“Olive oil and the other ingredients of our life” article series

Claretta lives in Dolcedo in Liguria and looks out to sea from there. The road leading up to Valloria was once a neat garden, with not a blade of grass sticking out, and well-maintained low stone walls. In those days the olives were separated from the leaves by tapping them with a large wooden spatula called sessola, which caused the leaves to fall under the net. The canals that irrigated the whole countryside were used to water the olive trees, and the oil mills were powered by large wheels driven by water from the bealere (1).

“In the garden we had all sorts of fruits and vegetables," Claretta says, "such as figs that we kept in vine leaves, and beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, which we still preserve in jars with olive oil and, between two tomatoes, basil and garlic crushed in a mortar, like for pesto. This was the basis of our breakfast with the "Pizzallandrea", a delicacy that we prepared every week when we baked bread for the whole family; the Pizzalandrea was used to estimate the temperature of the oven. Its name is a tribute to Admiral Andrea Doria, a native of Oneglia (2)."

Ingredients :

• 300 ml water

• 500 g flour

• 20 g brewer's yeast (or sourdough)

• 1 kg ripe or peeled tomatoes

• 12 black olives

• 100 g anchovies

• 1 onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• extra virgin olive oil, oregano, salt, sugar

Preparation:

1. Put the brewer's yeast (or sourdough) in a cup, add a pinch of sugar and mix with a small cup of warm water; then add another pinch of sugar and two tablespoons of flour, mix again and leave to rest (covered) for half an hour until the volume has doubled.

2. Put the rest of the flour in a bowl and pour the warm water, two tablespoons of olive oil, salt and the yeast mixture into the centre of the bowl. Knead to a soft dough, place in a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave to rest for about two hours.

3. Meanwhile, fry an onion in olive oil and a few tablespoons of warm water so that it does not turn black, add the ripe or peeled crushed tomatoes, add salt and cook until almost all the water in the tomatoes has evaporated.

4. Spread the dough in a greased pan, add the sauce, the anchovies, the olives, the crushed garlic gloves (you can leave the skin) and the oregano.

5. Leave to rise for a few more minutes and then place in the oven at 180˚ for about 30/40 minutes. The pizza is done when it starts pulling away from the edges of the pan and becoming brown underneath. Before cutting, drizzle a generous amount of Taggiasca variety oil such as Paolo Cassini's Extremum.

(1) Small irrigation channel

(2) Andrea Doria (Oneglia, 1466 - Genoa, 1560), commander, admiral and politician of the Republic of Genoa.

Extract from L'olio e gli altri ingredienti della nostra vita by Maurizio Pescari (Rubbettino, 2021). Translation and adaptation by Camille Frachon.