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Cilento (extra virgin olive oil)

PDO · Oils and fats · Campania

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

  • At least 85% of the olives are varieties such as Pisciottana, Rotondella, Ogliarola, Frantoio, Salella and Leccino. (Qualigeo — Cilento DOP)
  • It is produced and bottled in many municipalities of the Cilento National Park, in the province of Salerno. (Qualigeo — Cilento DOP)
  • Archaeobotanical research shows olive groves in the area as early as the 6th century BC. (Qualigeo — Cilento DOP)

History and origin

In the Cilento the olive tree has shaped community life for centuries, so much so that the Campania Region describes it as the main, and sometimes only, resource of local people. Archaeobotanical research cited in the specification records olive groves in the area as early as the 6th century BC, in the age of Magna Graecia. Tradition credits the first trees to the Phocaean colonists, seafarers of Greek origin, who are also said to have brought the oldest local variety, Pisciottana, which withstands salty winds and crops well even on dry land.

The olive landscape between the temples of Paestum and the ruins of Velia has also struck poets: the Region recalls a 1933 poem by Giuseppe Ungaretti describing rows of olive trees like flocks of sheep.

The Cilento is also where Ancel and Margaret Keys studied local ways of life, settling in Pollica, and where the idea of the Mediterranean Diet took shape; UNESCO inscribed it as intangible heritage in 2010. Cilento oil has been a PDO since 1997.

Sources: Qualigeo — Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Cilento (olio extravergine di oliva) DOP · Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni — La Dieta Mediterranea · eAmbrosia — Cilento (PDO-IT-1547)

Area and method of production

The area of production, processing and bottling covers many municipalities in the south of the province of Salerno, all within the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park; the regional record counts 62 of them and notes the widespread presence of centuries-old olive trees, the dominant feature of the landscape.

The oil comes from at least 85% Pisciottana, Rotondella, Ogliarola, Frantoio, Salella and Leccino olives, alone or together; the rest may come from other varieties found in the area. Olives are picked by hand or with machines straight from the tree, by 31 December; only in unusual seasons, and with a resolution of the Campania Region, can harvesting continue until 30 January.

Milling must take place by the second day after picking, so that the fruit reaches the mill intact. The specification also sets precise chemical limits: maximum acidity of 0.7 grams per 100 grams of oil and total polyphenols above 80 ppm.

Sources: Qualigeo — Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Cilento (olio extravergine di oliva) DOP

How to recognise it

Its colour ranges from green to straw yellow of varying depth; the oil is often clear, sometimes veiled. On the nose it has a medium-light fruitiness, which the Region sometimes describes with hints of apple and green leaf. In the mouth it is delicate, tasting of fresh olive, essentially sweet, with medium or light bitterness and pungency; the regional record adds notes of pine nut and an aftertaste of hazelnut and almond.

It is sold only as Cilento PDO extra virgin olive oil, in glass, ceramic, terracotta or tin containers of up to five litres. The label shows the name Cilento with the words Protected Designation of Origin, the EU symbol and the harvest year, and each pack carries a guarantee mark with an alphanumeric code for traceability.

Like every extra virgin oil it fears light and heat: keep it cool, between 14 and 18 degrees, away from strong smells, and enjoy it within four to six months of pressing.

Sources: Qualigeo — Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Cilento (olio extravergine di oliva) DOP

In the kitchen

Its delicate, aromatic taste makes Cilento oil well suited to many dishes of Campanian tradition. The Region recommends it for hearty dishes typical of the area: grilled fish, wild-herb salads, boiled vegetables, pulses and first courses. Qualivita adds salads and meat and fish main courses, always with the oil added raw so as not to lose its aromas.

In the Cilento oil is the basis of a broader way of eating. The National Park points out that the Mediterranean Diet is not a list of foods but a way of life, made of knowledge tied to farming, fishing, preserving and above all sharing food: eating together is part of the area's identity.

A plate of local pulses, a grilled fish or a salad of garden vegetables, finished with a drizzle of new oil, is the simplest way into this cuisine.

Sources: Qualigeo — Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Cilento (olio extravergine di oliva) DOP · Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni — La Dieta Mediterranea

Where to taste it

The Cilento is a land of hills dotted with olive trees looking over the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the south of the province of Salerno. The Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, with the archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia and the Certosa di Padula, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998: olive groves frame almost every route.

Centuries-old olive trees line the coast, for example on the hills of Marina di Camerota with their old towers, and the inland villages such as Castelnuovo Cilento. At Pollica, where the Keys lived, the link between oil and the Mediterranean Diet is especially alive.

New oil arrives between late autumn and winter, as the harvest closes in December: the best time to taste it where it is made, alongside pulses, cheeses and fish from the coast. Visitors to the Cilento can combine the sea at Palinuro and Punta Licosa with inland villages, where oil is still part of daily life.

Sources: Italia.it (Ministero del Turismo) — Il Cilento · Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni — La Dieta Mediterranea · Regione Campania — Cilento (olio extravergine di oliva) DOP

Protection

When

  • The sources consulted give no months.

Where

Campania