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Recipes & Pairings

Olive oil in the kitchen

How to get the best from our organic extra virgin olive oil from Monte Romano: which oil to choose for each dish, and six traditional recipes from the Tuscia area around Viterbo, where extra virgin olive oil is not just another ingredient — it is the star.

Verde Imperiale and Fondo d'Oro, the new unfiltered oil — straight from the producer.

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Which oil to choose

Our two oils

Verde Imperiale, filtered, is made only from Canino, the native variety of Monte Romano. Fondo d'Oro is the new unfiltered oil: olive oil as it really is. Knowing how to use them changes the result on the plate.

Verde Imperiale

Canino single-variety

Deep green with a bold character: our native variety from Monte Romano gives bitter and peppery notes backed by a high polyphenol content. Use it uncooked, sparingly, in a thin drizzle.

Intensely fruityBold bitternessLingering pepperiness
Use it on
  • Pulse soups and broths
  • Pasta with garlic, oil and chilli
  • Grilled meats and game
  • Sautéed bitter greens: chicory, broccoli rabe
  • Aged cheeses and pecorino

Fondo d'Oro

New oil · unfiltered

Olive oil as it really is.

This is the new oil just as it comes from the harvest: we do not filter it, we bottle it with its natural veil. That is why it is cloudy, dark green and almost creamy, with a bolder flavour: the true taste of the olive, whole. Use it only uncooked, where you can taste everything.

UnfilteredBolder flavourA peppery kick
Use it on
  • Bruschetta and warm bread: its place of honour
  • Bread, oil and salt: the farmhouse snack
  • Boiled beans and chickpeas, dressed on the plate
  • Raw vegetable pinzimonio
  • Grilled meats, drizzled on the plate
  • Boiled potatoes and vegetables
Good to know
  • Shake gently before use: the golden sediment at the bottom is olive pulp, not a flaw
  • At its best in the months after the harvest: only a few bottles, while they last
See Fondo d'Oro in the shop →
The character of each one

The four varieties on the plate

Grown on the hills of Monte Romano between 50 and 370 metres, on south-facing soils of volcanic origin.

Leccino

Delicate and sweet

It brings softness and balance. It is the part that makes the oil suitable for boiled vegetables, eggs and fresh cheeses without masking their flavour.

Frantoio

Intensely fruity

It gives structure, with hints of almond and artichoke and an elegant bitterness: it is what stands up to pulse soups, grilled meats and fresh tomatoes.

Canino

Peppery and slightly bitter

The native variety of Monte Romano, grown on our volcanic soils since Etruscan times: deep green and rich in polyphenols, it gives the oil its backbone.

Maurino

Aromatic and prized

It adds aromatic finesse and fresh green notes. Resistant to cold and wind, it is also the pollinator that supports the whole grove.

Six recipes

The tradition of Tuscia

Dishes from the farmhouse cooking of the Viterbo area and classic uses of extra virgin olive oil: simple recipes where the quality of the oil makes the difference.

Verde Imperiale

Acquacotta from Tuscia

Farmhouse soup · serves 4 · 40 minutes
Ingredients
  • Stale country bread, 8 slices
  • Wild chicory or chard, 600 g
  • 2 onions, 2 potatoes, 2 ripe tomatoes
  • Fresh mentuccia (lesser calamint), garlic, chilli
  • 4 eggs · Grated pecorino
  • Verde Imperiale extra virgin olive oil
Method
  1. Blanch the chicory for a few minutes to soften its bitterness, drain it and chop it roughly.
  2. In a large pot, gently cook the onion and garlic in the oil, add the diced potatoes and the tomatoes, then the chicory.
  3. Cover with hot water, add salt and cook for 25 minutes over a low heat. Flavour with the mentuccia.
  4. Crack the eggs into the soup and let them set for 3-4 minutes without stirring, until the white is set and the yolk still soft.
  5. Place the stale bread in the bowls, pour the boiling soup over it and finish with pecorino and a drizzle of uncooked oil.
The step that matters: the oil goes on uncooked at the end, never during cooking. That is the moment when acquacotta stops being water and becomes a dish.
Fondo d'Oro

Bruschetta with the new oil

Starter · serves 4 · 10 minutes
Ingredients
  • Naturally leavened country bread, 8 thick slices
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Coarse or flaky salt
  • Fondo d'Oro extra virgin olive oil, the new unfiltered oil
Method
  1. Toast the bread over embers or on a very hot griddle until golden outside and soft inside.
  2. Rub the garlic over the surface while it is still hot, very lightly.
  3. Shake the bottle gently and pour the oil generously: the warm bread soaks it up and releases its aromas.
  4. A pinch of salt, and serve at once.
This is the Fondo d'Oro recipe: bread, oil and nothing else, to taste the new unfiltered oil in all its flavour. The tickle in the throat is the sign of polyphenols, not a flaw.
Verde Imperialeor Fondo d'Oro

