Pace, Pasqua e Pizza al Formaggio

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Pace, Pasqua e Pizza al Formaggio

Graziella is, as her name suggests, full of grace. She has a lovely sunny disposition and she always smiles with her eyes. Graziella bakes. Oh yes, Graziella bakes very well indeed.

One of her specialities is Pizza al Formaggio. Don’t put the usual image of a pizza in your mind’s…stomach. This is a type of bread made with cheese.

The Marchigiani traditionally eat this at Easter with Ciaoscolo: a soft spreadable salami which is one of the region’s many specialities.

I asked why this is eaten specifically at Easter. Graziella looked at me through those smiling eyes, but her voice gave away the fact that she thought it was rather a silly question. “It’s made with Pecorino! You know? …Easter and lamb?” Of course! Pecorino is a cheese made from ewe’s milk.

March is the month when the olive trees need pruning.

They are undemanding plants as they only need attention three times a year: pruning, fertilising and harvesting. Otherwise, they stand gracing the land with their noble, stately and timeless presence.

I bought a book over the internet (at great expense, I might add) on the best way to prune them. I didn’t get past the first few pages. It was so dryly written and all the (poorly taken) pictures were in black and white.

So, we watched (and helped) others pruning their trees and we asked advice from people whose families have been doing this for centuries. We learnt that the whole business boils down to three main rules:

Remove the suckers. (I’m aware how that reads, but I couldn’t find a way round it.)
Remove the branches which grow straight upwards. These are usually the male branches and they don’t bear fruit. (I found a way round that one.)
This is the most important: prune in a manner as to let the sunshine reach every branch: sort of open it up.

Steps 2 & 3 will give the tree that iconic, flattish, square shape so typical of the olive.

The author of that book would accuse me of over-simplifying the whole thing and he’d probably be right, but it works for us and we have a good enough crop every year to keep us in our own extra virgin olive oil and give a few bottles as presents. We also preserve some of the fruit in jars to be eaten with antipasti.

We have noticed that some people prune their olive trees once they are in flower. In that way you can see which branches will bear fruit. We haven’t tried that, but it does make sense.

I should add that the olives sometimes need emergency attention.

When it snowed last December, we were out there with long poles to shake the snow from the branches in case they broke under the weight.

Here, on Palm Sunday, the congregation take olive branches to mass to be blessed by the priest. I think that’s beautiful, not only because the olive branch is a symbol of peace, but also because what is naturally happening on the land overlaps with Christian traditions. (And vice versa – there aren’t many palm trees in these parts.)

Pace e Buona Pasqua a tutti

Posted in The Garden | Tagged Pizza al formaggio, Pruning olive trees | 7 Comments

7 Responses

on March at 5:38 pm | Reply Maryann

You are reminding me of the days I spent pruning my fruit trees. I loved this job. It became a sort of..meditation, as you consider each individual tree. Nice post :)
on March at 9:46 pm | Reply Joe

I loved that post! it takes me back to my grandparent’s olive farm in Calabria. There’s something special about the olive tree. How many do you have Sally?

Hi Joe,
You’re right, there is something special about them. We have 23 – nowhere near a farm!
on March at 9:14 am | Reply rowena

That pizza al formaggio looks GREAT! And I *heart* ciaoscolo (what is there that I don’t?)

We haven’t yet gotten to the point where I can say what a job it is to prune trees, only that it sure feels good to plant another fruit-bearing one into the ground. The last one will be the fig from papà!
on March at 10:09 am | Reply Cottage Smallholder

What a loveley post. The bread looks delicious. Is the spreadable salami like Nudja?

Thanks for your advice about pruning olive trees. Danny gave me an olive tree a few years ago. It grows in a large pot beside our pond. As we are in the UK it will never bear fruit but I love it.

Dear Fiona,

I don’t know what Nudja is. But, yes, it is spreadable on toast or crackers. It isn’t spreadable on soft, crumbly bread as this turned out to be.
on March at 10:17 am | Reply amanda

Buona Pasqua! This is a mighty fine post, bread, cheese, sausage and olives, simple and sublime. We love olive trees too, together with the umbrella pines and the cypress they seem to define the landscape. We have lots of olives around us but we only actually ‘own’ 4 big ones, the smaller ones don’t really count. All the old guys around here have told us to prune them so that they resemble an empty wine glass. I suppose that means take the middle out and open up the top so that the sun can get inside.
That Graziella sounds like my kind of gal, love the spreadable salami.

Amanda! I did count the small ones. Even sadder – some of them have actually got names.

That explanation from your ‘old guys’ is so clear. It was what I was trying to get at when I said: ‘open them up’.
on April at 11:15 pm | Reply Moon Over Martinborough

I like the simple summary of pruning. But I’ve never heard of ‘male branches.’ I have this feeling that the Italians are very mysterious regarding the stories they tell about olive trees!
- on April at 10:56 am | Reply casalba
  
  Well, it’s kind of true. I really am a novice in this, but as I understand it, olives bear fruit on alternate branches every other year. So, a branch which bore fruit one year will be barren the following year – and those which bear fruit are those which will have flowers in that year – and these are not, usually, those which grow straight upwards.
  
  In truth – again as I understand it – it is the flowers which are both male and female.
  
  I have also noticed that a tree which was heavy with fruit one year will yield next to nothing the following year.
  
  Are you still with me? Maybe I should go back to that book!