The OliveVive newspaper this time decided to tell you about a small Livorno establishment, Bar Buffet da Aurelio al Cisternino.
Luca, the owner, tells us how his passion for extra virgin olive oil began, and how things have changed since he has been using it in his kitchen.
Luca comes from a farming family from the Marche region, which moved to Livorno and decided in 1962 to open a new business. They offer sandwiches and homemade dishes related to tradition, with special attention related to the quality of the product.
Riccardo Scarpellini, a simple and elusive customer of the Bar, starts "courting" Luca - as he himself tells us - and every time he goes to lunch with him he leaves a bottle of oil on his table, saying : "Luca, taste it."
Taste after taste, Luca falls in love with this product and realizes that there really are categories, and that the oil proposed by Riccardo is of a higher category than all the others.
But why specifically oil? Because Luca's cooking is simple, and simple things are always the best, and if they are excellence they are even better.
Luca defines oil as "the excellence of simplicity." And that is so true.
The decisive, breakthrough moment, dare we say it, is when he starts using it in cooking, both cooking and raw. He sees a truly remarkable change and realizes that not everything goes well on everything: an example?
Coratina does not go well on a spaghetti all'olio, but when it seasons a soup it feels its full power.
Luca in town is especially known for two delicacies: porchetta and bread and tomato.
He tells us that he used to cook porchetta in seed oil, now he uses extra virgin for that as well. The difference? The processing waste, formerly black, now transparent.
And then comes bread and tomato-the epitome of simplicity.
Luca serves his customers simple bread and tomato and asks them to smell, then seasons with a drizzle of Primo dei Frantoi Cutrera, and asks them to do it again. Here is where the quantum leap happens, the oil enhances a simple dish and makes it pure poetry.
Finally, we ask if he now directs his customers to celta of oils and these are his suggestions:
Titone Blend on boiled cannellini beans, Coratina on soups, Costa del Riparo by Marco Viola and Primo by Frantoi Cutrera on bread and tomato, and finally Riflessi by Fonte di Foiano on grilled and baked vegetables.