Filling Up With 70 Kilos Of Unbottled Extra Virgin Olive Oil

This week is the beginning of Spring & the start of the season at our inn which means it's time to replenish the supplies that we don't produce ourselves like wine & olive oil. So this week we drove to the Ancona area (Osimo) and bought 70 kilos of un-bottled, extra virgin olive oil!
 
 First off I love olive oil, I could seriously sit & eat an entire loaf of any bread, by ripping it into hunks and letting it drown in oil with a few good cracks of salt on-top. (Accompanied by troppo vino of course..) I could do that dinner. Needless to say when it comes to sampling oils, I am a huge fan since they can be so different and range in color & flavor, from smooth & buttery to sharp & green. We have spent the past few years 'sampling,' trying to pick a 'house oil' from Le Marche and finally came up with a winner: Guzzini – Laura, extra virgin, perfectly floral & fatty. 
 
 
This year we decided to buy 4 types of olive oil 'loose' or sfuso which is also how we buy the wine we bottle. It means that we show up at the warehouse with our own container, in this case 50 liter stainless steel demijohns and fill them up with oil that has not been bottled, but instead left untouched after being pressed in the massive floor to ceiling containers. They open a valve located about 4-5 inches from the bottom (this allows any impurities to settle on the bottom below the valve) letting the golden oil flow out. 
  In addition to "Laura" we purchased "Campolavoro" with a peppery & green finish, which I love dunking in bread. And "Monte" a blend of two olives with a clean taste to contrast the other two. We use these oils interchangeably for salads & finishing pastas, meats & fish – never to be exposed to the heat of a pan. The fourth oil, is the everyday oil we cook with from the Consortium of Agriculture in Perugia. For more on how Jason uses oil read: Olive Oil 101
 
 
The oil is sold by weight, in kilo. After the canister is filled about half way, it's hoisted onto an over-sized scale and weighed. Then by eye, he tops it off with another 7 kilos spot-on, as we weigh it again, it hits the mark at 30 kilos exactly. We filled the rest of our jugs up and drove home with precious cargo, buckled in the back seat. 
Next up: wine....now that will be hundreds of liters & a rental truck!
Via Ancona, 55  60027 S.Biagio di Osimo (AN)
tel. 071.7108365