On a cool, cloudy morning in June, high on a hilltop overlooking the village of Calcinelli, the field alongside the pig house is empty. Rain begins to fall, then stops, then starts again. Suddenly a large, fully grown brown male pig pokes his nose out of the shelter’s opening and wanders out. Minding his own business, he walks around, freely eating grass in the field and fruit that has fallen from trees. Another pig walks out of the house, and another. Soon about a dozen animals are roaming freely around the fenced-in yard, a few of them trotting, not minding the rain at all.

These are not average pigs. They can’t be found anywhere in the world outside of the Italy’s Le Marche region. They are Marca pigs, a special genetically engineered breed created by combining three different types of pigs that live in this area. The 30 or so Marca pigs living on this hilltop are also unusual because of their “semi-wild” lifestyle (unlike a group of several thousand that have a confined, mostly indoor life in a long building nearby). Their diet is above average, because the phrase “you are what you eat” is true for pigs as well as people. Besides the natural grass and fruit they find in the yard, the pigs are given other healthful foods, free of chemicals and undesirable ingredients.

This farm and its carefree pigs are part of the Fraticelli Salumi company’s strategy to create high-quality, good-tasting cold cuts and other pork products. After the company shifted its goals from large-scale production to a smaller, superior approach, it has been recognized for excellence. In 2010 it won first prize in the Premio Cremona competition for the best salami, and in 2015 the town of Cartoceto named the Fraticelli processing plant the best and cleanest factory in the region.

The Fraticelli factory is located in Cartoceto, a few kilometers away from the hilltop farm. On a recent sunny day in June, the air outside the factory is hot and dry. But past the factory’s doors, a gust of cool wind refreshes the senses and pushes the summer heat away. All that wind is followed by a rich aroma of salami and ham. Loris Fraticelli walks up wearing what looks like a chemistry lab coat. He has white hair and stands over six feet tall, yet he seems to have a soft, humble side. He gives a firm handshake with his large hands and bulky fingers, and offers a friendly greeting. Excited to discuss anything and everything about salami, Fraticelli wastes no time and starts to talk about his factory.

Fraticelli started producing pork products in 1967, continuing for 30 years, and then retiring at the age of 70, leaving the business to be run by his children. But that was not the end of his career. Only five years later, he came back to his own company after hearing about a new breed of pigs that were genetically engineered by Carlo Renieri, a scientist at the University of Camerino. With funding from the university and the regional government, Ranieri and his team combined the best genetic traits of three breeds of pig that have been living in the Marche for over a century. The new breed is called Marca. Today these pigs are raised in the town of Matelica, spending their first 70 days with their mothers, feeding on natural milk, before Fraticelli buys them and continues to raise them in his hilltop farm.

Walking through the cold air-conditioned factory, Fraticelli explains proudly with fire in his eyes that all his Marca pigs eat a nutritious diet consisting mainly of corn, oats, bran, barley, soybeans, and cereal that the company produces. All their food is free of preservatives, chemical additives that other farms use to speed up growth, and genetically modified organisms. This, says Fraticelli, reduces potential hazards to consumers, including increased cancer risks, as well as threats to the environment. He adds that raising the pigs in a “semi-wild state” is also a way to help the very best flavors of the salami come to life. Fraticelli explains that the semi-wild state is similar to “extensive farming”—what in the U.S. might be called “free-range”—in which farmers allow animals to roam freely in fields. In Fraticelli’s farm the pigs are free to go in and out of the barn-like house where they sleep at night. They can walk and run in an open field, which they do when it’s not too sunny and hot, and there they can also eat the natural grass and fruit. Fraticelli says his free-roaming pigs are fitter than average, with stronger muscles, which makes the meat tastier.

Fraticelli is very strict about how much his pigs weigh. Unlike less demanding operators who take animals for processing when they reach 110 kilograms, Fraticelli says his pigs have to weigh at least 170 kilograms. The pigs need to be fatter and heavier because he wants them to have a layer of fat that is at least three centimeters thick. That, he explains, makes ham and other products taste better.

Since Fraticelli redefined his business as a small, high-quality effort, the factory holds fewer people and fewer machines. The whole process can be done in just two rooms, each about 10 square meters. On this quiet day in June, only one man is needed for the special task of cutting the parts of the pig and seasoning them. Fraticelli points out that a lot of the process is done by hand with great care. He walks over to some carved meat and describes where each cut comes from by tapping his own body: neck, back, leg. Fraticelli says he is not concerned about his production rate; the most important things are how the pigs are raised and the quality of the process here in the factory.

