenty of sea salt (one tablespoon of salt per lemon as a rough guide).

Serves 4

Cook Time 45 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 1 whole 4-5 pound chicken
• 1/4 cup of Nudo mandarin olive oil, divided
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 2 Tbls brown sugar
• 1 small onion sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 Tbls fresh rosemary, minced
• 1 small orange, sliced
• Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Prepare the chicken 6 hours before cooking to increase the flavours of the glaze.
2. Spatchcock the chicken by using kitchen shears to cut along both sides of backbone. Make a small slit in the breastbone and flip over the chicken so the skin side is up and gently push down on the breasts until the bird flattens. Drizzle both sides of the bird with Nudo mandarin olive oil then sprinkle both sides generously with salt and sit in the fridge for 6 hours.

3. Remove the chicken 30 minutes prior to cooking to allow chicken to come to room temperature. Preheat The oven to 200°C/400°F. Pat the chicken dry, drizzle again with oil. Lay the chicken skin side up on top of the onions, sliced oranges, and garlic on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Cook for 30 minutes. 

   

Serves 4

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Nudo olive oil panettone - 1 quarter
• Mandarin (or orange) - 1 small, juiced
• Marsala liqueur - 2 tsp to sprinkle (optional)
• For the ganache
• Nudo olive oil with mandarins - 3 tsp
• Organic white chocolate - 100g/3.5 oz bar
• Double cream - 2 tbsp

Method

1. Start by peeling off the soft panettone crust. Using a sharp bread knife, cut the remaining cake in thin slices and then small cubes, placing the pieces into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl mix the Marsala liqueur with the orange juice (optional).  Drizzle the mandarin juice mixture over the cake pieces, mixing it with a fork or your hands as you pour to spread the moisture. The cake should be moist, but not wet.
2. In a bain marie or small glass bowl over a pot of hot water, melt the chocolate. Once melted, add the olive oil and stir until mixed through. Now add the cream and mix through. Take off the heat. Make 1.5 inch balls with the moist cake pieces, pressing and rolling it together in your hands. Dip and roll the balls in the chocolate ganache so that all sides are covered. Place on a baking sheet to cool and set. Chill in the fridge before serving.

Serves 2

Cook Time 20 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• A pizza base (You can either buy a ready made base or use our recipe here)
• Tomato Sauce or Passata, 200ml
• Pitted black olives
• Mozzarella, 125g ball
• Green Pepper - 1
• Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Chillies or Plain Olive Oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220 C/ GM 7/ 428 F.
2. Place the pizza base on a large greased baking sheet.
3. Spread the pizza base with tomato sauce, allowing for a border which will form the crust of the pizza.
4. For the spiders: To make the olive spiders, cut the olives in half length ways. One half will form the body, the other half needs to be cut length ways into strips to make the spider's legs. Arrange on the pizza with the body of the spider cut side down and the legs on either side.
5. For the ghosts: Tear or cut the mozzarella into 4 ghost like shapes.  Dice an olive into small equal size pieces for the eyes of the ghosts. Arrange the ghosts on the base, allowing room for the mozzarella to spread.
6. For the bat: Using a sharp knife cut the pepper in half length ways.  Remove the seeds and stalk.  Then cut each half into a bat like shape.  Arrange skin side up on the pizza. Put the pizza in the oven for roughly 15 minutes until the base is golden brown and the cheese bubbling. Drizzle with Chilli olive oil.
7.  Serve and scare!

This is how we make our lemon flavoured olive oil and why the flavour packs a punch - pure and fresh, just as if you are squeezing a real Sicilian lemon.

Agrumato orgins

The original agrumato flavoured oils were always citrus which is where is name comes from: 'agrumato' in Italian literally means 'citrusy'. Citrus trees love the Italian climate and the strong essential oils in the fruit's peel makes them perfect for this whole fruit method. Nowadays the same method is used to create other flavoured oil too, for instance lemon was the first of five agrumato style Nudo flavoured oils.

You can read more about our award-winning flavours and here about how we make our flavoured oils with out expert miller, Corrado.

The agrumato method itself originated in Italy's famous olive oil region, Abruzzo. As the process is more time consuming and expensive than making extra virgin or infused olives oils, the olive farmers would make their agrumato oils in limited quantities which were reserved as special gifts people were honoured to receive.

Why is it more time consuming and expensive?
Read below about how we make our agrumato Sicilian lemon flavoured olive oil and see...

The divine duo

What makes the agrumato lemon olive oil so unique and fresh in flavour is the fusing of the lemon's essentials oils with the olive's oil during this agrumato process. The lemon's flavours combine with the olives in a true unity, coming together into a heavenly mix of pure flavours.

This is where the name of our Divino Duo gift set comes from with a tin each of our extra virgin and lemon oils: as the combination of the olives and lemons is truly divine.

Of course, as with anything, to get the best result the best ingredients are needed. The two core things here are freshness and quality.

"It is very important to Nudo for all the quality of the oil that we use freshly picked olives and freshly picked lemons." Corrado

So first things first, we need to ensure that to have both freshly picked top quality lemons and extra virgin quality olives.

Sicilian lemons

Not all lemons are created equal and Sicilian lemons are famous in their own right. The hot days and cooler nights of Sicily are perfect for growing lemons and the consistency of the climate allows for an almost year long supply. This climate, along with the rich volcanic soil means that Sicilian lemons are simply some of the best in the world. Plus, Sicily has been growing lemons for almost 3,000 years, so it's hard to argue with their zesty experience.

So naturally when looking for only the best for our lemon flavoured oil, we headed straight off to Sicily.

Extra virgin quality olives

The olives we use are from our trusted groves in Le Marche. We source a blend of characteristic olive cultivars of the region, selected to ensure the best balance between the lemon and olives where neither flavour is overpowered. The most notable are Leccino and Frantoio, two characteristic cultivars of the Marche region.

Flavoured oils cannot be classified as extra virgin olive oil as extra virgin olive oil must be purely olives and the additional components adjust things like the acidity level. However the olives we use are extra virgin quality: they are pressed the same day they are picked just like for our extra virgin olive oil.

Fresh + Fresh

We had sourced our Sicilian lemons and our top-quality olives, but we were faced with the final challenge of logistics: our oil mill is in Le Marche, over 1,000km away.

"The difficult part for us is on one hand being we source the olives from the local groves in Le Marche and on the other hand the lemons which come directly from Sicily. They need to arrive at the same time in order to be able to grind them together when they are at their freshest to make the best product" Corrado

We need to ensure both the lemons and olives arrive at the mill at the same time for maximum freshness and thus quality. So straight after our lemons are picked, they are driven up from the south to arrive at the oil mill on the same day our olives are picked from the groves in Le Marche. A nightmare of logistics for a daydream result.

Mastering the agrumato method

When they lemons and olives arrive at the mill (after the sigh of relief) the first step is washing. The lemons are washed separately in a fairly manual process as they are too big to fit into the cleaning mechanism in the mill designed for the little olives.

Once the lemons are squeaky clean they are poured into the press to be ground together with the olives. The whole lemon is used so all the flavour is released from the flesh and skin, and all the citrus oil combines with the olives oil. During this process in the mill, you can smell the fragrance and aroma of the ingredients.

From here the olives and lemons are as one in the mill and continue on in the process of making extra virgin olive oil. The lemon and olive sediment is mixed to release all of the oils from the flesh and is then pressed to separate the remaining oil. The water contents is then separated off and the remaining oil filtered to remove any remaining sediment for a clearer lemon oil result.

E voilà!

Lemon flavoured olive oil

Our agrumato Sicilian lemon oil is a customer favourite and with so many applications it's not so surprising. Great drizzled on salads or fish, anywhere you would use a lemon as the flavour is so lovely and pure.

We asked Corrado what his favourite use is and it was a classically simple answer: "pasta in bianco" simply pasta tossed in the lemon oil with lots of Parmesan. Molto bene.

