From Milan to Puglia, EVOO Lies at The Heart of Christmas Cooking in Italy

“I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the peo­ple; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Thus, accord­ing to the evan­ge­list Luke’s account, an angel announced to some shep­herds, who were watch­ing over their flocks nearby Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus in a manger.

The bliss of that night more than 2,000 years ago still shines in the most heart­felt hol­i­day for Italians: Christmas – a Christian holy day that sends out a pow­er­ful mes­sage of love and shar­ing that is also cel­e­brated by non-believ­ers and those of other faiths.

For many, fes­tiv­i­ties cul­mi­nate with Christmas Eve din­ner on December 24^th, while in some areas, peo­ple pre­fer to gather for lunch on the 25^th. As a result, there is no one-size-fits-all rule regard­ing Italian Christmas food tra­di­tions.

In a coun­try with rich cul­tural and tra­di­tional her­itage, the prepa­ra­tion of a local dish gen­er­ally changes from one town to the next, and the choice of spe­cial­ties in fes­tive meals varies accord­ing to the area – in Italy, one can­not talk about tra­di­tion with­out talk­ing about ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity.

Yet, among the myr­iad of deli­cious vari­a­tions on the theme, one ingre­di­ent applies to all of them: at Christmas, extra vir­gin olive oil is essen­tial on all Italian tables.

“The right extra vir­gin olive oil high­lights the dish, enhanc­ing its fla­vors, but must not over­whelm or dis­ap­pear in respect of the food,” the olive oil som­me­lier and Euro-Toques chef Fabrizio Bertucci told Olive Oil times. ​“We try to com­bine the organolep­tic prop­er­ties of the two ele­ments to give the palate sen­sa­tions that leave a mark, par­tic­u­larly on a spe­cial occa­sion like this.”

“I, there­fore, rec­om­mend stock­ing up on dif­fer­ent extra vir­gin olive oils before you start prepar­ing your Christmas meals,” he added. ​“We must take into account their inten­sity, fruiti­ness and scents. When we talk about tra­di­tional food, the autochtho­nous olive vari­eties fit well in the recipes usu­ally linked to the ter­ri­tory.”

We must remem­ber that, in line with an ancient pre­cept that has become a tra­di­tion, Christmas Eve din­ner does not con­tain meat, which is allowed on Christmas lunch.

“It would be ideal to have at least one light fruity oil, given the preva­lence of seafood on the din­ner table,” Bertucci said. ​“An intense fruiti­ness can be cho­sen for the more struc­tured dishes that dom­i­nate the lunch on the 25^th, then a few oth­ers accord­ing to the dis­tinc­tive char­ac­ters of each dish and for cook­ing.”

For those con­scious of pur­chas­ing and open­ing mul­ti­ple bot­tles of olive oil at once, a bot­tle of extra vir­gin olive oil can be used many more times after an event.

Furthermore, the higher the qual­ity of a prod­uct, the more its taste stands out and the less needed on a plate, guar­an­tee­ing an excel­lent qual­ity-to-price ratio.

Consider this while read­ing about some of the dishes from dif­fer­ent Italian regions and culi­nary inspi­ra­tions paired with extra vir­gin olive oils by the sec­tor’s pro­fes­sion­als.

“Among the appe­tiz­ers of the Christmas din­ner, I pre­pare mar­i­nated anchovies,” said Federico Iavicoli, chef and owner of Fuorinorma in Rome. ​“This blue fish has always been part of the tra­di­tion of Roman cui­sine with cod, as an impor­tant fish mar­ket was once located at the Portico di Ottavia in the heart of the city.”

Considering a por­tion of five or six anchovies per guest, Iavicoli cleans, debones and removes the heads from the fish. (Note: Keep the anchovies in the freezer for at least 24 hours if made at home to ren­der them safe).

He then puts them in lay­ers of coarse salt, adding thyme, for about 25 min­utes. Next, he care­fully removes the salt and adds a pre­vi­ously made mix of pep­per grains, a pecu­liar­ity of the Roman-style mari­nade, lemon juice and wine vine­gar, leav­ing the anchovies to mar­i­nate for no more than 20 min­utes.

“At the end, I pour lemon zest, finely chopped pars­ley, and the oil,” Iavicoli said. ​“I use a light fruity mono­va­ri­etal, choos­ing between Canino, Frantoio or Leccino from Lazio or south­ern Tuscany, or even a Tonda Iblea from Sicily or a Ligurian Taggiasca.”

The first dish comes from Stefano Sorci, chef and owner of L’Oste Dispensa, located on Giannella beach in the province of Grosseto, who pre­pares his Spaghetti alla bot­targa di Orbetello.

“This bot­targa (roe) is obtained from dried and cured eggs of mul­let fish from the Orbetello Lagoon,” he explained. ​“With a rich bio­di­ver­sity, it has been a pro­tected area since 1971 and has great envi­ron­men­tal impor­tance. It is no coin­ci­dence that the Orbetello bot­targa is a Slow Food pre­sid­ium linked with the tra­di­tional fish­ing of the area.”