Fraticelli walks excitedly to a door in the corner of the room and opens it. An even stronger aroma rushes out of the room. Inside are carts holding fresh-looking salami and different types of ham. Fraticelli explains that the meat is waiting to be seasoned enough to develop the company’s signature flavor. It will go through repeated seasonings, using only salt, pepper, and garlic. As it does, the meat will darken. This is important because most other factories use colorants to keep the salami looking red and ripe. Others may also use milk flour as an astringent and preservatives, which contain potentially cancer-causing nitrites and nitrates. Fraticelli says his use of salt allows the salami to keep its rich flavors and naturally preserves the meat for more than two months.

When asked to describe his career with one word, Fraticelli takes a rare pause. Then he looks up and says, “artigiano,” which translates as artisan, a worker in a skilled trade—in his case, the food industry. He says his dream is to provide better ingredients, better quality, and a higher standard of salami for those who are willing to pay for that experience. His future goals include having a stronger connection with other European countries and Russia in order to sell his salami, taking part in the World’s Fair in Milan, and keeping his customers happy. He also looks forward to having more happy pigs strolling around their fields on that hilltop.

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This article also appears in Urbino Now magazine’s Urbino Centro section. You can read all the magazine articles in print by ordering a copy from MagCloud.

The post Special Pigs, Special Salumi appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

MONTEMAGGIORE AL METAURO, Italy – Giorgio Sorcinelli has been instrumental in the encouragement of quality olive oil and oil tastings. He promotes the art throughout Italy as well as Croatia, Slovenia and Greece.

Sorcinelli, the secretary for the Organization and Laboratory for Expert Tasters, O.L.E.A., coordinates oil tasting classes around Europe.

There are few experts who have the experienced palate Sorcinelli has, and fewer who can describe a taste the way he does.

It’s like a sommelier’s wine-tasting, but different. Sorcinelli demonstrated, sitting behind the fragile wooden desk in the center of Mariotti Cesare’s olive oil storage room.

The olive oil tasting glass is blue to hide the color of the oil and prevent biases in a judge. Color is no indication of the quality of oil.

Cesare, producer and owner of this oil orchard and winery, pours his Raggiola olive oil into a glass in front of Sorcinelli. Raggiola is a variety of olive with naturally sweet pulp, but the oil is revered for being deceptively spicy.

The storage room is small room, but large enough for four hulking oil containers against one wall. On the opposite wall are pictures of Cesare’s family, as well as awards recognizing Cesare for his oil and wine production in the Le Marche region.

Sorcinelli’s fingers grip the sides of the cloudy blue, beaker-like glass holding the olive oil. He lifts the glass off the desk to sniff its fragrance.

He sips on the oil without swallowing. Pressing his teeth together he sucks on the olive oil, coating his mouth, tongue and throat. Sorcinelli begins to cough. Cesare pours water into a cup and hands it to him. The spicy nature of Raggiola burned Sorcinelli’s throat.

“The first thing an oil should have is a fruitiness, but it can be a spiciness as well,” Sorcinelli said. He places the cup of water on the desk. The flavor of the Raggiola had a “spice and bitterness that makes this oil a unique product, it results in a fresh oil, and an alive one.”

Based on the taste, Sorcinelli declared that it wouldn’t lose its freshness for six months, if properly stored. He then commended Cesare for producing an oil with a smooth texture and fruity almond taste.

In 1985, Sorcinelli pursued mild interest by taking a simple olive oil tasting class. He enjoyed the first class so much, he took more classes for the next 10 years in Le Marche regionS. During those 10 years Sorcinelli became an olive oil sommelier for Le Marche region and started traveling around Europe to experience olive oil variety.

Inspired by his passion, in 1995 Sorcinelli and a team of sommeliers from Le Marche formed O.L.E.A. The organization promotes events in which people from across Europe can become acquainted with quality olive oil. This year, O.L.E.A is instructing olive oil analyzing classes in Pesaro and Fano on Le Marche’s Adriatic coast and, further afield, in Comune di San Dorligo della Valle, which closely borders Croatia and Slovenia.

The highest quality olive oil comes from the least mechanized process. Today’s olive picker uses a wooden rod to thwack the tree branch, causing olives to fall into a tarp at the base of the tree. Although hand picking is the most effective way to properly harvest olives, it is also the least efficient and most expensive.

