Latium: a special crusher

Giovan Felice Pace, a miller from the beginning of the 20th century, was the founder of a family that still preserves the secrets of the precious art of artisan oilmaking with the complicity of a territory with particular organoleptic characteristics that favours the production of a very rare oil.

In Velletri, south of Rome, in the area of the Roman Castles, there is the historical oil mill where the great-grandchildren Diego, Francesca and Emanuele Vidili currently produce extra virgin olive oil, without ever abandoning the roots of centuries of experience but increasingly refining the processing techniques, exalting the peculiarities of the product given by native olives of a territory of volcanic origin and therefore with characteristics of scents and flavors very special, without pungent aftertaste while maintaining aromas and body.

In fact, the oil production of the brothers Vidili Olearia Sas is based on ancient qualities of olives such as the so-called “Ritornella” (similar to Carboncella) which makes small and black olives from which you get a delicate oil, a quality of olives now rare for the difficulty that presents the harvest, the olive that has a much later maturation and has a different body and texture of the Ritornella, the Leccio and ltrana.

The olives are picked, selected and brought to the mill immediately, are squeezed in the day with cold milling, the oil produced is extra virgin olive oil of the highest quality almost with total absence of acidity.

It should be remembered that an oil is defined as new if it matures for up to 4 months from the time of pressing; fresh for up to 8 months; young for up to 12 months. The action of the antioxidants contained in the oil will diminish over time. It is therefore advisable not to consume the oil 18 months after pressing. It is also advisable to keep the bottles of oil away from sunlight, at a temperature between 12° and 18° and contact with oxygen should be avoided.

All that remains is to taste this raw delicacy with a slice of hot bread toasted on the embers of the barbecue that enhances its aromas, or the famous “bruschetta”.