Blog Coppini Arte Olearia

Dressings from simultaneous pressing

FLAVOURED OIL BY PRESSING FRESHLY PICKED OLIVES WITH FRESH AROMAS

The idea of creating dressings from simultaneous pressing of olives with other flavours was born in the early Seventies.
The difficult part was to find a mill that could be dedicated to this experimental research. The world of olive oil is quite traditionalist, sometimes even too much. Under the guise of “it’s always been done this way”, there can be the risk of creating a mediocre product, because reluctant to accept technological innovations.

The pilot mill of Castelvetrano, designed ad hoc with Pieralisi, a leader in the manufacturing of pressing machines, has provided an important contribution in terms of research. It allowed Coppini Arte Olearia, to conduct continuous research for improving pressing techniques thus the finished product while keeping high levels of biophenols.

LEARNING THROUGH EXPERIMENTING

The challenge was to create a new, healthy and fresh product, not chemically flavoured that could take advantage of the rich aroma of the essential oils present in the zest of lemons, which are cultivated in Sicily near olive groves. As soon as a small oil mill willing to embark in this adventure was found, the experiment started. At the beginning, lemon juice sprayed on the walls of the mill was so overwhelming that someone suggested adding straw to the olives during the first phase of milling. Needless to say, that the proposal was implemented and the millstones speed was lowered in an attempt to find a balance that could work well both for the olives and for the lemons.

A RECIPE THAT CHANGES EVERY YEAR

And from then on, the recipe has changed every year. The right balance between olives and lemons is reaching by considering the amount of water existing inside the fruits, the temperature and the weather. This is the reason why the product is never the same from a year to the next; it reflects the weather pattern of the year.

With the switch from milling to pressing ‒ i.e. from the millstones to continuous cycle pressing ‒, the process had to be re-engineered to find a new balance. Therefore, the decision was made to invest even more in research and to try new recipes, maintaining as starting point the olives deemed suitable every year for this type of processing. Today, besides the lemon dressing, Coppini Arte Olearia proposes also Mandarino Marzuddu dressing, garlic dressing, basil, red or green chili and rosemary dressings. All these products, over the years, have won the “Sial Innovation” award at the Sial Food Exhibition in Paris.

Yet, this is not the end of the research, and with every harvest, Coppini offers new dressings from simultaneous pressing.
They are always natural products, never chemically flavoured, where the extra virgin olive oil blends with the essential oils of other flavours, while remaining uniquely fresh for this type of product.

02 agosto 2022