Extra virgin olive oil meets very specific requirements when being produced. The process includes the olive coming fresh off the branch and pressed at no more than 27 degrees Celsius within 24 hours. The oil is then extracted through mechanical cold pressing, without the use of solvents, and is bottled immediately.

Olive oil produced from Italy that follows these procedures has created a standard for olive oil producers around the world.

The sun shines bright on the facade of Mariotti Cesare’s oil grove and vineyard, where his oil and wine steel tanks sit in the shade in Montemaggiore Al Metauro, Italy.

O.L.E.A.’s mission is to promote quality olive oil awareness.

In today’s olive oil business there are many forbi, or forgers, of quality olive oil, Sorcinelli said. The forged oils are cut with less quality oils, similar to a gas station selling watered down gasoline. This has hurt the reputations of oil producers throughout Italy.

Sorcinelli wants everyone to appreciate the quality of olive oil for its own sake, but the customer’s ability to discern quality will also help end the oil forging business, he says.

He is looking to the future. He has helped put on several promotional events in primary schools in Le Marche region.

Looking at a picture in an O.L.E.A.-published book of a child eating bread and olive oil, Sorcinelli’s expression melted into a look of bliss. “Kids are really interested because they are naturally good at smelling things.”

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Video (By Jake Troy & Olivia Parker)

The post Taste-Testing Olive Oil appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

URBINO, Italy – The bells from the Ducal Palace echo through the empty Renaissance streets as the bell tower strikes eight. While the city is still waking, Nikolas Zazzaroni sets foot in his shop, Officina Del Gelato. All the lights are off except one, but morning sunlight fills the gelateria.

Nikolas, 25, wearing his signature “iGelato” t-shirt, turns on the radio, and glides through the kitchen starting the process of making Italy’s famous milk-based version of ice cream.

Nikolas and his mother, Eleonora Zazzaroni, are the owners of the relatively new and trendy gelateria called Officina Del Gelato—Puro & Bio Urbino. Although it has been open only a year – marking its first anniversary on June 4 – the Zazzaronis have managed to create a successful business. Eleonora says that she and her son opened the business because the job market in Urbino was tough, and she wanted to help her son succeed. They both spend ample time working at the shop.

Close up of gelato topped with figs.

The organic elements used in the gelato come directly from a larger company called Puro & Bio, the sole provider of organic ingredients for Officina Del Gelato. Officina Del Gelato is also the only Puro & Bio shop in Urbino, a policy of the supplier that cuts down on direct competition for the individual owners that sell Puro & Bio gelato in any given city.

Most days Nikolas comes in early in the morning to start making the gelato, and typically around midday, Eleonora or Nikolas’s younger brother Mattia will come in and take over the afternoon shift.

“Someone in the family is always working,” says Nikolas.

Mattia, 20, sometimes works alongside his older brother, but they don’t always get along, so they tend to work different shifts. When they get home, Nikolas says, it’s open season for bickering.

Several other employees help out at Officina Del Gelato. One is Maria Chiara, 17, who is a good translator for English-only customers, since Eleonora speaks little English.

Maria often works the night shifts because they prefer to have a woman working during closing so the store is cleaned properly. “My brother and I clean too fast and don’t do the job well enough,” Nikolas says.

Stacked gelato cones.

Gelato sales do well in the spring and summer, but decline as the months get colder. Eleonora and Nikolas anticipated this. Starting in October, they swap out the gelato that fills the large humming refrigerator, and in its place they store chocolates.

Eleonora is also an exquisite baker. She makes cakes for special occasions such as weddings, birthdays and baptisms and sells them at the store. Nikolas makes cakes as well, but bashfully admitted that his mother’s cakes are a bit better than his.

Nikolas acknowledged that their location, a five-minute hike up one of the steep hills from the center of town, where several other gelatorias are located, is a challenge for their newer business. But they remain upbeat.

“The customers that come to our shop know the quality of our ingredients,” Nikolas says, “and that is why they keep coming back.”

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Video (By Kaitlin Kling & Rachel Dale)

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URBINO, Italy – Luigi “Gigi” Andreoli rushes back and forth between his small café and the outside areas it caters to. On the inside, Gigi and other employees squeeze past one another in the cramped space along the bar counter and the even tighter space behind the bar, each holding food or wine or both.

