On The Plate: Being ready for an agrumato doesn’t mean I’m in a bad mood

A recent trip to one of the expansive olive farms in the Grampians introduced a new culinary term to me.

As luck would have it, our plans for a little treat – a special lunch at one of the farms – didn’t eventuate; they were closed that day.

Oh well, plans change! Off we went thinking I’d have to cobble together a bit of lunch from the campervan pantry. It was meant to be a special treat however – four decades plus four years of wedded bliss certainly warrants a special treat! Luck was on our side. We ambled up to the cute little tasting rooms of the neighbouring olive farm and thoroughly enjoyed a very delicious sampling platter of their various oils, some seriously good bread, dukkah and olives.

One of the dishes of oils had a splash of balsamic glaze added to it. Tearing off a bite-sized piece of bread and dipping it into this puddle of green, gold and ebony I was amazed at the delicious flavour that it had – lemony, peppery with a little sweetness due to the balsamic. Wow! A new taste sensation – this was their Lemon Agrumato oil – and it was really delicious.

We ended up chatting away to the owner-farmer, covering all manner of topics from the gamble of the farming game, the vagaries of weather, the bushfires that had wiped out various well-established olive farms, and the perennial problems of the kangaroos that had managed to get inside the so-called roo-proof fences and had taken up residence there. Their numbers were growing annually, and why wouldn’t they? With nice fresh rows of grass under the shade of the olive trees, what’s not to like?

But the agrumato was a bit of a revelation to me. I’d never heard the term before. As the olive farmer explained, there are various ‘infused’ oils on the market – garlic, lemon, herbals ones such as rosemary, but this authentic Italian process of actually pressing the whole lemons together with the olives is a different process altogether.

Originating probably in the Abruzzo region of Italy where extra virgin olive oil is pressed with either lemons, oranges or tangerines as the olives are crushed, with each fruit adding a distinctive and superior flavour to an ‘infusion’ oil.

Naturally the lemon flavour is perfect for seafood dishes, and indeed would be ideal on any summery salads, but I also could imagine this blend of the lemon agrumato and balsamic being very yummy splashed onto strawberries! Orange agrumato would blend well with a fennel salad, and I’ve since researched, but haven’t yet tried a simple pasta dish of fettuccine, fresh ricotta, loads of parsley and ground black pepper, a little chilli and lemon agrumato.

At the end of the harvest in Abruzzo, farmers began the practice of adding lemons to the last pressing, to clean and refresh the presses ready for the next season. The resulting small batches of oil were called limonato and were highly prized – often given as a special gift. Agrume means ‘citrus’ and the resulting oil is very special indeed. I wondered if this was again a bit of a happy ‘invention’ in culinary terms whereby almost by accident a delicious and highly prized ingredient was created out of necessity? The process of whole fruit crushing is superior (in my view) to the infusion method. Infusions are made by inserting strips of lemon rind – the zest only, carefully avoiding the bitter white pith – and warming the oil very gently.

So I encourage you to keep an eye out for agrumato oils and try them soon as I’m sure you’ll be impressed. Meantime, I have found a recipe for making a lemony oil which will surely add a more complex taste to your favourite seafood, over roasted vegetables or various salad dishes.