Bruschetta in Umbria is used as an appetizer or a snack; it’s a very simple recipe, especially prepared to taste Umbrian extra virgin olive oil. 

Cut a slice of local bread, toast it, rub it with a clove of garlic, grind on it some salt (Umbrian bread is unsalted… due to the war of the salt with the Pope in 1540) and drizzle it with a good amount of extra virgin olive oil. In Umbria, during the olives’ harvest season (from the end of October to December), there’s always a barbecue out of the mill, where you can toast a slice of bread and then immerge it in the new oil and taste it. The new oil is green and pungent, it seems even sparkling!

This is the real bruschetta (pronounce it brusketta, please!). The bruschetta is made to taste the oil, so nothing else than garlic and salt has to be added!

In Umbria we have the best olive oil in the world! We grow different varieties of olives, usually leccino, that has a high productivity, frantoio, with a very sweet taste, and the best one that is moraiolo, green, strong and full of flavour. Unfortunately it suffers damage from cold temperature and is very delicate, so the production is low in quantity but of very high quality!

Olive oil was produced in Umbria since Etruscan times. The city of Volsinio, that is now called Orvieto, became famous and prosperous due to its production of olive oil! From the 1 century BC the Umbrian oil was considered one of the best, and.. it still is the best!!!