Serves 20

Cook Time 10 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 130 g of semolina
• 100 g of plain flour
• Sea salt
• 2 tablespoons of Oil - Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 90 ml of warm water
• Sea salt flakes or dried herbs

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C / 350F and line a good sized baking tray with baking paper.
2. Put the semolina, flour and sea salt into a bowl and mix together. Stir in the extra virgin olive oil adding enough water to make a dough which you can bring together with your hands.
3. Dust a wooden board or your work surface with some flour and knead the dough until it can be rolled out; be careful not to not over work the dough at this stage. Roll the dough out until it is about 5mm thick and then either cut into oblongs or use a shaped cutter to stamp out your biscuits. It is best to use two pieces of baking paper to roll out the dough if it is a little sticky, one below and one on top.
4. Put the biscuits onto the baking tray, brush them with oil and sprinkle with dried herbs or salt to your taste. If you like, you can brush with a flavoured oil for a twist; we love the Rosemary oil for this.
5. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until they are golden brown. You might want to rotate them half way through cooking depending on your oven.
6. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm or cooled. Particularly delicious served with soft goats cheese mixed with a little Greek Yogurt and some very fine lemon zest.

Serves 4

Cook Time 30 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Blanched hazelnuts – 90g/3oz
• Blanched almonds – 90g/3oz
• Candied peel (lemon, orange and lime) – 200g/7oz
• Plain flour – 60g/2oz
• Cocoa powder – 25g/1oz
• Ground cinnamon, clove and nutmeg – a big pinch of each
• Caster sugar – 150g/5.3oz
• Clear honey – 125g/5.3oz

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150°C/300ºF. Butter and line an 8-inch flan ring tray with parchment paper or bake-o-glide.
2. In a large bowl, combine the nuts, candied peel, the sifted flour, cocoa and spices. Mix well together.
3. Put the sugar and honey in a saucepan, turn on to a medium heat, stirring as the sugar melts. When it starts to boil (about 8-10mins) take it off the heat.
4. Working quickly, pour the syrup over your nut mixture, and mix it thoroughly.
5. The panforte will stiffen quickly, so immediately spoon the mixture into your baking tray and spread it out evenly.
6. Bake for 30 minutes then tunr it onto a wire rack, peel off the paper and take it out and let it completely cool. Wrap and store at room temperature.

Serves 2

Cook Time 45 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Flour – 250g/8.8oz
• Caster Sugar – 200g/7oz
• Baking powder – 10g/0.4g
• Ground almonds – 100g/3.5g
• Salt – pinch
• Zest – 2 oranges, 1 lemon and 1 lime
• Milk – 150ml/5 fl oz
• Freshly squeezed orange juice – 50ml/1.7 fl oz
• Mandarin olive oil – 100ml/3.4 fl oz
• Almond essence
• Eggs – 3
• Olive oil – for greasing
• Icing sugar – for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180^oC/360^oF and prepare a bundt (ring) tin with greaseproof paper on the bottom and a small amount of olive oil up the sides and central spout.
2. Sift the sugar, flour, baking powder, ground almonds and a pinch of salt together in a large bowl. Add the zest of all the citrus fruits.
3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk, orange juice (squeezed straight from the oranges), eggs, Mandarin olive oil along with a few drops of almond essence. Mix well using a hand or electric beater until you have a smooth batter.
4. Pour the batter evenly into the tin and bake for about 45 minutes. You can tell it’s cooked when you start to smell delicious orangey aromas in the kitchen and when a skewer comes out clean. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool then dust with icing sugar. Buon appetito! 

Serves 4

Cook Time 5 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Frozen peas, 1 1/2 cups defrosted (or fresh if you have the podding time)
• Garlic, 1 clove crushed
• Pine nuts, 2 tbsp toasted and cooled
• Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup finely grated
• Salt, big pinch plus more for pasta water
• Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 1/3 cup
• Basil leaves, a handful
• Tagiatelle, 3-4 nests per person (roughly 340g/ 12oz)

Method

1. Bring a small pan of salted water to the boil and add the peas. Cook for 2 minutes and then drain and leave to cool. They should still have a bit of bite.
2. Set aside 1/3 of the cooked peas. Then blitz the remaining ones in a food processor till smooth (or with a hand blender) along with the crushed garlic, parmesan, olive oil, basil, salt and pine nuts.
3. Cook the tagliatelle according to instructions on the package. Then drain retaining a cup of the cooking water to add to the pesto.  This will help loosen it and make it more of a silky sauce.
4. Return the pasta to the pan and add the pesto, remaining peas and as much of the pasta water as you need to smooth and coat the pasta in the pesto.  Cook on a medium heat for a couple of minutes.
5. Finally, season with freshly ground black pepper and drizzle with some olive oil. Serve immediately, adding extra parmesan if you so wish.

Prep Time 15 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 15 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Breadcrumbs – 100g/3.5oz
• Capers, 50g/1.8oz, chopped
• Anchovy fillets, 50g/1.8oz, chopped
• Onion – 1 medium, chopped
• Extra-virgin olive oil – 120ml/4.2fl oz
• White wine – 50ml/2fl oz
• Sardine fillets – 8
• Sultanas – 30g/1.1oz
• Pine nuts – 30g/1.1oz
• Saffron – a good pinch, about 20 threads
• Fennel seeds – 1tsp covered in water and soaked for 2 hours
• Spaghetti – 300g/11oz

Method

1. Toast the breadcrumbs in a dry pan over a medium heat, until they are quite a dark golden brown. Take care not to burn them.
2. Heat half the extra-virgin olive oil in a pan and add the onion. Sauté until softened but not coloured, then add the wine and bubble it up to let it evaporate.
3. Mix the chopped capers and anchovies into a paste and then add them with just enough water to make a sauce, and bring everything back to the boil.
4. Add the sardine fillets, sultanas, pine nuts, saffron and soaked fennel seeds. Taste and season with salt and black pepper if necessary, stir and cook for 10 minutes.
5. Bring a pan of water to the boil, add salt, then put in the pasta and cook for about a minute less than the time given on the packet, so that it is al dente.
6. Drain, reserving some cooking water. Toss the pasta with the sardine sauce, adding a little of the pasta cooking water if necessary to loosen the sauce, and sprinkle with the toasted breadcrumbs.

Whether simple, complex, or anywhere in between, share with us what you are cooking along with the story behind it and you could WIN a Gran Misto Set, the full range of Nudo's award-winning flavoured olive oils to stock your kitchen with fresh flavours.

To Enter:

Send in the following to info@nudoadopt.com by Monday May 4th 2020

• A photo, photos, or video of your foodie creation
• The name or description of your recipe
• Your story behind making it
• Where are you are in the world

Entries will be judged on authenticity & creativity!

Make sure you are following @nudoadopt on Facebook where we will be announcing the winner plus sharing some of our favourite entries so you can take inspiration from others in the Nudo community around the globe.

Good luck & bon appetito!

Serves 4

Cook Time 25 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Slice of bread – 1 whole wheat
• Milk – 60ml/2 floz
• Garlic – 1 clove
• Parsley – the leaves from 5g/0.2 oz
• Egg – 1 free range
• Parmesan cheese – 20g/0.7oz
• Lamb mince – 250g/8.8oz
• Pork mince – 250g/8.8oz (or use an extra 250g/8.8oz of lamb mince)
• Fine breadcrumbs – 20g/0.7g
• Sunflower oil – depending on size of pan
• Extra virgin olive oil – several glugs
• Onion – half
• Passata – 200g/7oz
• Tinned chopped tomatoes – 250g/8.8oz
• Dried oregano – 2 pinches
• Spaghetti – 320g/11oz
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Cut the crust off your slice of bread and tear the rest of it up into a small bowl. Cover the bread with your milk and mix it together with your hands.
2. Next, if you have a blender, add the roughly chopped garlic, parsley, raw egg and the milk/bread mix. Grate in the parmesan and season with salt and pepper. Give the ingredients several good pulses until nicely blended.
3. If you don’t have a blender finely chop the garlic and parsley and mix together the ingredients by hand.
4. Put the mince in a mixing bowl, add the prepared mix and the dry breadcrumbs (the quality of these really does make a difference). Mix it all together really well with your hands. Cover and pop in the fridge for 15 minutes (the bowl, not you).
5. Now time to get you hands dirty for the third or maybe forth time – take the mixture out of the fridge and mould the meat into ping-pong ball-sized polpette. They should be about 25g each and you really need to press them firmly into a ball so that they won’t break up later.
6. When you have your 20-odd pieces on a plate you can then prepare a small frying pan with half a centimetre (1/8th inch) of sunflower oil on a medium/high heat. Also prepare a thick bottomed saucepan, with a few glugs of olive oil on a medium heat. Add the roughly chopped onion to this saucepan.
7. Once the sunflower oil is sizzling hot add 4 polpette at a time, and using a couple of forks, brown evenly. Then transfer the meatballs to the saucepan with the onions and add more raw ones to the frying pan. When all the polpette are in the saucepan add the passata and chopped tomatoes along with half a cup of water (so the polpette are more or less covered). Turn the heat down to low and season it with salt and pepper and the dried oregano. Then cover and let it cook away for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring gently with a wooden spoon every now and then. This gives you time to tidy up and set the table.
8. As the sauce starts to thicken cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the package. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and, in the saucepan that you just cooked it in, add most of the sauce from the meatballs. Mix the sauce and the pasta together well and then scoop a portion onto a plate. Add 4 meatballs and a spoonful of the remaining sauce on top. Serve straight away.