This is the Raffaello Caffè during “aperitivo” on any given day. Aperitivo is the Italian version happy hour. It typically starts after work and continues until dinner, which Italians have after 8 p.m. During aperitivo, cafés will serve free food with an order of alcoholic drinks. This is in addition to the chips and peanuts typical of American bars and here.

Gigi serves local wines in his shop, and his customers ask for them regularly.

The distinguishing feature of aperitivo is the hand-made, delicious appetizers given to café customers so they won’t drink on an empty stomach.

The employees will bring out a plate with the drink order piled high with foods varying in color and flavor. For example there are a variety of “crostini,” little toasts with tasty meats, cheese or garden vegetables on top. 

Crostini is one of the fan favorites at Raffaello Caffè. A common crostini is the bruschetta, a slice of bread grilled with olive oil and garlic and topped usually with diced tomato and other local foods.

Andreoli will cut and lightly toast pieces of bread after brushing the bread with olive oil. After the bread has been toasted to perfection, Andreoli will decide what the topping will be for each slice. This is where colors start to vary. He has a collection lying in front of him: Yellow, green, blue, and red peppers diced and sorted, prosciutto (thinly dry-cured ham), mayonnaise, tomatoes, mustard and an assortment of cheeses.

Andreoli prepares the food in a “kitchen” the size of the average American closet. Inside he has everything a normal kitchen would contain – refrigerator, oven, sink, cutting board, and a few cooking implements. He also has all his food stored and stacked high on the shelves. Like the steward in a ship’s galley, he is somehow able to cook and prepare all the food for aperitivo in there. He does it alone, of course, since no one else can fit with him.

A regular customer, Anthea Mirra, says Raffaello Caffè is famous for its great aperitivi and snacks. 

Mirra has been coming to Raffaello Caffè for a few years. She says its employees are passionate in their work. She prefers small cafés because of the service. Large cafés will also partake in supplying prepared food for aperitivo, but not like Raffaello Caffè. Large cafés are big and impersonal.

Raffaello Caffè, at the beginning of the steep little street where the painter Raphael lived, is more intimate and less dispersed, says her friend Tonina Pasquini. “There is a friendship relationship from 40 years.” 

Enjoying a laugh with his regular customers makes Gigi’s job all the better.

Pasquini is one of the many customers who start their day off with Raffaello Caffè. She goes there nearly every day, sometimes twice a day, for breakfast and then aperitivo with a few friends. She enjoys the staff because of their professional and passionate service.

Giovanni Garbugli, co-owner of Sugar Café just outside the ancient walls of Urbino, prefers working in small cafés like his. He says he is able to become friends with his clients and know their ordering habits while developing a relationship deeper than the employee-customer relations and completely change the dynamic of it.

Serving new and exciting combinations of food is common for Garbugli. He will serve plates of food to customers all day long, not just during aperitivo. He knows what his customers will enjoy and be willing to try.

Andreoli, at Raffaello Caffè, can often be seen experimenting with foods for his regular customers. With every season comes new ingredients, so he will provide what he can and add his own pride and passion to it just like he does to his service.

After a busy aperitivo, Andreoli and the other staff at Raffaello Caffè will close their café for the night. Cleaning up the leftover plates and food, preparing for the next morning, Andreoli will lock up the outside patio chairs and tables, stacking them on top of each other then locking them to the railing.

Walking back to the main café, he will wipe down the counters of the bar while other staff clean the cappuccino maker and close the blinds. Andreoli is the last to lock the door and the gate, ready to walk home to his family.

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See the video “T-Shirt Culture in Urbino” produced by Thomas Fitzpatrick & Stephanie Smith.

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Giuliano Berloni leans back in his chair and lets out a bellowing laugh that fills his tiny office. His stomach bounces under a blue and white pinstriped button-down shirt. Tanned wrinkles stretch as his face breaks into a warm smile.

“No, no we didn’t run into any challenges when we started this business,” he says.

His son Alessandro sits at an adjacent desk, playfully coaxing his father’s answers and cracking jokes in booming Italian and fragmented English.

“Yes, but the paperwork was awful,” says the son. “They sent us on a wild chase from office to office.”

Alessandro Berloni pours a sample of his father’s olive liquor, which is based on a 2,000-year-old recipe.

“Ah, it was awful,” Giuliano replies. “But as for real challenges, there were none. Production began slowly, but then we sold out of our first two thousand bottles.”

