Nowadays, many restaurants serve bruschetta with a tomato topping that reminds me of this little harvest time salad that my mother has been making for most of her 82 years. This is wonderful as a topping, of course, but mama always serves it in small bowls with plenty of rustic bread for sopping up the abundant juices. Let me know if you make it, so I can tell mama.

This recipe serves four people, but can be easily multiplied or divided.

• 7 or 8 medium tomatoes, very ripe
  
  
• 1/2 small sweet onion, chopped
  
  
• 4 small cloves garlic, minced
  
  
• 1/2 sweet green pepper, chopped
  
  
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
  
  
• Coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
  
  
• 1/4 cup Tuscan Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Chop the tomatoes into 1 inch cubes. Toss with all the other ingredients, and let sit for 20 minutes. When you spoon this into small bowls, be sure to add all the juices, for therein lies what makes this such a great salad. It just bursts with flavors, aromas, and textures. Serve with lots of crusty bread for dipping. Enjoy!

The fragrant olive oils of Tuscany are unique; they are less delicate than Ligurian varieties, and less full than varieties grown and pressed in the south. Our oils are distinctive in their balance of fruity flavor and peppery undertones, and much dedication goes into their production.

In most Mediterranean areas, olives are harvested in the months of November, December and January. But here in Tuscany, where cooler valleys are sometimes touched with early frosts, the harvest can begin as early as the end of September. Our early harvest means that the fruit is less ripe, and therefore produces less oil, making Tuscan olive oils a bit more rare than others. The less ripe olives also account for the prized peppery taste of our oil. Of course, we love this special oil, and its arrival is always cause for celebration.

Olives are still picked by hand, and they are combed from the tree branches with a long instrument that resembles a strange pair of scissors, and then put into baskets. While some areas are using more mechanical methods of harvesting the olives, these are not yet ideal, as they can damage both the olives and the trees. The old method, known as Brucatura, still prevails. In Tuscany, the olives are always picked by hand, for Tuscans do not believe that an olive that falls to the ground is worthy of our fine olio; such an olive could be damaged and spoil an entire pressing.

Because it is done by hand, olive harvesting is difficult work. Usually, the entire family, and often their friends, are called upon to pitch in with the farm workers for the harvest. The olives are picked while green and timing is vastly important. Once the fruit is off the trees, it must be rushed to the press in order to avoid spoilage. An olive is 20 percent oil, and while this may not seen like a lot, the high fat content can cause the olives to spoil quickly. Fermentation also becomes an issue once the olives are picked. So, it is on to the presses as quickly as possible.

As I said, each olive is about 20 percent oil, so it takes a great many olives to produce a liter of oil; about 200 hundred per liter is an average number. However, among the finest oils, it sometimes takes the fruit of an entire tree to produce a liter.

Here in Tuscany, as in most of Italy, the olives are pressed at a communal mill which is called a Frantoio. At the frantoio, many growers bring their olives to be pressed, but each grower is proud of his olives and comes along with them to the mill, to be sure that only his harvest goes into the pressing. Each grower must make an appointment for his pressing, and sometimes his entire family comes along to await the final product.

When the olives are brought to the mill, they are placed in large baskets and weighed, then inspected and any bruised olives are discarded. The fruit is then washed, placed into large containers, and sent up a conveyor belt to the huge stone crushing wheels. The granite wheels crush the entire olive, skin, pits and all.

A paste is created from the pressed olives, and the paste is further filtered and processed to extract all the liquid from the fruit. This is done by placing it on large woven mats (the originals were straw, of course, but modern mats are made of metal). These are hand stacked, one atop the other, and placed under a powerful hydraulic press. The press squeezes all the liquid out of the paste, and a centrifuge is then used to separate the oil from the watery content of the olives. The oil is then placed into large earthenware jugs or modern steel tanks, where it is left to clear for a month or more.

Here in Tuscany, heat or chemicals are never used to extract or filter the oil. That is why the extra steps of letting the oil settle and perhaps be filtered are necessary. Before the oil for sale is bottled for consumers, it goes through one more filtration process prior to leaving the mill. However, individual growers take their oil with them for filtering and clearing. They can hardly wait to enjoy it, and usually have a tasting as soon as they are home with their jugs of new oil.

I urge all of our readers to print the following list, and save it for your next visit to Tuscany. There is nothing that is quite as much fun as a festival in Italy, and these are so special because they enliven our winter months.

Barberino Val d'Elsa celebrates the "new oil" with special fixed price menus in several local restaurants, from the end of November until just before Christmas. The Festa Fettunta (Feast of the oily bread) is held there each year at the very end of November and usually through the first two weeks of December.
Telephone the tourist office at 055 807 5022

Carmignano holds its fair, where other agricultural products are featured along with olive oil, during the first week of December. Email apt@prato.turismo.toscana.it

Figline Valdarno holds a late autumn harvest fair combining olive and wine. This is held in November. Try the Arezzo tourist office email at info@arezzo.turismo.toscana.it

Impruneta has a Fettunta Festival in December and it has a Christmas Fair celebrating the new extra-virgin olive oil, also in December. For dates, call the Impruneta tourist board at
055 231 37 29 or email them at proimruneta@rtd.it

Lastra a Signa has a food festival featuring the traditional dishes of the area in early December. Try emailing lastra@dada.it or info@firenze.turismo.toscana.it, which office may be able to further direct you.

San Gimignano celebrates new olive oil with a four day festival following Christmas Day. Tourist information is available at
0577 940008.

San Miniato holds an olive oil festival in December, and for more information, telephone 0571 42745 or 0571/418739, and email ufficio.turismo@penteres.it

Vinci hold a feast of celebration for both extra-virgin olive oil and new wine, on or about December 7th. To double check the date, please try calling 0571 933244.

Siena celebrates with an entire week of commercial shows and tourist events, usually during the first 10 days in February. Olive oil week information can be had at tel. 0577 228811 or by emailing aptsiena@siena.turismo.toscana.it

San Quirico d’Orcia celebrates the Festa dell’Olio with a fair that features music and tastings. This is held on the first weekend of December. Telephone. 0577 207413.