YOUR OIL DELIVERIES FROM NUDO ARE SAFE

World Health Organisation advice is that COVID-19 is spread person to person and is unlikely to be contracted through goods or packaging.

While studies suggest that coronaviruses may survive on surfaces, it would only survive for a short period of time. As your delivery takes over a month to ship to you the risk is very low, moreover there have been no cases in the areas of the groves or mills during production of your oil so no risk of contamination. The millers always work to the highest sanitary conditions when pressing and canning your oil and have been taking extra precautions during packing at this time.

To learn more on COVID-19 please refer to the World Health Organisation and Center for Disease Control and Prevention and ensure to follow their advice to keep you, your families and your communities safe and healthy.

ITALY IN LOCKDOWN

The usual busy buzz of the streets of Italy have now ground to a halt with the new containment measures in place to stop the spread further.

All non-essential shops and workplaces are to be closed, flights have been cancelled and of course with that has come cancellations across all of Italy's economically important tourism industry. The impact on Italy's economic and social life is great and will take some time to go back to normal, but the measures are important and the people of Italy remain positive.

HOW ARE THE NUDO OLIVE FARMERS?

We want to assure you that all Nudo olive farmers and their families are safe and healthy.

Already under strain, the outbreak has put new pressure on farmers in Italy at a crucial time of year. More than ever the small-scale producers need our help so we appreciate your continued support of our olive farmers during this time.

We will ensure to keep you updated with any important information about the situation in Italy as well as your olive farmers and oil delivery. If you have any questions here please do not hesitate to contact us at info@nudoadopt.com

This is really just fancy fish and chips – so is ideal if you’re a comfort food junkie but also want to impress somebody.

Prep Time 24 Minutes

Serves 4

Cook Time 24 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Lemon sole – 80g/2.8oz fillet per person
• Potatoes – 1kg/2lb
• Garlic – 4 cloves
• Rosemary – three sprigs
• Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tablespoons
• Mandarin olive oil – 2 tablespoons
• Olive tapenade – 4 teaspoons

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200oC. Wash and slice the potatoes in ¼ inch pieces – use a mandolin if you have one. Crush the garlic and finely chop the rosemary leaves. Put these three ingredients into a bowl with 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil. Work them together with your hands and then place the potatoes on a grease baking tray. Season and pop in the oven for 20 mins.
2. Now season your fillets with salt and pepper. Heat the mandarin olive oil in a frying pan until it is sizzly hot and fry each fillet  for 2 minutes skin-side down. Then turn them over for another minute.
3. Divide your potatoes between four plates, with a fillet on top of each mound. Using a teaspoon, drizzle on a teaspoon of black olive tapenade: be sparing as you don’t want to overpower the fish). Eat immediately.

Serves 4

Cook Time 10 Minutes

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• Ricotta cheese - 200g/7oz
• Lemon – the grated zest of 1
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Parmesan cheese - 50g/2oz
• Penne - 400g/14oz
• Basil olive oil for drizzling
• Basil leaves – 15g roughly torn

Method

1. In a bowl add the ricotta, lemon zest, salt and pepper and beat together briefly with a whisk.
2. Then mix in the torn basil and grated parmesan. At this point you can press pause and pick it up later.
3. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water according to the instructions.
4. Add a ladle or so of the pasta water to the ricotta mixture and mix it in.
5. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and mix with the ricotta.
6. Add a drizzle of olive oil with basil and serve.

In our world with growing issues on climate change, soil health and decreases in biodiversity, while organic is not the only action to take it is a positive step to wider change and a sustainable lifestyle. Watch here some of our organic olive farmers talking about why organics is important to them and the way that they practice it on their groves.

Myth 1: You can't fry with olive oil

This is one of the most common myths about olive oil and stems from beliefs on the smoking point.

The 'smoking point' is basically the temperature where there is a chemical change and oil and the ‘good’ unsaturated fat changes to ‘bad’ saturated fat, or trans-fat. The myth that you can’t use olive oil for frying comes from the idea that its smoking point is too low making it unsafe and removing its health properties through the chemical change.

But...

The smoking point of olive oil is well above the temperature you would fry at and this frying temperature is not high enough to chemically change the olive oil:

• Pan frying: 248°F / 120°C
• Deep frying: 320°F-375°F / 160-180°C
• The smoke point of extra virgin olive oil? 410°F / 210°C

And, olive oil is high in monounsaturated fatty acid which makes them relatively stable as they have only one double bond; in fact they more stable than many other oils when heated which helps olive oil retain its health benefits while cooking.

So as extra virgin olive oil has many health benefits, fry away!

"Olive oil is ideal for frying. In proper temperature conditions, without over-heating, it undergoes no substantial structural change and keeps its nutritional value better than other oils, not only because of the antioxidants but also due to its high levels of oleic acid." International Olive Council

Myth 2: The colour is an indication of quality

There are many important properties when judging the quality of extra virgin olive oil, but colour is not one of them. Yet still this myth is one that cannot seem to be shaken. Even some high-profile chefs and critics still mention colour in their judgement and some producers add olive leaves to the press to make their oil greener (yuck!).

The colour of extra virgin olive oil can be affected by multiple things including the cultivar, climate, and time of harvesting. It is not however, related to the quality of the oil. Actually, the colour of the oil should be ignored so much in its judgement that the official glasses used for professional extra virgin olive oil tasting are a cobalt blue colour so ensure it can’t be seen and the visual sense are ignored.

Myth 3: The fridge test

The myth is that if the oil solidifies it’s pure extra virgin olive oil. This comes from the fact that extra virgin olive oil is largely made of monounsaturated fats which coagulate at refrigerator temperatures, while other oils tend to be made of polyunsaturated fats which can only solidify at much lower temperatures than regular refrigerators can reach. However, as oils, including extra virgin olive oil, are a mix of the fat types, this test is not an accurate way to test this; it would only work if it was 100% monounsaturated and other oils were 100% polyunsaturated.

As the key indicator that defines extra virgin olive oil is the acidity level which needs a scientific test, there is no way to home test the authenticity of oil labelled extra virgin. You need to ensure you have a trusted source for your extra virgin olive oil to put your mind at ease.

Myth 4: There is no expiry date

This one is part true part myth. Extra virgin olive oil doesn’t expire per se, but its properties do degrade over time. This is why it has a 'best before' date rather than an 'expiry date' - it is not abut it perishing, it is about enjoying it at its best.

Because of this, the best before date is up to the discrepancy of the producer. Supermarket oil can already be 2-3 years old when it is is stacked on the shelves and without the harvest date on the label (which it rarely is with industrial brands) as a consumer it can be difficult to tell if it is fresh when buying it. Nudo Adopt extra virgin olive oils are all given a best before date of 18 months from bottling which can be considered quite short bu industry standards but we really want to encourage people to enjoy our oil fresh and in its prime.