They sit next to each other not only as father and son but also as business partners in an unusual company located within the DOP district of Cartoceto, an area about 30 kilometers from Urbino that is known for its high-quality olive oil. Along with a successful line of the expected product in this area, Azienda Agricola Berloni has gone one step further to generate something no one else is producing from olive trees—liquor.

Giuliano and his family have been producing this unconventional liquor since the early ’90s on their organic farm in the town of Tavernelle di Serrungarina. Their love for the land, enthusiasm for the origins of their product, and strong dedication to manufacturing only the best have made the company an award-winning pioneer among organic olive farms. But as demand continues to grow, Giuliano and Alessandro find themselves looking along two diverging paths. One leads Giuliano to his retirement. The other leads Alessandro, 28, to other jobs and interests in the city, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the prospects for this family-run business and the future supply of its unique product.

“Four or five years ago I got a request from the U.S. for forty to fifty thousand bottles of liquor, but we just couldn’t meet that request,” Giuliano says. “I am getting older and don’t have the interest to grow the industry. My sons are pursuing other things in their life, and I respect that.”

When Giuliano began this business 14 years ago he had no intent of it becoming such a hit. He had simply started it to keep himself busy after leaving the bustling city of Rome and 30 high-pressure years working as a bodyguard for the Pope.

Alessandro explains that liquor inside these tanks is infused with leaves and bark from olive trees.

“I had two young sons and life in the city was too stressful,” Giuliano says. “I decided to come back to Serrungarina, where I am from, to live a more simple life.”

Giuliano steps out of the office and heads into the olive orchard surrounding the building. The June air is stagnant and sticky; the sun beats down on little green leaves poking off the branches like helicopter blades. Alessandro jokes that it’s too hot even for the birds because they aren’t chirping. His father chuckles under his breath, a smile growing across his face once again.

“I have always loved the countryside,” Giuliano says. “When we bought the land we planted 3,000 olive trees. We chose olives because there is less work to be done compared to other things like vineyards and wine production.”

The Berloni family starts the production process for both olive oil and olive liquor in October with the harvest of the olives.

“When the process begins you can’t stop working,” Alessandro says. “Once the olives are harvested the value of the product will only continue to decrease.”

First, the olives are harvested for the oil. Then, the Berlonis use leaves and bark from the trees to infuse alcohol, adding other natural flavors such as orange and lemon over a period of four to five months.

“We cannot share the recipe,” Alessandro says. “The importance of this business is that it is born from the family, so it stays within the family.”

The 2,000-year-old recipe was given to Giuliano by Corrado Barberis, a professor of rural sociology from the University of Rome, who had been extensively researching it. They met at an expo for agricultural products.

“We are basically the only ones to produce this kind of liquor,” Giuliano says. “It’s a product that doesn’t get produced a lot but we provide it for any store that asks for it. As of right now it is sold in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and France.”

Several shops and one restaurant in downtown Urbino provide the liquor, including Raffaello Degusteria, a quality food and wine store. Valentino Gostoli, who works in the shop, says that it is a liquor tourists buy.

“I know that my customers enjoy Giuliano’s products a lot,” Gostoli says. “He is a very nice man and he always comes to the store to deliver the liquor himself.”

Beads of sweat glisten on Alessandro’s forehead as he leaves the orchard and makes his way over to a pale pink building nearby. It looks more like an ice cream shop than a warehouse where machinery and tanks of oil and liquor are stored.

“When I was younger I would help with the harvesting of the olives,” says Alessandro, adding, “I never helped my father like I probably should have though.”

Alessandro’s younger brother, Francesco, 26, left home at the age of 16 to attend military school and later to become an officer, leaving Alessandro to help his parents out in any way he could. He is responsible for the managerial, organizational, and marketing aspects of the business, communicating with customers and traveling abroad to expos and fairs to promote the liquor. When he has time, he still helps with the harvesting and processing of the olives.

“Although the work is physically tiring it helps me to mentally recharge,” he says. “It is different work than the work we do at the university.”

Giuliano gives him a fatherly look, skeptical yet playful, as he unlocks the gated door to the warehouse.

“As of right now we don’t have the machinery or the resources to produce a lot of the liquor,” Giuliano says. “This is a small industry and we have a lot of requests that we can’t meet. The idea of expansion has always been a thought. But seeing as my sons have chosen different paths and I am getting too old, I don’t know how that will be possible unless the company is sold.”

