Olive Oil: A Pillar of Italian Cuisine and UNESCO Heritage

Italia Olivicola is celebrating this prestigious recognition by highlighting that extra virgin olive oil is an essential ingredient in the nation's culinary traditions.

Italian cuisine has officially been inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. Yet there is no Italian cuisine without extra virgin olive oil. Italia Olivicola is keen to underline this fact, expressing pride in having actively supported the bid alongside the Italian government and the Ministry of Agriculture.

Comments from Gennaro Sicolo

Italian olive growers could not have done otherwise than stand behind the great tradition of Italian cuisine.

"We did it abroad, aboard the Amerigo Vespucci, in Rome, and in many other places. This support is a duty, because it is only by defending the cultural value of Italian cuisine that we can also defend our national olive-growing land."

— Gennaro Sicolo, President of Italia Olivicola and National Vice-President of the Italian Confederation of Farmers (CIA).

The diversity of dishes and olive oils

Italian culinary recipes are shaped by local farm produce and seasonality, but the common thread running through them is always superb Italian extra virgin olive oils:

• Orecchiette with turnip greens: it would never have earned worldwide fame without a drizzle of Coratina olive oil.
• Pasta alla Norma: it would not be nearly as delicious without aubergine fried in extra virgin Nocellara olive oil.
• Tuscan ribollita: famed for its use of Frantoio and Moraiolo olive oils.

A celebration of unity and flavour

Sicolo went on to say: "This is a joyful day, coinciding with the olive oil campaign and harvest season, which has always been a moment of celebration for olive growers. Wherever I go in the world, I always discover, with great delight, that a little bread with oil is a moment of unity and connection. That is what Italian cuisine is: conviviality, pleasure, and a way of experiencing flavour. And I must remember that good extra virgin olive oil combines both taste and wellbeing."

The raw oil drizzle: that drizzle of raw olive oil so popular on television should not, and cannot, be underestimated. With the recognition of Italian cuisine as a UNESCO world heritage, that very gesture should itself become a moment of cultural joy.

This is the appeal and the hope of the 250 Italian olive growers united within Italia Olivicola.

Source: Olivonews