After 18 months it is still high quality but this will start to decrease. The Omega-9 (the monounsaturated fat) remains intact but the flavours and polyphenols will start to diminish. General advice is extra virgin olive oil is still very good to use two years after its best before as long as it is stored properly. So to help your extra virgin olive oil last longer ensure you store it properly so it doesn't degrade prematurely - keep in a cool place away from heat and light, a kitchen cupboard in perfect. It will go rancid over time if it is not stored properly; while this won’t make you sick, it certainly won't taste very nice!

Myth 5: Olive oil is extra virgin olive oil

It is important to understand that there is a differences between extra virgin olive oil and olive oil so you can get both the health and taste benefits.

Extra virgin olive oils are mechanically pressed and untouched by heat or chemicals, they contain the antioxidant polyphenols and health benefits that you want. Olive oils however will be chemically or heat processed to extract more oil and frequently mixed with other oils such as sunflower or canola oil. Olive oil won’t contain the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil nor the very special taste properties.

About Olio Nuovo

Olio Nuovo heralds the new olive oil season. The first taste of the fresh new oil is a celebration, the moment the year’s hard work on the olive grove is realised. This is why we deliver our Olio Nuovo straight after the olive harvest, so you can enjoy it as fresh as if you were right there on the grove celebrating the annual harvest with your olive farmer.

Olio Nuovo is the freshest extra virgin olive oil you can get with the iridescent green of the just crushed olives, a peppery kick and pleasantly bitter burst indicative of its freshness. It is bottled unfiltered straight after pressing so is extra virgin olive oil in its most raw and fresh state. This is why we love Olio Nuovo: it is a true and authentic extra virgin olive oil experience.

Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil

During the crushing and pressing of the olives in the mill little bits of olive flesh remain in the separated oil. The majority of oils are then filtered, removing this sediment by first letting it settle to the bottom of large casks for a few months then filtering before bottling the now clear oil. But for Olio Nuovo, the freshly pressed oil is bottled straight away unfiltered leaving this remaining olive sediment in the oil.

It is this sediment left suspended in the oil which gives Olio Nuovo its characteristic cloudy appearance. The tastes and aromas are also enhanced giving Olio Nuovo its unique full and rustic flavour and distinct olivey taste.

Taste your olio nuovo

For Italians the first tasting of Olio Nuovo is a deeply cultural experience. The pride and tradition of Olio Nuovo is to savour the taste of raw extra virgin olive oil just as it has been pressed. So enjoy this seasonal speciality as soon as possible, fresh the way it is meant to be.

A traditional way to enjoy the unique flavours of Olio Nuovo is “bruschetta”.

1. Slice the ciabatta into ½ inch slice and then grill or toast.
2. Cut the end of a garlic cloves and rub across the ciabatta
3. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt flakes
4. Generously drizzle over your fresh Olio Nuovo extra virgin olive oil

Buon Appetito! 

bellissimo!

Our hearts burst with pride and joy whenever someone discovers our oil for the first time and gush over the flavours, so we were over the moon when Crosstown called to talk to us about our this. They have a from scratch mentality and only use ethically sourced top-quality ingredients for all their products. Crosstown are passionate about experimenting with different flavours; this same passion in Nudo bore our flavoured oil range. So, their ethos made for a heavenly match with Nudo (almost as heavenly as this doughnut looks). ⁠

Crosstown doughnuts have locations around London and also deliver to your home or office. The Nudo community is worldwide so if you aren't in London to try this scrumptious treat, try these recipes using our lemon flavoured oil for you to try at home. Lemon oil baking recipes >

Try Nudo's agrumato Sicilian lemon flavoured olive oil

Each year as we approach harvest time I am reminded of the shenanigans that go on around the production and sale of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Let’s not forget that however important Nudo is to us producers and to you our customers, we are only a tiny wheel in the cog of a humongous international Olive Oil business.

In my home town of Imperia, Liguria, every November, we celebrate the arrival of the Olio Nuovo with the annual Olive Festival when micro producers of Liguria’s best ‘prodotti tipici’ bring Imperia’s traffic to a standstill with stalls laden with food, plants and sometimes even livestock.

The local Taggiasca olive was introduced to the area by the Benedictines in the 12th Century but over the years this sweetest of olives has suffered something of a reputational damage due to the dodgy goings on of some of the larger producers and multi-nationals.

My friend Cathy Rogers, who founded Nudo with her husband Jason Gibb, jotted this down a few years back:

I make olive oil. I know every single step of the process inside out, from sapling to mature tree, from the plucking of the fruit to the winding of the press.

I also know how much all this labour of love costs. That’s part of my job too - watching every penny and dime we spend, but making sure we never cut corners.

So when I go into a supermarket and see a half litre/17 fl oz bottle of ‘Italian extra virgin olive oil’ for £3 ($6), I know that it can’t be true. Extremely unlikely that it is extra virgin, highly unfeasible that it is Italian and totally conceivable that it isn’t even olive oil!

Let’s look at the maths:

Each of our olive trees produces about two litres of olive oil a year. One year, one tree, one harvest, two litres.

Each tree costs about €5 to prune.

We cut the grass twice a year (sounds easy, but across 21 acres it becomes a little trickier) which works out as €2 per tree.

Then the other major expenses are the harvesting by hand, costing about €4 a tree, organic fertiliser at €1 a tree and using the communal press to squash the beauties, coming out at $1.5 for every litre.

So we are already up to around €7.50 a litre without including any of the farm overheads, taxes, marketing, organic certification, or big pasta lunches. We are however including the fact that we are paying decent living wages, we are not working people into the ground nor are we employing children.

But just considering the basic cost of product and we still need to add at least another €2.50 a litre for bottling, packaging and transport.

So we’re now up to €10 a litre.

With no profit taken by us a shop would typically want to sell this for €20 a litre.

This is a long way from our cheap, supermarket extra virgin olive oil. Sure there are economy of scale, and no doubt I could get the harvesters (who include myself incidentally), to work that bit faster, but it’s not going to reduce the costs by an order of magnitude is it?

Jason Gibb & Cathy Rogers and their daughter. Le Marche.

This is however by no means a modern phenomenon as I was amazed to discover when reading a copy of ‘The Modern Baker’ published in 1911. I love reading old cookery books but I am glad to say that our understanding and appreciation of olive oil has moved on somewhat since 1911!

Mr John Kirkland states:

 ‘The value of olive oil depends greatly upon its flavour and this varies with the locality in which the olives are grown. The rank, harsh taste of some of these oils disappears upon keeping sometime.’

(actually, no olive oil gets better with age)

and it goes on…

‘On account of its high dietetic value, olive oil is adulterated enormously, the commonest adulteration being cotton-seed oil, which is frequently entirely substituted for it. Other oils used for this purpose are sesame, rape, poppy archis and lard oils! The detection of certain of these substitutes is not particularly difficult when they are present in considerable quality, but the ingenuity of the adulterator is directed chiefly to the addition of a small quantity of a mixture of oils which have the effect of naturalizing each other so that detection of the fraud becomes a matter of great delicacy which can only be successfully undertaken by an expert oil chemist’.

Great Grandfather Daniel Smith and his daughter Flora outside the family bakery in about 1904.

The Modern Baker’ inherited from my Great Grandfather Baker Daniel Smith, 1863 -1933, of Gloucester

In recent years Italy’s micro producers  - including our very own Nudo producers - have done much to try and rectify the image of not just the Taggiasca olive but the reputation of the olive business across Italy.

When we first arrived in Liguria I was given many warnings about all of the goings on especially the mixing of the local Taggiasca oil with imported oil from Spain or North Africa, but I was amazed at just how openly this is done and how widespread a practice it is.

Before our first harvest I read up and did a lot of research about what was happening in the newer territories for olive production such as California and New Zealand to see how people who were not hampered by years of tradition and the weight of supplying big business were operating.

In the end I decided to approach producing olives in the same way as I had seen people growing apples and plums in Gloucestershire as a child. My approach is that if a fruit, and olives remember are fruits, has fallen off the tree before harvest than it is simply not worth milling. For this reason and unlike many other producers in this (and other) regions of Italy, we only put our nets out on the morning of the harvest around the particular part of the grove where we will be working and we pack them up again at night when the olives are picked.