As he boils the spaghetti in plenty of salted water, Sorci pours the oil into a pan with chili pep­per, pars­ley and gar­lic, cook­ing them at a tem­per­a­ture no higher than 60 °C.

He then adds lemon juice and a lit­tle bit of the water in which the pasta was cooked and lets the pan sit, allow­ing the stew to aro­m­a­tize.

Once the spaghetti is cooked al dente, Sorci pours it into the pan and starts cream­ing. When a creamy sauce is released, he adds 150 grams of the pre­vi­ously grated roe and allows it to emul­sify, mak­ing it homo­ge­neous.

“I com­plete it with thin slices of bot­targa and a driz­zle of oil,” Sorci said. ​“In this prepa­ra­tion, I use an organic blend pro­duced near Mount Amiata with Correggiolo, Leccino and Olivastra seg­gianese.”

The sec­ond Christmas Eve dish comes from Puglia, Italy’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region. It requires two extra vir­gin olive oils to be used while cook­ing and as a gar­nish.

“The ​‘Cod of the poor peas­ant’ in this area is tra­di­tion­ally pre­pared for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8^th, and again on Christmas Eve,” said Emanuele Natalizio, chef and owner of Il Patriarca in Bitonto in the province of Bari.

He slices a layer of pota­toes to cover the bot­tom of a clay pan before adding the sec­ond layer of freshly peeled tomato.

Natalizio then puts the desalted and skinned cod on it and tears toma­toes by hand, adding them on top of the cod with red onion, basil, pars­ley, sweet pit­ted olives and a driz­zle of mono­va­ri­etal Ogliarola Cima di Bitonto olive oil.

Next, he put the dish in the oven at 200 ºC to 220°C for about one hour. Halfway through, he adds bread­crumbs, torn tomato and a bit of water.

“At the end, we pour pecorino cheese, grated or used in a fon­due and fin­ish with a round of Coratina,” Natalizio said. ​“During cook­ing, a group­ing of fla­vors arises from the com­bi­na­tion of the var­i­ous ingre­di­ents which enhance the cod, together with the cheese.”

“After the light inten­sity of the Cima di Bitonto oil dur­ing prepa­ra­tion, a struc­tured one like Coratina height­ens the aro­mas obtained at the end,” he added.

When it comes to sweets, Panettone is a must-have dessert dur­ing Christmas. Originally from Milan, it requires a slow and com­plex prepa­ra­tion that includes but­ter, but in recent years a ver­sion with extra vir­gin olive oil has taken hold.

“We car­ried out var­i­ous tests and research,” said the pas­try chef Luca Lacalamita, owner of the bak­ery and pas­try shop Lula in Trani, Puglia. ​“We wanted to obtain a prod­uct sim­i­lar in struc­ture to the tra­di­tional one.”

“We cre­ated a veg­etable but­ter com­posed mostly of Coratina extra vir­gin olive oil, coconut oil and cocoa but­ter emul­si­fied with lecithin,” he explained.

Lacalamita said the result is a bright green veg­etable but­ter that he uses in the dough, which has three phases of knead­ing and fer­men­ta­tions with mother yeast.

“We also include a paste made with orange, lemon, and berg­amot,” he added. ​“Its aroma goes per­fectly with the scents of the mono­va­ri­etal.”

In Tuscany, Andrea Perini, chef and owner of Al 588 in Bagno a Ripoli, near Florence, and Tommaso Vatti, pizza chef at La Pergola di Radicondoli in the province of Siena, cre­ated a panet­tone with a blend from their region.

“We usu­ally choose a very scented prod­uct from this area, green of leaf, arti­choke, car­doon, and not very bit­ter,” Perini said. ​“Alternatively, we would use an Itrana. We com­bined it with cocoa but­ter in a veg­etable mass that we incor­po­rate into our clas­sic fla­vor panet­tone dough.”

“What is essen­tial to start our meal on the 25^th is a bruschetta, a toasted bread slice driz­zled with the new oil,” he added while pre­sent­ing the menu of its Christmas lunch. ​“Then, as an appe­tizer, I would pre­pare a good Chianina fil­let tartare with a driz­zle of a Frantoio, Moraiolo, and Leccino blend. It coun­ter­acts the meat’s sweet­ness with its bit­ter­ness and spici­ness, enhanc­ing its fea­tures.”

Perini goes on with cap­pel­letti in broth as a first course. ​“I com­plete this fresh pasta filled with bread soup with a Frantoio mono­va­ri­etal that is spicy and explo­sive, with green and bal­samic notes, as required by the fill­ing that has a preva­lence of black cab­bage,” he said.

“As a sec­ond course, a nice piece of Casentino gray piglet, cooked at low tem­per­a­ture and grilled, can be served with a puree made with Leccino, bal­anced in bit­ter­ness and spici­ness, that gives a fresh grass taste to the pota­toes,” Perini con­cluded.