November is the time to harvest olives in this part of Italy. The timing isn’t precise and depends a lot on the weather and individual growers’ preferences for degrees of ripeness, but late October and early November are the typical months of the harvest.

Many factors affect the olives - weather throughout the growing season, tree health and insects. 2018 was a great year for olives and production of high-quality olive oil. 2019 has not been as good. Olives thrive when the summers are hot and dry. The humidity this summer was high, which meant there were more problems with a certain type of insect (una mosca, a fly) that damages the fruit. So the crop is smaller and there are fewer olives to press.

Yet, on the day that I arrived at Frantoio Lenzi, as part of a weeklong olive oil-themed cooking class at Lucca Italian School, the frantoio  (olive oil mill) was buzzing with activity as people arrived with their just-picked olives ready to be turned into oil. Mostly these were small family enterprises that grow, harvest, and press olives to make oil for their own use, enough to last all year. If you are lucky enough to know one of these producers, you just might be presented with a bottle of newly pressed oil, a most precious gift. For those not lucky enough to have an olive-grower friend, Frantoio Lenzi also has its own olive grove. They press and sell their own oil - a liter tin now rests in a cool, dark place in my kitchen in Lucca.

Romantic images of old-fashioned olive oil presses aside, this is a modern press with carefully controlled methods of processing olives. This modern method has the advantage of being able to guarantee that the oil an individual grower takes homes is 100 percent their own oil, with no added oil leftover from a previous batch. It also carefully controls the temperature during pressing. The oil produced by the modern method may be less in quantity but is higher in quality.   

Learning about the process of harvesting, transporting, and pressing the olives was fun - especially since our small group was able to watch the process in action. We were accompanied to the frantoio by Antonella Martini, Lucca Italian School’s resident olive oil and wine expert. Antonella explained the process in clear and well-paced Italian for our group of seven students. We learned that the olives should not be picked on a rainy day (a challenge this November as there has been a lot of rain in this part of Tuscany) and should arrive at the frantoio within 12 to 24 hours of harvesting.  It’s also important to transport the olives in open crates so they have plenty of air circulation. Transporting them in closed containers or plastic bags allows fermentation to begin, which reduces the quality of the oil. 

Our group watched as the olives arrived in big batches, were weighed, and then went up a conveyer belt to the machine that separates the fruit from the leaves and then washes the olives. The olives are then ground into a paste and stirred to release the oils along with small quantities of water. The olive paste then goes through a centrifuge to separate the water from the oil, and eventually the pure oil, which is golden to green in color, arrives at the end of the process. It is store ideally in metal containers. Plastic and glass are not good for storage as they allow light, which degrades quality (thanks to Antonella for sharing so much information about this process).

There is a real thrill in waiting, waiting, waiting for the oil to arrive from the centrifuge. It starts as a drip and then becomes a stream as it enters a steel basin where it pools and is then decanted into storage containers. The fragrance made me long for just a little grilled bread to drizzle with a bit of the fresh oil. I can imagine how it felt to be the person who cultivated the olives, watched those olives be processed, and now watched as they got the first scent of the oil that will flavor their soups and breads all fall and winter.  

The visit to the frantoio was just one experience of the olive oil class. We also had a blind olive oil tasting one afternoon. I’m happy to say that I was able to distinguish between the good oil from Frantoio Lenzi and the supermarket brand. We first tasted the oils by themselves, then with a mild cheese, on bread, and lastly compared them as they flavored a classic tomato-based soup, thick with bread, called pappa al pomodoro.

The week concluded with an afternoon of cooking at the beautiful Fattoria di Fubbiano - a villa in the hills outside Lucca where olives and grapes are grown and lovely wines and oils produced. The villa has amazing views and a beautiful farm house kitchen in which we prepared the meal.  

We cooked with traditional fall ingredients, including vegetables, porcini, and pumpkin. Among the dishes we made were a soup that is a local specialty - zuppa frantoiana Lucchese - thick with beans, rice, and bread - and meant to be served with a drizzle of the olive oil fresh from the frantoio. It’s a delicious and hearty fall dish that was especially good accompanied by the Fubbiano wines.

The meal also included an appetizer with polenta and porcini, a pasta fatto a mano (handmade) with walnuts and artichokes, a dish of tiny pork ribs cooked in tomatoes and olives, and - perhaps the star of the meal - a sformatino (a sort of vegetable pudding) made with pumpkin, leeks, and sausage.  

Let’s not forget a dolce (a sweet) at the end. Cantuccini (small biscotti) with almonds, flavored with orange peel and served with vin santo. 

A cooking class like this is exactly my cup of tea (or perhaps I should say my glass of vino). The small group was friendly, with students from England, Australia, the United States,, and Japan. The cooking teachers - Eva Dal Porto and Chiara Benvenuti - are amazing. They made us work for our supper and we loved every minute! -post by Joanne