But it is true to say here in Liguria, as I am sure happens across Italy, nets are left under the trees for months to collect ‘windfall’ olives. The windfall is gathered up and collected every few weeks for processing. To make extra virgin oil the olives need to be pressed within 24 hours not three weeks.

We put our nets out in the morning of the harvest and only mill olives picked lovingly by hand.

So it comes as no surprise then that 4 out of 5 bottles of Italian extra virgin olive oil sold in the UK, USA and China DON’T have inside what they say they have on the bottle.

Which begs the question, what do they have inside?

As in Grandfather Smith’s day there are in fact numerous shocking examples where this 'Italian extra virgin olive oil' turns out to be mixes of chemically extracted olive oils, cut with nut or sunflower oil or both and it’s likely provenance is Spain, North Africa or Turkey.

And I repeat, we are talking about 4 out of every 5 bottles here folks.

So the moral of the story is that you get what you pay for.

Don’t take your olive oil for granted. Ask questions about its origins. And heck, you can even go crazy and adopt your very own 100% Italian 100% olive 100% tree and then you will know 100% what’s in the can!

"It is very important to us to respect nature according to traditions, but also to work to a future based on eco-sustainability, 100% green."

Organic certification is a timely and expensive process due to the (important) regulations for organic farming. The support and economic security of the olive tree adoption program is helping her achieve this. Watch here why organics is important to Agnese.

It also produces some of the best extra virgin olive oil in Italy.

The olives from Umbrian groves are highly sought after and valuable because they famously produce such high-quality oil. In fact, Umbrian extra virgin olive oil is often referred to as “green gold” because this quality means the groves can fetch a higher price for the olives.

Medicinal extra virgin olive oil

Umbrian oils tend to have an intense fruity flavour with a great deal of body and the high content of polyphenols gives a good balance of bitter and spicy. With the focus on the provenance the oils are often blends of the characteristic cultivars of the region.

This extra virgin olive oil is a blend of varieties including Frantoio and Leccino, with the prevalent cultivar being Moraiolo. The Moraiolo olive trees grow well in Umbria as they thrive in the mountainous Appennino conditions. This cultivar is particularly valued by olive farmers because it has a high oil yield and is also said to have medicinal properties.

Taste your green gold

Torta al Testo is the traditional Umbrian flatbread literally meaning “cake of the tile” referring to the hot stone it was cooked on in ancient Roman times which was called a "testo".

• Flour – 500g/18oz
• Instant dry yeast – 9g/0.3oz
• Salt – 1 level tsp
• Warm water – 350ml/12 fl oz
• Dritta extra virgin olive oil - 1 Tbsp

Mix all the ingredients together and kneed for 10 minutes. Set aside to rise for an hour. Roll into a 1cm thick disk and cook in a hot pan for a few minutes each side. Cut horizontally and fill with whatever you desire - traditionally sausage and wild herbs, here we have use proscutto, stracchino and rocket.

Olive tree pruning is a big deal in rural Marche, and Tiziano is the best of the best - the Vidal Sassoon of olive hairstylists. He has won numerous national pruning championships (yes, they really do exist) and, should you ever visit his perfectly coiffured trees near Offida in southern Marche, you’ll see why.

 He personally prunes each and every olive tree, every year, without fail. What’s more, he then inspects the trees - planted by his dad and uncle in the 1960s – throughout the year, watching carefully for the development of the olive fruit. The trees comprise different varieties (Leccino, Frantoio, Coroncina , Orbetana and Piantone di Mogliano) and each will require slightly different timing to be harvested when the olives are at their optimum. It is usually October when Tiziano starts to harvest the first olives.

He is no less perfectionist when it comes to pressing. The olives must be taken on the same day to the modern two-phase olive press that he has built himself. Only his olives and occasionally those of a few persuasive and select friends are pressed here, always under strict temperature control. By ensuring that the quality of olives going into his machinery is premium, Tiziano can be sure that his oil is not compromised by defective batches of fruit. And woe betide anyone entering the press with muddy boots, as according to him "even just a dirty pair of gloves can compromise the oil production".

As a result, Tiziano’s oil is distinctly bitter and spicy – both flavour characteristics of high quality and a high polyphenolic content. By his own admission the high quality oil is not appreciated by everyone, even his neighbours. This is because traditionally Marche was a fairly poor region, with small scale agriculture. Extra virgin olive oil was an expensive luxury, used in moderation and stored over long periods. This meant that the local population became accustomed to using a very mild and sweet oil, taste indicators of relative old age and an oil of poor nutritional value. Luckily Tiziano is involved is several projects to "educate" his fellow citizens as to what a good olive oil should taste like.

Tiziano first heard of Nudo when he was asked by a friend to help with the harvest in the Rosalio olive grove (the first Nudo grove). He then asked to join the adoption program, excited by the idea that his oil could be enjoyed and appreciated all over the world. He is delighted to see his dream coming true.

Monovarietal extra virgin olive oil is oil which is pressed from one single olive variety, or cultivar. Each olive variety has different characteristics, so as this is unblended it has a well defined flavour specific to Dritta.

The Dritta olive is one of three DOP varieties produced in the Aprutino Pescarese area. The varieties are chosen for their unique characteristics and their representation of the area. Dritta olives are an essential part of this and the DOP is a warranty of their top quality and regional origin.

The picturesque Moscufo village where these olives are sources.
Moscufo is “olivetato” as our oil miller Corradini says: it is the most “olivey” city of Italy as it has the highest number of olive groves for its area than anywhere else in the country.

The Dritta Cultivar Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Italy’s 2018/19 olive harvest in general brought quite low quantities due to weather conditions, but in this area production was abundant and the quality was good. Dritta olives are usually harvested quite early in the picking season, so luckily they missed part of the bad weather affecting other groves and cultivars in the area.

The Dritta extra virgin olive oil has medium flavour characteristics with a good content of polyphenols. The taste is medium fruity and there are strong hints of green almond with a touch of grass and artichoke leaf, and the polyphenols make it very balanced with a little spice and a little bitterness.

Taste Your Dritta Oil

The coastal region of Pescara is famous for its fresh seafood, so the Dritta olive naturally is very well suited to seafood dishes. Here is a recipe idea from the olive farmers of the Aprutimo Pescarese area for a simple way to enjoy your oil with your favourite fish or seafood this summer.

• Your favourite fish or seafood
• Dritta extra virgin olive oil
• A squeeze of lemon
• Chopped fresh parsley
• Cropped garlic
• Salt and pepper

Clean your fish or seafood and marinate for about an hour with the below ingredients. Cook by grilling both sides, and serve hot with a drizzle of your Dritta oil and a sprinkling of parsley.

Buon Appetitito!

The Mediterranean way of life is widely acknowledged to be the healthiest in the world. It is a way of life centred around the recipes, ingredients and traditions of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

Here at the Olive Farm we love meeting our customers and our olive trees’ ‘adoptive parents’ when they come to visit. There are three things so many of our visitors and customers ask us:

Firstly ‘what exactly makes the Mediterranean way of life so widely recommended?’

Secondly ‘are the health benefits of Olive Oil really true?’

Thirdly ‘can you post more recipes showing us how to use our oil?’

In response to this feedback we are launching our new online ‘Olive Oil Recipe Book’.

Over the coming months, we will be posting delicious recipes using Nudo’s olive oil plus up to date research on the proven health benefits of olive oil and what we believe to be the essence of the Mediterranean way of life here at Nudo’s Olive Farm.

Last year, Nudo brought home two awards for our flavoured olive oils. This year we entered extra virgin olive oil and brought home another two awards: one for our premium extra virgin olive oil available in our shop, and the other for our adoption program grove, Bestagno.

The Great Taste Awards are widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation for artisan food producers, judged by more than 500 of the most demanding palates, from food critics to chefs, producers to journalists. It is not only a badge of honour for us the producer, but also a great indicator for you the consumer: the clear and unmistakable black & gold Great Taste label is a clear signpost to a wonderful tasting product and a guarantee of a rigorous and independent judging process. It’s all about taste.