The warmth from Giuliano’s face fades. It’s not disappointment that is left in his eyes, but sadness and a sense of what-ifs.

“At the moment I am trying to find other jobs,” Alessandro says, avoiding his father’s gaze. “Until I find my way I will help here. It is not definite that we will sell, and it is the last choice.”

Alessandro recently graduated from Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli in Rome with a political science degree. He hopes to find work in his field and understands that doing so might take him far from home to a city without mountains and countryside.

“I love everything about the mountains and this land,” he says. “But if moving to the city is what I must do, then I will do it to find work.”

Back in the tiny office, Giuliano opens the door to a mini refrigerator and pulls out a half-empty bottle of liquor. Underneath the label, in flowing white cursive script is a quote from Dante Alighieri, the writer known as the “father of the Italian language.” It reads, “I’ve stopped here at the service of God and with food and olive-liquor I ran slightly warm and cold, happy with my contemplative thoughts.”

“Some scholars believe that when Dante wrote this in The Divine Comedy that he was referring to olive oil,” Guliano says. “But Professor Barberis believed he was referring to the liquor, because the recipe comes from Dante’s time.”

Giuliano picks up the bottle and grasps the top with his large hands and twists, the cork squeaking with every turn until it pops off. He pours the sweet smelling, amber liquor into a tasting cup and hands it to his son who sips it slowly.

“It is slightly bitter, smells of lemons and orange, and has a sweet balsamic flavor,” Alessandro says. “I like it a lot, and so do my friends. We bring it to dinner parties and other events.” Alessandro laughs as he recalls a time when one of his friends passed out on his couch after drinking a whole bottle.

“I only drink it hot with a slice of lemon,” says Giuliano, echoing his son’s laughter. “But you can enjoy it cold on the rocks in the summer time or as a drink after dinner. Some people even like it over ice cream and pancakes.”

Marco Santini, who works at Enoteca Magia Ciarla, another establishment in Urbino that sells and serves the liquor, says people love this product because it can be enjoyed in so many ways and is not as alcoholic as other beverages.

“Young people don’t love it as much,” he says. “But older people like it because it is sweet. They come to drink it in the morning or after dinner.”

Alessandro picks up the liquor, leaving a ring of sweat from the bottle on the desk, and places it back in the office refrigerator.

“I take great pride in the final product,” Giuliano says. “We only put the best ingredients in our product and everything is organic so that we can be a certified farm.”

Alessandro explains that there is a saying in Italy about using all the parts of a slaughtered pig and not being wasteful. He says he and his father jokingly apply the same expression to using all parts of the olive tree at their farm. That is not always easy, he adds, because in an agricultural business you cannot control everything.

As the midday sun begins its descent, shadows fall across the orchard like the uncertainties hanging over this family-run business. Father and son climb back into their silver van to head home—the end of the workday has come and gone, but their business is only one aspect of their relationship.

“My father has always been supportive of my decisions,” Alessandro said earlier this day. “Just like I have always been supportive of this business.”

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This article also appears in Urbino Now magazine’s Urbino Centro section. You can read all the magazine articles in print by ordering a copy from MagCloud.

The post Not Olive Oil—Olive Liquor appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

CARTOCETO, Italy – Cristiana Beltrami was carefully approaching the cement-sealed mouth of a cave deep in the cellar of Palazzo Rusticucci when she turned to her visitors and whispered, “Shhh…the cheese is sleeping.”

She was serious.

Four months ago her father, Vittorio Beltrami, lowered 3,000 wheels of pecorino – sheep’s cheese – into the cave before sealing the entrance to allow it to peacefully age. When awakened by Beltrami it will be Formaggio di Fossa – cave aged cheese, a product the family creates annually.

Gastronomia Beltrami is a family business that sells only what they produce by hand – extra virgin olive oil, fruit preserves and cheese. Locals and tourists from across the Le Marche region drive on hilly roads to find the small, tree-shaded shop with the distinct smell of cheese wafting from the door.

Vittorio Beltrami carries the nickname “The Einstein of Cheese” from American chef, television host and author Lydia Bastianich.

The shop is home to “The Einstein of Cheese,” a man whom American chef, television host and author Lidia Bastianich calls a genius.

This Einstein has white hair floating above his ears like clouds. Short in stature, he strides around the shop a short-sleeved blue shirt and his jeans slipping below his narrow waist. He stops his afternoon work to sit and talk with two visitors about his Formaggio di Fossa.