Pinzimonio with our vegetables

Starter · serves 4 · 15 minutes
Ingredients
  • Celery, carrots, fennel, radishes, puntarelle
  • Verde Imperiale or Fondo d'Oro extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt, freshly ground black pepper
Method
  1. Trim the vegetables and cut them into sticks, keeping them in cold water so they stay crisp.
  2. Pour the oil into a small bowl with a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper, whisking with a fork.
  3. Serve the vegetables well dried, with the bowl in the middle of the table.
Pinzimonio is the acid test of an extra virgin olive oil: with no other ingredients, you taste everything. With Verde Imperiale use just a little: its gentle bitterness brings out the sweetness of the vegetables without masking it. With Fondo d'Oro the flavour is bolder and the oil, being unfiltered, clings more thickly to the vegetables.
Verde Imperiale

Chickpea and chestnut soup

One-course meal · serves 4 · 1 h 30 (plus soaking)
Ingredients
  • Dried chickpeas, 300 g — soaked for 12 hours (or 600 g ready-cooked)
  • Dried chestnuts, 200 g — soaked for 12 hours in the same water
  • 1 onion, 1 celery stick, 1 carrot
  • Rosemary, bay leaf, garlic
  • Verde Imperiale extra virgin olive oil
Method
  1. Gently fry the chopped onion, celery and carrot in the oil.
  2. Add the drained chickpeas and chestnuts with the bay leaf and cover generously with water.
  3. Cook over a low heat for an hour and a half, until the chickpeas are tender, adding hot water if needed (with ready-cooked chickpeas 30 minutes is enough).
  4. Blend a third of the soup and return it to the pot to make it creamy. Adjust the salt.
  5. Serve with croutons and a generous drizzle of uncooked oil.
A dish of the autumn food festivals around Viterbo. The bitterness of the oil contrasts with the sweetness of the chestnuts: a pairing by contrast, the kind that makes a dish memorable.
Verde Imperiale

Lombrichelli with garlic, oil and chilli

Pasta course · serves 4 · 30 minutes
Ingredients
  • Fresh lombrichelli, 500 g — or 400 g flour and 200 ml lukewarm water to make them at home (or 400 g spaghetti)
  • 3 cloves of garlic, fresh chilli
  • Chopped parsley
  • Verde Imperiale extra virgin olive oil
Method
  1. If you make them at home: knead the flour and water into a firm dough and leave it to rest for 30 minutes.
  2. Pull off small pieces of dough and roll them on the table with the palm of your hand into thick, irregular, slightly rough strands.
  3. Boil them in salted water: they are ready when they rise to the surface.
  4. In a pan, warm the oil over a low heat with the garlic and chilli, without ever frying them.
  5. Toss the pasta with a ladle of cooking water, the parsley and a final drizzle of uncooked oil.
The humble pasta of Tuscia, just water and flour. With only three ingredients, the oil is not a seasoning: it is the recipe.
Verde Imperiale

Sautéed chicory

Side dish · serves 4 · 25 minutes
Ingredients
  • Wild chicory, 1 kg
  • 2 cloves of garlic, chilli
  • Coarse salt
  • Verde Imperiale extra virgin olive oil
Method
  1. Boil the chicory in salted water until tender, then drain it and squeeze it well.
  2. In a pan, warm the oil with the garlic and chilli over a low heat.
  3. Add the chicory and sauté it for 8-10 minutes, stirring so that it takes on the flavour.
  4. Off the heat, finish with uncooked oil.
Bitter on bitter: the chicory and our single-variety oil support each other instead of cancelling out. Excellent on bread too, as a farmhouse snack.
Good to know

Three rules so you don't waste it

Small habits that make the difference between a good oil and a good oil wasted.

Uncooked, always at the end

Prolonged heat drives off aromas and polyphenols. For cooking, a little oil is enough: the good one goes on with the heat off, once the food is already on the plate.

Away from light and heat

Keep it closed, between 14 and 18 °C, away from the hob. Light is the first enemy: never leave the bottle on the windowsill.

It is not a wine: it does not age

Extra virgin olive oil is at its best in the months after the harvest. Use it within 12-18 months, and don't save it for special occasions.