Do you want to learn how to taste extra virgin olive oil like the experts do? Read here what we learnt from Tiziano, owner of Aleandri grove and professional extra virgin olive oil taster. 

We are very proud of both our oils which took home an award and happy to have them recognised by others as the delicious and high quality oils they are. Here is a bit more about both the award winning Bestagno grove and oil, and the award-winning premium shop oil.

BESTAGNO, our award winning grove

Bestagno is Nudo's own grove in the olive tree adoption program run by director Katharine Doré and her son Toby. Bestagno grows Taggiasca olive trees, the characteristic cultivar of Liguria. Taggiasca olives produces a famous extra virgin olive oil which is loved for its delicate taste with light floral and herb notes.

Here's what the judges had to say:

• Lovely grassy notes on the nose
• A smooth and aromatic oil with delicate peppery notes on the finish
• Distinct grassy, herbaceous aroma, smooth and buttery mouthfeel
• This is a versatile oil as it isn't overpoweringly peppery

This award-winning oil is exclusive to those in our olive tree adoption program who are a parent of a tree on Bestagno grove. Join this lucky group and adopt an olive tree on Bestagno to receive the limited quantity special oil from your own piece of the grove. Adopt your Bestagno Tree >

About Bestagno olive grove

In Liguria the olives trees are grown in steep valleys on across terraces built with drystone walls often centuries ago to help cultivation of the trees. Unfortunately, many of the old terraces in Liguria are collapsing due to the grove abandonment or intensive irrigation and grass burn off which destabilises the land. This is something that Katharine and Toby are working on at Bestagno: they are bringing the once abandoned Bestagno grove back to life by restoring the collapsing terraces and nurturing the tree into production.

To try the award winning Taggiasca oil and help support bringing the grove back to life, adopt an olive tree on Bestagno. You will enjoy updates about the grove and your tree and receive deliveries of the award-winning oil straight to your door, straight from the grove.

To celebrate the ward, use code BESTAGNO at checkout and we will give you 10% off your first year of deliveries of a Bestagno ongoing olive tree adoption.

ADOPT YOUR BESTAGNO TREE

PREMIUM NUDO EVOO, our award-winning kitchen staple

This extra virgin olive oil is from 100% Italian olives harvested on sustainable groves in Le Marche. It is made to be a kitchen staple of premium quality, a blended oil of cultivars characteristic of the Le Marche area, creating an oil that is well-rounded with the extra virgin qualities.

Here's what the judges had to say:

• A vibrant grassy taste and a silky smooth texture in the mouth, this olive oil has a lovely long finish with lots of heat at the end
• A very light fresh cut grassiness on the nose
• A slight butteriness of flavour and a creamy mouthfeel
• Light and fresh with a sunny length of flavour and an enjoying peppery heat on the finish
• A lot of grass on the nose and a thick texture which coats the glass wonderfully

This extra virgin olive oil is available fresh in our shop year-round in a small and large tin, designed for your everyday premium oil. Shop award winning oil now >

About Nudo extra virgin olive oil

We have been working with our expert olive miller Corrado for more than 10 years. He helps us source the olives for this oil from local groves in the Le Marche area where his mill is. All our oils are made with 100% Italian olives and we support small-scale olive farming and sustainable practices. To learn a more about extra virgin olive oil, you can read more here.

SHOP AWARD WINNING EVOO NOW

But for many the olive harvest is also nostalgic, bringing back memories of childhood and family. Here is Tiziano talking about his memories from the olive harvest.

Our Olio Nuovo is extra virgin olive oil in its most natural and raw state – it is as fresh as you can get and is unfiltered meaning the olive sediment from the pressing process isn’t filtered out. This gives it its characteristics cloudy green colour and deep rustic taste. As our miller Corradini describes, it is just like you are eating an olive.

This is why we deliver our Olio Nuovo just a month after the oil is pressed, to ensure you can experience it almost like you are there at the oil press. So enjoy it like the Italians do: lavishly as the seasonal treat it is!

TASTE your OLIO NUOVO

Gnocchi Tricolore with mixed wild mushrooms

Ingredients:

• Fresh gnocchi
• Mixed mushrooms – 300g/10.6oz cleaned and sliced
• Garlic – 1 clove, finely chopped
• Onion – half, finely chopped
• Salt & pepper
• Single cream – 80ml/2.7oz
• Orange – for the zest
• Parsley
• Olio Nuovo

Method:

1. Brown the onion and garlic in Olio Nuovo over a low heat, then add chopped mushrooms and cook them very quickly with salt and pepper.
2. Cut the orange zest into tiny julienne-style pieces and add to the mushrooms along with the cream to your taste.
3. Cook the gnocchi in boiling water then remove with a strainer and cover with the mushroom sauce. Finish with a good drizzle of your Olio Nuovo.

Buon Appetito!

Each day of the harvest the farmers and their team arrive at dawn to start the olive picking. All our groves harvest their olives manually, depending on the grove or cultivar different techniques can be used. Nonno Tato in Sicily uses a 'bastone', a stick to knock the olives from the branches of here trees which are quite tall. Others use a hand held rake or electric rake which shakes the olives from the trees, such as here in Le Marche.

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To ensure the best quality extra virgin olive oil, the harvested olives must be pressed within 24 hours of being picked. So that same afternoon they are carried off to the local mill and there, while the pickers start early in the morning, those at the mill work late into the night pressing the olives into the fresh, exquisite, extra virgin olive oil.

The first taste of the oil is one of the most anticipated moments all year on the groves. It is when all the hard work through the seasons and the harvest comes to, and after a challenging year like this trying the high-quality result is all the more satisfying.

Here is a bit more about the Gargano peninsula, and the olive trees of Puglia.

GARGANO PENINSULA, THE SPUR OF THE BOOT

The Gargano Peninsula is the "spur of the boot" of Italy, sitting at the top of the region of Puglia, "the heel". Almost like a region within a region, Gargano is covered in a national park with stunning coastline of limestone rocks and cliffs, beautiful towns stretching on the coast or high in the winding hills, and of course, many, many olive trees.

PUGLIA & IT'S ANCIENT OLIVE TREES

The region of Puglia is one of the most famous in Italy for extra virgin olive oils. Said to be first cultivated here from around 3,000 years ago by the ancient Messapians, olive trees cover the landscape and the region is now said to have over 60 million olive trees. So it's not surprising that Puglia is also the region where the most millinarium trees can be found - olive trees which are over a thousand years old.

Driving through Puglia you will see groves and groves of these trees and they are absolutely magnificent. Their contorted trunks twist clockwise (legend has it that they follow the rotation of the earth) and they quietly sit on the red earth of the groves in beautiful contrast with their full green foliage of the old branches.

ABANDONED GROVES & HOW YOU HELP

Unfortunately many of these ancient and often family run groves are abandoned because of the economy of producing extra virgin olive oil. Industrial farming has made it economically very difficult to run traditional olive groves like these, because the large scale, high impact farming practices have much lower costs and so in the market they appear much more competitive to the average consumer.

However we also know that these smaller groves who use authentic practices can produce some of the best and most delicious oil. But often as they are forced to turn away from commercial farming and move to only personal production and use, the amazing extra virgin olive oil doesn't make it out of the local areas.

So we are very happy to be able to support some of these smaller groves in Puglia this month with our adoption program, and for you to try their amazing extra virgin olive oil. From the groves and from Nudo, we thank all our adoptive parents for their support & role in this.

A Monovarietal oil comes from one single olive variety. Each olive variety has different characteristics, so as a monovarietal this is not blended with others and has a well-defined flavour.

The Piantone olive tree is of moderate size with high-density foliage and fruit, and grows at 600 metres altitude. Its fruit is peculiar: a little rounded, medium to large, a bit like a small lime. The extra virgin olive oil produced is slightly fruity with green cut grass scents, hints of almond and tomato.