“Technology changes flavors,” the 66-year old Fano native said with fiery passion. “People don’t know how to eat properly, but I’m trying to teach them.”

Retroinnovazione, the family’s motto, is “innovation that looks to history to link the present first to the past and then to the future,” he said. “Then from that, to make something new.”

Their customers can sit on the front porch of the shop to try the different wines, olive oils and salami or bruschetta fresh from the brick oven. But Vittorio’s passion and true love lies with formaggio – experimenting with the milk from cows, goats and sheep. And the cave-aged cheese is his favorite.

Formaggio di Fossa was originally “created by chance” in the 18th century said Giuseppe Cristini, professor of Narratori del Gusto – Storytellers of Taste – at the University of Urbino.

Families in Le Marche and neighboring Romagna region used local caves to hide their food from Spanish invaders. When it was safe to remove several months later, they discovered the caves had made the cheese taste stronger – and better.

The wheels of pecorino are in the first stages of the aging process, resting in the upstairs cellar in Palazzo Rusticucci.

Cristini says Vittorio, his good friend, is a cheese expert, and a good friend. “He is a great observer and researcher in the field of cheese.”

Vittorio explained to his visitors there are many key components that contribute to the final flavor profile of a good cheese. He counts the steps on his fingers listing sheep, grass, a favorable climate, good milk – and timing. The sheep’s milk must be processed within three hours, then the aging process begins.

After the pecorino is created the cheese wheels are moved to Palazzo Rusticucci where they age, or mature, for four to five months in simple, open-air plastic crates. They are then put inside cloth bags and taken down the steps into the cellar to be placed inside one of the two caves.

Formed in the 17th century, the caves originally served as a refrigerator for a Cardinal’s summer home. Ice from the winter was carried inside to keep salumi, vino, olio and prosciutto preserved.

“Now the caves are used to mature the cheeses,” Beltrami’s daughter Cristiana said. Both caves run about 13 feet deep and maintain a temperature of 50 to 60 degrees.

The cave entrance is sealed with cement to prevent oxygen from reaching the cheese – and allow it to “sleep” for 100 days. On the last Sunday of November, Vittorio is not so gentle in waking the cheese – using a hammer to unceremoniously break the cement seal.

The cheese is carried back upstairs to rest in plastic crates again for 100 days before it is ready for sale.

Formaggio di Fossa is only produced once a year to allow the caves to breathe during the other months, Cristiana explained.

“Vittorio is an artist of food,” said Virginio Baldelli, owner of Osteria Da Gustin in Bargni. The restaurant is always offering a selection of the Beltrami’s cheeses for customers to taste.

“His cheese reflects perfectly the way we think about food,” Baldelli said. “It tastes like messages from the land, from Le Marche.”

After a full year of aging the pecorino, Gastronomia Beltrami is left with a golden-colored sharp cheese that Vittorio calls, the perfect example of Retroinnovazione. 

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Video (By Anita Chomenko & Dylan Orth)

The post Retroinnovazione appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.

PERGOLA, Italy – Mario Baiocco, 57, takes a magnifying glass out of his neatly pressed lavender button-down shirt and looks closely at a small branch of olives. He leans over the table, lifts the magnifying glass to one of his hazel eyes, and squints, making wrinkles between his eyebrows.

“You see these,” he says pointing to a small green ball. “These are olives that have just started to grow.” The branch is covered with delicate green olives that, according to Baiocco, are growing at a proper pace.

Last year, a branch like this would be much harder to find. The poor weather conditions and insect infestation ruined olive trees all over Italy, affecting olive oil producers such as Baiocco.

“2014 for cultivation and agriculture was absolutely damaging,” says Baiocco.

The weather and olive fruit flies had a major impact on olive oil production and prices. The olive fruit fly, also known as Bactrocera oleae, lays an egg in the olive and once the egg hatches, the new larva makes its way to the core of the olive. The exit of the fly is the most damaging part of this process because the fly digs a hole back to the surface, which darkens the skin color of the olive.

Baiocco has 250 olive trees that line the perimeter of his front yard.

The weather during olive growing season last year worsened the Bactrocera oleae infestation. Normally, olives begin growing in May and are fully grown by the end of October to the beginning of November. According to Baiocco, the milder weather enhanced the production of the fruit flies. The fall and winter months were not as cold as usual. There was no ice, snow or freezing temperatures that could kill off the insects. Bactrocera oleae cannot survive extremely hot or cold temperatures. They flourish in mild weather conditions.

