n Italy, October marks the beginning of the annual olive harvest, when the fruits are plucked by hand or shaken from their trees and collected, primarily grown in Tuscany, is robust and fruity—it, along with the delicately flavored , are two of the primary olives used in Italian olive-oil production. Meaty, buttery olives pair beautifully with pungent cheeses and crisp white wines; they retain their bright green hue because they are salted and packed without fermentation. olive trees can grow to astonishing heights; their weeping branches are often used to fertilize the trees of other olive cultivars. Plush, citrusy olives can be found either plump and preserved in brine or dry-cured and shriveled. is a petite variety grown largely in Puglia; they are eaten as table olives and pressed to make fruity, ultrasmooth olive oil. One of the largest cultivars in the world, olives are juicy and meaty. The extremely rare is white when fresh due to its lack of flavonoid pigments. The zesty, fruity , a relative of France’s niçoise, makes frequent appearances in stews, braises, and seafood dishes in the Liguria region. The stunningly complex oil made in Sicily from the olive has Denominazione di Origine Protetta (DOP) status; it tastes strongly of tomatoes.