The Piantone olive, note its unique shape

The Piantone olives in this monovarietal extra virgin olive oil come from small groves in Mogliano, a little village in Le Marche. At the time of the Roman Empire, Mogliano was a land of olive trees, becoming the main olive oil supplier for the city of Rome.

Mogliano village, Le Marche

TASTE your PIANTONE di MOGLIANO

Le Marche is home to rolling hills but also a stretch of the coast of the Adriatic sea which is abundant with seafood. So naturally, the cultivars of the areas go well with this. Try octopus salad with your Piantone di Mogliano extra virgin olive oil.

While bees are not the world’s only pollinators, the reason they are so important is they are perfectly adapted to pollinate. They love variation in their food and unlike other pollinators who gather to feed themselves, bees gather the pollen to carry back to their hives. Because of this they visit many different plants and flowers carrying the pollen between them which makes them hugely productive in this role.

A happy bumblebee in the wildflowers on our Ligurian grove.

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Bee pollination is specifically important for humans as the majority of plants we rely on for food, those which are rich in micro-nutrients, rely on pollination to produce. While we may survive without bees, our diets would become very dull and would lack the nutrition and diversity we need. Further, it is not only the plants we eat that need pollination, but also the plants we use to feed our agricultural herds. In short, bees are crucial to us.

Quick buzz on why bees are so important

• The majority of our farmed crops rely on pollinators and bees are the most important
• This means they are vital to both diversity in our food and the fight against world hunger
• Ensuring their survival along with other pollinators is crucial to help build resilience in our ecosystems to adapt to climate change

There are several factors that are contributing to the threat on bees this including loss of habitat, urbanisation and climate change. But the one that is particularly concerning to us is "colony collapse disorder".

What is colony collapse disorder?

The phenomenon called "colony collapse disorder" has devastated bee populations with some hives losing 90% of their bees.

It first appeared in 2016 when beekeepers started reporting unusually high losses of their bees. Half of the affected colonies were showing symptoms inconsistent with any known cause of bee die-off at the time - it wasn’t simply that they were dying, they were completely disappearing from the hives and often all at once, leaving behind the queen with high honey and pollen reserves. The reason it is called “colony collapse disorder” is that although the food stores remained, a hive cannot survive without the worker bees bringing back new food. And so, the colony collapses.

There are various contributors to colony collapse disorder, but the leading one is neonicotinoid pesticides. 

What are neonicotinoid pesticides?

Since their introduction in the early 1900's neonicotinoid pesticides have become the most widely used pesticide to protect cultivated crops which flower including cereal, beets, and fruit trees.

There was denial in the industry about their impact on bees at first, with things such as mites and mould in the hives being blamed for bee die off, but these harmful chemical pesticides are now known to be a key cause. In fact, while climate change and urbanisation are also impacting on bee populations, neonicotinoid pesticides are now widely believed to be the leading cause of colony collapse disorder.

Why are neonicotinoid pesticides so destructive to bees?

What neonicotinoid pesticides do to bees is scramble their memory so they can't find their way back to their hives. They also cut sperm count, dropping reproduction numbers worldwide. Further, disturbingly they have shown to be highly addictive to bees. Neonicotinoid pesticides have a similar chemical structure as nicotine and research has shown that the addictive nature is causing the bees to return to the harmful areas again and again, repeating the damage over and over.

Three facts that will sting

• 23 pollinator species in the UK have already gone extinct
• Over 700 North American bee species are heading towards extinction
• Pollination-dependent crops are five times more valuable to us than those that do not need pollination.

What is being done about this?

There are five neonicotinoid pesticides that have been identified as specifically linked to bee die off and colony collapse disorder:

Clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, thiacloprid and acetamiprid. 

In a move to save the bees in Europe, the first three have been banned in all farming practices under EU law. France has now taken it a step further and also banned the last two from all their farming. Let's hope that all countries follow suit in banning all five of these harmful neonicotinoid pesticides.

• The 5 neonicotinoid pesticides linked to bee die off:
  Clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, thiacloprid and acetamiprid.
• The 3 banned by the EU: Clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam
• France has also banned: thiacloprid and acetamiprid.
• Nudo uses: zero

What is Nudo doing?

We do not and have never used neonicotinoid pesticides on our olive groves. We believe that non chemical pesticides are the way forward for protecting our land and environment for the future. We use sustainable and organic methods on our groves because we believe it is the right thing to do for all of us now and for future generations.

Also, we are also simply quite fond of bees and love seeing them happy and healthy, buzzing around our groves! 75% of wildflower populations are pollinated by bees, so without them our landscape would be far more dull - we would certainly notice this on our olive groves.

Wildflowers on Feudo Marchesa olive grove, Sicily

Several of our olive groves also have beehives on them to help maintain and grow the healthy bee population. These are the hives at Nonno Tato olive grove in Sicily where the bees enjoy the citrus blossom in the grapefruit grove next door and all the wild flowers on the olive grove. It's a good place to be a bee.

Beehives on between Nonno Tato and neighbouring grapefruit grove in Sicily
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Find out more about our organic and sustainable farming methods here.

What you can do?

• Know your food source. The single most important thing is to know where and who your food is coming from. With industrialisation as well as fraud and misleading labelling becoming more commonplace, it’s more crucial than ever to know your food source.
• Go organic. Organic certification will guarantee that no harmful chemicals are used as it is within the regulations. However, not being certified organic doesn't mean that the producer is not using organic practices in their farming methods. Certification is expensive so it can price out some small producers, so knowing and trusting your food source can be more valuable than certification.
• Support sustainable & ethical practices. Understand what your values are around food and production and be sure to follow them. This means more work in reading labels and researching producers, however you will know that you are part of a positive change. Plus, by the simple nature of the sustainable and ethical methods used vs industrial methods, the quality and taste of food is often much, much better.
• Speak up. Sign petitions, share articles, and talk to people. The more we shine a light on this issue, the more action we will see.

Tiziano and the view out to the vineyards from his grove, Aleandri

Tiziano is passionate about his authentic olive farming methods: he is very connected to the landscape and cycles, feels strongly about his organic practices, and is a wild source of knowledge of all things olive oil including being a professional extra virgin olive oil taster.

Aleandri olive grove was abandoned before Tiziano and his father took it on; the trees had no foliage and were in dire need of some TLC to produce olives again. But Tiziano is a pruning champion having won the famous golden secateurs as the national pruning champion at the Campionato Nazionale di Potatura dell'olivo. Used his expert skills to brought the trees back to life and restored land the beautiful fruitful olive grove it is today.

Tiziano explaining his pruning technique to us.

Watch here to hear more from Tiziano on the Le Marche region and how he rejuvenated his abandoned olive grove in Le Marche, Italy.

We are seriously proud of our Extra Virgin Olive Oil, our mission is to share premium and authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil around the world as we believe in the health benefits of the oil in your diet and that quality really matters with the product. So receiving acclaim by international judges for this in three categories when competing against the very best of oils from around the world, well, it feels good.

The purpose of the LIOOC is to inform and promote growers and producers about the importance of quality in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and help to preserve this in the industry. Also, to promote the health benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to push this to new consumers including in schools and the culinary world. Further, to explore and admire the diverse varieties of olives and advance the knowledge of tasting these, and celebrate their presentation in these differences through creative packaging and design.

At Nudo we are proud of our product and have the same values  and passion as the competition and to have won in all three areas of this.

Quality
The premium quality of our product which comes through in aroma and taste.

Health claim
The health benefits of our product are shown through the chemical analysis of the oil.

Packaging design
For our unique and attractive tin design.

With a lot of fraud and misleading labeling in the Extra Virgin Olive Oil world, and more and more intensive farming practices, it is important to know and trust the brand you are buying. After all, you want to have the best quality and know what you are putting in your body. Nudo values this in all of our shop oils, and of course our olive tree adoption program being the penultimate, and pride ourselves on being a trusted brand. Now we officially know others agree.

Firstly, olive oil is the oldest unadulterated food in the world. So many things are chemically manipulated, heat treated or somehow processed. Even pure things like wine, which has admittedly been around for millennia like olive oil, has sulphites added to it. Extra virgin olive oil is the oil from the olive fruit. No more, no less.

