If you have read my piece on Dolceacqua, you already know I have been coaxing you westward, into the Riviera di Ponente, the sunset coast of my own Liguria that almost no English-language guide bothers with. Here is the other half of that story, and for me the more delicious one: the olive oil.
I am Ligurian, and I did not truly understand our oil until I spent a day making it. A few autumns ago I helped farmer friends bring in their harvest on the terraces near Borgo San Pietro, spreading the nets under the trees, combing the branches so the olives rained down, hauling the full sacks to the mill. It is back-breaking, beautiful work, and there is no better way to understand a place than to work its land for a day. You come away understanding why the oil costs what it costs, and why it is worth every cent.
What makes Ligurian oil special
Liguria is a thin strip of land pinched between the mountains and the sea, and its olive groves cling to dry-stone terraces built by hand up impossibly steep hillsides, the same viticoltura eroica, heroic cultivation, that makes our wine. There is no room for machines. Much of it is still gathered by hand, tree by tree, which is why real Ligurian oil is never cheap, and never should be.
The prize is the DOP Riviera Ligure, the protected designation that guarantees the oil comes from here and is made the right way, from local olive varieties: above all the Taggiasca, the little olive of the western Riviera, along with the Lavagnina, Razzola and Pignola. The DOP carries one of three geographical names depending on where it is grown:
- Riviera dei Fiori, from the province of Imperia in the far west, at least 90% Taggiasca, the most prized: pale gold, delicate, sweet, with a whisper of almond.
- Riviera del Ponente Savonese, from the province of Savona, at least half Taggiasca.
- Riviera di Levante, from the Genoa and La Spezia side, my side, where the Lavagnina and Razzola come into their own.
What unites them is delicacy. Ligurian oil is not the big, peppery, throat-catching oil of the south. It is gentle, fruity, elegant, an oil that flatters delicate food rather than shouting over it, which is exactly why our cuisine is built on it.
How it is made
The harvest runs from about October to February, later here than in much of Italy because our olives ripen slowly by the sea. The best producers press within a day of picking, cold, to keep the acidity low and the fragrance alive. It takes a great many olives to make a little oil, so a bottle of the real thing is the distillate of a whole hillside’s labour.
How to taste it, and eat it
Good extra virgin oil should smell alive, of fresh grass, artichoke, green almond, and taste fruity, with, in a young oil, a gentle bitterness and a peppery tickle at the back of the throat. In a Taggiasca oil that pepper is soft; the sweetness leads.
At the Ligurian table it is everywhere, and it is the point. It is the base of pesto, our great gift to the world, where a harsh oil would ruin everything. It dresses our focaccia, our fish, our vegetables. The tiny whole taggiasca olives turn up in coniglio alla ligure, rabbit braised with olives, pine nuts and herbs, and in countless everyday dishes. Drizzle a good Riviera Ligure oil raw over grilled fish, or over bread still warm, and you will taste centuries of these terraces.
How to experience it for yourself
The loveliest way is to go to the source. In the western Riviera you can visit frantoi, the mills, especially around Imperia and the Taggia valley that gives the Taggiasca its name, and buy direct from the people who made it. Imperia also has a serious olive museum, the Museo dell’Olivo, that tells the whole story. And a jar of good taggiasca olives or a tin of DOP oil is the best, most Ligurian thing you can carry home, far better than a fridge magnet.
Come for Monet’s bridge at Dolceacqua, then, but stay for the oil. Between the two, you will have understood the Riviera di Ponente better than most people ever do, and eaten very well while you were at it.
Frequently asked questions
It is the protected-designation-of-origin (PDO) extra virgin olive oil of Liguria, guaranteeing it is grown and made in the region from local olive varieties, chiefly the Taggiasca, along with Lavagnina, Razzola and Pignola. It carries one of three geographical names, Riviera dei Fiori (Imperia), Riviera del Ponente Savonese (Savona) or Riviera di Levante (Genoa and La Spezia), depending on where the olives grow.
The Taggiasca is the small, prized olive of western Liguria, named after the town of Taggia. It produces a delicate, sweet, pale-gold oil with almond notes, and the whole olives (often sold in brine or oil) are a Ligurian delicacy in their own right, used in dishes such as rabbit alla ligure. It is the backbone of the Riviera dei Fiori DOP oil.
Because it is genuinely hard-won. Ligurian olive groves grow on steep, hand-built dry-stone terraces where machines cannot go, so much of the harvest is still done by hand, tree by tree. Add cold-pressing within a day of picking and the small quantities involved, and real DOP Riviera Ligure oil is necessarily costly, and worth it.
Ligurian oil, especially Taggiasca, is delicate, fruity and sweet with a soft, gentle bitterness, rather than the intense, peppery style of southern Italian oils. That makes it perfect for delicate dishes: it is the base of true Genoese pesto, and it flatters fish, vegetables, focaccia and salads, used raw as a finishing oil.
The best way is to visit the mills (frantoi) of the western Riviera, especially around Imperia and the Taggia valley, and buy directly from the producers; Imperia also has a dedicated olive museum, the Museo dell’Olivo. Look for the DOP Riviera Ligure seal to be sure of what you are getting, whether you buy at source or at home.
Further reading
- Its natural companion: Dolceacqua, the village Monet painted
- The oil at the Ligurian table: my Genoese pesto recipe and the salted anchovies of Monterosso
- My home region, coast to coast: the Cinque Terre and Liguria
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