Not only did the poor harvest conditions affect insect reproduction, but the insects appeared much earlier than normal. Baiocco says the insects started to damage the olives in June, whereas they usually begin affecting the fruit in August or September. Olive oil producers like Baiocco were not prepared with the proper pesticides. “We didn’t use pesticides last year because it was too late,” he says. The fruit flies had already damaged the olives.

Italians refer to the 2014 olive season as the “black year” because olive oil production decreased 35 percent from the previous year. Baiocco usually makes about 300 to 400 liters of olive oil each year, which takes from 2,000 to 2,700 kilograms of olives. Last year, he did not produce any oil at all.

Baiocco makes oil for his family to use at home and the leftover he sells to friends. He does not have the proper machinery to produce the oil at home, so he travels about 12 to 15 miles to the frantoio, the Italian name for an oil mill.

Baiocco keeps empty bottles in his house for when he sells the leftover olive oil to friends and family.

Industrial oil producers own and operate the frantoios, which stopped working last year. Baiocco says producers attempted to make oil with the olives that weren’t damaged, but it was not of the same quality so they simply stopped producing oil altogether.

Due to the low production of oil, prices soared last year and haven’t changed since. Baiocco sells one liter of oil for € 9, or which is approximately $10.22 in U.S. dollars. He explains that this is a reasonable price considering he is not an industrial producer and it covers all of the labor and packing costs. Baiocco’s olive grove is about 21 miles from Cartoceto, the main olive oil producing city in Le Marche.

“There are hills and hills of olive trees,” Baiocco says about Cartoceto. There are many more industrial producers in Cartoceto and they sell their oil for a slightly higher price because that is what they are famous for. If you walk into a specialty food store anywhere in Le Marche region, you will see that all of the bottles of olive oil have the Cartoceto name on them. The price of Cartoceto-produced oil is at an all-time high and can be found at a specialty food store for about € 15 to € 24 per liter, the equivalent of $17 to $27.

Gourmet food shops like Raffaello Degusteria, located in the center of Urbino, has shelves full of Cartoceto-produced oil. The shiny dark green bottles line the shelves with the white price stickers that haven’t changed for the past year. Valentino Gostoli, a co-owner, says the price of oil depends on the production, the type of oil and the consumer demand.

Gostoli, who has been selling olive oil at his shop for eight years, says this is the highest that prices have been. Because the production of olive oil in Italy has decreased by 35 percent since 2013, retail prices are rising. Some producers have doubled their prices because of the “black year.” Gostoli does not think prices will drop any time soon.

This bottle of olive oil states that it is produced and bottled in Cartoceto.

The drastic drop in oil production is reaching overseas to countries like the United States, which imports over 95 percent of its olive oil from the Mediterranean region. The price of imported olive oil increased for buyers in the United States by approximately 30 percent.

Not only is the price hike affecting producers, retailers, and importers, but it is also impacting businesses such as local restaurants. Terrazza del Duca, a restaurant in Urbino, has been purchasing olive oil from producers in Cartoceto for seven years. Last year, the managers noticed the price had risen slightly when doing their biweekly purchase of olive oil.

Luca Sideri, a chef at Terrazza del Duca, says the restaurant uses olive oil in almost every dish on the menu. Whether it’s pizza, pasta, meat or fish, the expensive commodity is still needed regardless of the price hike.

The restaurant buys 20 liters of olive oil every two weeks for about € 13 per liter. Because it buys oil in bulk directly from the producer, it is not as expensive as going to a gourmet food store like Raffaello Degusteria. Regardless, “the cost is now a few euros more than before,” says Sideri.

The Mediterranean climate allows for the production of olive oil, which is why it is such an important ingredient in the Mediterranean diet. “Unfortunately, it’s always related to climate,” says Sideri.

Olive oil producers like Baiocco are continuing to watch their olive trees blossom this season with fear in the back of their minds. “This year is a little better,” says Baiocco as he lifts a branch from a 25-year-old olive tree. “We are already checking the fruit and hoping the bugs won’t grow again.”

Baiocco continues down the long path in his backyard that is lined with olive trees, old and young. With his head held high, he gazes up at his oldest olive tree. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

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Video (By Christina Botticchio & Alysia Burdi)

The post The Other Oil Crisis appeared first on Urbino Project 2015.