Secondly, olive oil is the only oil that is extracted from a fruit. All the other oils we use are from seeds. The trouble with seeds is that their oil has to be chemically extracted using an industrial solvent. Then oil and solvent need to be separated in a refinery. All a bit yuck. With the olive, the fruit is crushed, then the oil simply separated from the water using only centrifugal (spinning) force. No chemicals and no funny business. Totally transparent.

And so we ended up making olive oil. I do still harbour a little fantasy about a bottle of wine with my name on it though...

The nighttime temperature has dropped here in Liguria as there is snow further up in the Alps. Daytime temperatures are still over 18 degrees when the sun shines but at night the temperature is down to chilly 4 degrees.

This is good news for us late harvesters as it means that the olive fly is less likely to make an appearance and we can leave the olives for a few more days to reach their optimum size before harvest.

Of course the trees on the lower hills are being harvested but here at Bestagno it is a waiting game.

To pass the time this weekend we made our annual trip to Imperia’s olive festival to sample the olio nuovo from those lucky enough to have finished their harvest.

Over the years the festival has grown and taken on new dimensions.

Not only is there the usual marquee along the harbor front housing traditional displays from each Commune acting as something of a tourist information centre, but as far as I can tell producers from all over Italy come with their olives, cheese, cured meats and every other traditional Italian product you could name.

Rather like Harvest Festival in the UK there is something reassuring about this annual celebration of the region’s traditions especially in these turbulent times. This year in Imperia over 800 people lost their jobs as one of our local big employers Agnesi pasta closed a large part of its production in the local factory, moving production to Eastern Europe.

The knock on effect is visible across the town as other smaller businesses reliant upon local customers have been forced to close their doors.

But despite the ongoing economic gloom people turned out in their droves refusing to have their spirits dampened for what is undoubtedly our region’s most important event.

Lectures and seminars given by some of Italy’s most eminent food scientists are promoted as well as workshops on climate change, Mediterranean diet and of course the latest information about the health giving properties of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Of particular interest are the displays of old implements and traditional equipment proudly displayed by members of a generation who remember using them in less mechanised times.

I have to say after a few hours we were glad to return home and enjoy this wonderful traditional spicy fruit cake from the nearby Commune of Bogomaro further up in the hills.

With nature, some years you win and some you lose. This year, the combination of a mild winter and a warm, wet summer created the ideal breeding conditions for the dreaded ‘mosca’ or olive fly. No-one realised how bad it was until the olives started to shrivel up and fall off the trees as early as the start of October. And things have only become worse since then.

“Most groves have lost at least half their crop and some groves don’t have a single olive on a single tree,” Giuseppe told us. And news of the disaster is spreading fast. “Last week we had a rush of people coming to buy last year’s oil. We had to limit them to 10litres a family – it was like wartime rationing. I have actually seen grown men cry.”

There is now no doubt that next year will see a drought of premium Italian olive oil, and the price of what is available will rocket. Nudo producers have all been affected but we have done our utmost to protect Nudo customers and adoptive parents. The fact that we work with our groves over the long-term and pre-order the oil means that we have first right to all the oil that they have produced. In the few groves where crops have failed disastrously, we have managed to secure high quality alternatives.

We are sorry to be the bearers of bad tidings but as they say there’s no controlling nature. It is no exaggeration to say that over the coming year, Nudo adoptive parents will be among the few people around the world – even including Italy – able to enjoy Italian extra virgin olive oil.

And be warned, there will be less trees available for adoption this winter.

Every producer in Italy (and probably producers in all olive growing regions of the world) swears that theirs is the most flavorsome, the most superior and the healthiest oil.

Pre-warned by Jason and Cathy the founders of Nudo, who had gone through all of the same in their olive grove in Le Marche, I kept my head down taking their advice that there was only one way to do this and that was to learn for myself.

There really is no great unfathomable mystery to growing olives or making great extra virgin olive oil. There is undoubtedly a great deal to learn for the novice but olive trees are notoriously hard to kill so even when starting out learning how to prune, it is unlikely you will finish off a tree for good with a bad haircut. There are corners certainly not to be cut and most importantly the friendship of an honest and serious miller. But once you understand how to care for your trees, are prepared to put in the time and investment and to continually learn about new pests (currently a terrible virus sweeping through some Italian groves) and how to prevent your trees from being attacked by the evil olive fly, farming olives is not too dissimilar to caring for the apple and plum orchards I remember from my childhood when visiting family on the banks of the Severn in Gloucestershire.

Toby tasting his own oil for the very first time in November 2007

Toby with his first 'vats' of oil

The annual olive tree cycle

In early spring, after the cold and snow of winter but before the sap rises in the trees, we prune them. The technique involves cutting away any excess growth so that three or four main branches form a bowl shape, or technically speaking a ‘polyconic vase’. This shape means that all parts of the tree get maximum sunlight, and it also makes the olives easier to pick.

Over the summer the buds flower and then the olives start to develop. We leave them pretty much to their own devices, adding some organic fertilizer, trimming the grass around their trunks and keeping an eye on the wild boars that forage for roots around the groves.

By autumn the trees are dripping with green olives, which turn first to a mottled purple colour and then gradually to dark brown or black. Not everyone knows that green olives are just immature black ones.

Toby 

When Toby left TreeHouse School in London six years ago and with the support of our Local Council who fund his carers' wages through his ‘personal budget care package’ we had the opportunity of designing a lifestyle for Toby based on what he likes to do, his strengths and passions.

Too often a young person like Toby is sentenced to a life in a residential home, probably miles away from their family and the community where they grew up and with limited opportunity to ever be a part of a community or to have opportunities or experiences an able peer would take for granted, let alone take part in a company like Nudo.

At the very heart of what we wanted for Toby was for him to do something real when he left school not just to do made up things to pass the time as so many people in his position end up doing. We wanted him to be a central part of something sustainable, to contribute and be productive and most importantly to be in the company of people who will support and value him for being who he is.

Toby has always relished fresh food and from an early age his favourite meals included pasta, pesto, lemons, olives and olive oil.  He is an outdoor person and whilst he enjoys life in London he has always loved gardening and working with animals which was going to be hard to sustain as a lifestyle choice for Toby unless he also had access to the countryside. This seemed to be the starting point for thinking about what his life should be.

It was Toby’s absolute passion for olives and olive oil and to be honest most Italian food that got us thinking about the possibility of an Italian olive grove with an olive oil business in the UK.  Living close to London’s Borough Market and seeing the growing interest in healthy eating and the rise of the small producer we decided to put all our eggs in one basket to enable Toby to become an olive farmer.

Bestagno's first harvest 2007

We down sized our family home in London and set about finding an Italian olive grove eventually settling in a small backwater in the small coastal region of Liguria.  It was our early research that led us to meet up with Jason and Cathy the Founders of Nudo at their groves called Rosalio in Le Marche. Over the coming years Jason and Cathy gave us so much advice about pruning our trees, pressing our olives and were hugely generous with all sorts of invaluable information we soon became good friends and in 2014 just as we were starting to make a commercially viable amount of oil they asked us to join the team at Nudo and we were delighted to accept.

Any parents with a youngster like Toby agonize about their child’s future and what their life will be after school.

Toby with his carer Curtis and mum Katharine

Thanks to the changes in government policy young people like Toby can now be supported to live their lives in the community taking part in things they like to do and everyday things an able peer group enjoy and don’t think twice about. Toby now splits his time between working in the grove in Italy and being involved with Nudo at its offices in Borough Market in London. At all times he is supported by one of his carers so he lives in the real world doing something he loves and contributing to something that we are building for his future.

Sharing this with you we hope will continue to break down the barriers people like Toby have in simply living their lives and also to show how important the government’s policy of closing the old style residential homes is, just as long as they use that funding to enable people to live supported lives in their own homes and communities. Importantly there is not a ‘one model fits all structure’ and we know that not all parents can organize their lives around their youngster. Government and society should not look at supported living for people like Toby as simply a cheaper option. We passionately believe that it is the right and moral option and one that makes a stronger and better society for us all.