THE OLIVE IT
“The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down”
Today’s recipe comes from our friend and The Golden Harvest supporter, Jay Weissberg, director of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto , the world’s most important silent film festival. It takes place Oct. 3 to October 10 in Pordenone in the Italian province of Friuli, on the northern edge of the olive oil world.
The festival and the region’s food both make a person want to attend. This year, you can attend the festival online and travel around the world and back in time. It is a rare gift to see restored silent films, to witness how we have evolved on screen and as filmmakers and to enjoy the orchestral music that comes with silent film, including Cecil B. DeMille’s A Romance of the Redwoods (1917), Guofeng (China, 1935), nine films on travel and five films from the original comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy, before they were a duo.
We asked Jay for a Friuli recipe to enjoy during a screening. He picked pesto from his favorite restaurant, La Vecia Osteria del Moro in the eastern province of Friuli. The menu includes stewed snails, salami cooked in vinegar and many other unique regional dishes—all served with polenta.
“In Friuli, every main dish comes with polenta,” Jay explains. “And there's always frico on the menu, which is this dish of potatoes and cheese made in a skillet that's absolutely delish but sits on your stomach for days.” This recipe is just as it was given to Jay by Claudio Sartor, whose family owns La Vecia Osteria del Moro. It’s a lot of pesto so feel free to halve or quarter. We made it with the mortar and pestle and it was the best pesto we ever made—and so fragrant.
INGREDIENTS:
1kg of fresh basil leaves (the quality of basil really does make a difference)
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
80 gr of freshly toasted pine nuts (the nuts should be lightly toasted in a non-stick pan so they release their oils, which brings out the flavor)
1 stem of marjoram
400gr of grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Salt to taste
1.5 liters of extra-virgin olive oil (the Sartor family recommends using the delicately-flavored oil made in the province of Trieste, from olives grown on the Carso plateau)
PREPARATION:
The traditional way of making pesto is to use a stone mortar and pestle, as this is the best way of bringing out the flavors (and gently muddling the leaves, garlic, nuts and cheese brings all the wonderful aromas together). The consistency is meant to be uneven, not smooth. You can also make it in a food processor or with a blender, but add some ice cubes, as otherwise the delicate basil leaves are burned by the heated blades and they become bitter.
We love that Ollio is the same word for olive oil in Italian
The Golden Harvest Updates
We are really happy with the lovely, socially-distanced turnout from The Golden Harvest’s premier in the UAE @artforallUAE’s Theatre at the Mall of the Emirates, with Q & A hosted by the formidable Culturist , Hind Mezaina
Up next, the birthplace of filmmaker of The Golden Harvest, Chicago and the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, Oct. 11 at 8 pm but streaming online for 24 hours internationally. The festival has already begun, so check out the screenings. Then next up is the Toronto Food Film Festival with a Q & A with the filmmaker at 5.30 pm, on October 18, 2020, sponsored by The Spice Trader
We love the feedback from our screening at the Theatre at Mall of the Emirates
In the News
Olive season is getting close. So any olive oil you buy now is last year’s oil. Still good but good to have some good guidelines. Don’t buy the fakes! We recommend these tips from Bobby Parrish at Flav City
Fresh oil coming soon!
To read earlier Recipes and fun film and olive facts from The Olive It, click here.