APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES
Caiazzo table olive
Slow Food Presidium · PAT · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Campania
In brief
- A variety from Caiazzo and the Volturno valley in the province of Caserta, mentioned in local statutes of the 15th century. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa)
- It is elliptical, with purple-black flesh right to the stone. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa)
- It is eaten baked after 15-20 days in salted water with wild fennel and garlic, or in brine or oil. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa)
- It is on Campania's list of traditional products as oliva caiazzara. (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
History and origin
The Caiazzo olive takes its name from Caiazzo, in the province of Caserta, a hilly area that climbs from the Campanian plain to the Matese massif. Its cultivation is very old: large worked stones from before the Middle Ages, with hollows used precisely for processing olives, have been found in the area.
In the fifteenth century the Statutes of Alvignano and Caiazzo, drawn up between 1449 and 1497, set rules for olive growing and oil making, a sign of the importance already given to quality olives and oil.
The caiazzana has always been regarded as a dual-purpose variety, good for oil and for the table. While in recent years some farms have been making excellent extra virgin oils, table olives have become rare and risk disappearing. This is why the Slow Food Presidium was created, within the Alto Casertano biodiversity project run by Slow Food Campania and the Slow Food Foundation with the GAL Alto Casertano, alongside the presidia for the Vairano giant lupin and the Alife onion.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa
Area and method of production
The Presidium area is the Volturno valley in the province of Caserta. According to the Campania Region the olive, also called caiazzara here, grows on old, large trees with fairly steady yields, in the hills around Caiazzo, in the area of the Monte Maggiore mountain community and partly on the Tifatini hills behind Caserta.
It is an early variety: veraison, the change of colour from green to wine red, begins as early as the beginning of October, and harvest takes place in November.
The table olives are prepared in several ways. For baked olives the process takes 15 to 20 days: before baking the olives sit in water with salt and flavourings such as wild fennel and garlic. The Presidium aims to preserve the olive groves and revive harvesting and processing under quality-minded rules.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa · Regione Campania — Oliva caiazzara (prodotto tradizionale)
How to recognise it
The Caiazzo olive is elliptical, with a rounded tip and a slightly flattened base. When fully ripe it is an intense wine red verging on violet-black, and the colour does not stop at the skin: the flesh is dark from the outside right to the stone, a trait that makes it instantly recognisable when cut open.
It ripens early, so in October the groves of the area already begin to change colour. The name under which the Campania Region lists it, caiazzara, also recalls its home town, as does the name chosen by the Presidium.
Processed olives, baked, in brine or in oil, keep well and can be found all year round.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa · Regione Campania — Oliva caiazzara (prodotto tradizionale)
In the kitchen
Tradition wants the Caiazzo olive above all baked: after days in salted, flavoured water, the olives go briefly into the oven, which dries them and intensifies their flavour. They are then dressed with olive oil, fennel and hot chilli.
Served with pecorino cheese, they make a typical, tasty starter of the Caiazzo area. Besides baked olives there are olives in brine and in oil, and some local ways of preserving them, for instance under ashes.
The same variety also gives extra virgin olive oil, which some local farms have been making for a few years.
Sources: Regione Campania — Oliva caiazzara (prodotto tradizionale) · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa
Where to taste it
The Caiazzo olive is found in Caiazzo and the surrounding hills, in the middle Volturno valley, between the Caserta plain and the Matese mountains, and in the Monte Maggiore area. It is a landscape of old olive groves, with large, long-lived trees.
November, harvest month, is the best time to see the groves at work and discover how baked olives are prepared. Member producers of the Presidium are listed on the Slow Food page.
Processed olives are available all year round, and the Alto Casertano also offers the other presidia of the project, such as the Vairano giant lupin.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa · Regione Campania — Oliva caiazzara (prodotto tradizionale)
Protection
- Slow Food Presidium — oliva-caiazzana-da-mensa (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa)
- Traditional agri-food product (PAT) — Campania, n. 302, 26th revision (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
When
- Harvest: November (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Oliva caiazzana da mensa)
- Autumn