Close your eyes,
and read this.

Small town, Calabria, southwest Italy: *crickets*.

It’s early August and the Peperoncino are hanging in large bunches, patiently drying in the hot sun.

Nonna: “Why do we love them so much?” I couldn’t answer. But I knew that for her, food was much more than eating. Food is about patience, family, and tradition.

I grew up cooking with Nonna, learning the traditional recipes ― focaccia, braciole, pizza rustica, all flavored with our neighbor’s olive oil.

But there’s one recipe she wouldn’t talk too much about.

The epicenter of our community.

The leading character of our family moments, the epicenter of our community, the headquarters of Conversations Corporazione™ was the dining table. And at the center of it was the most loyal, fascinating, beautiful red-ish bottle of Nonna’s homemade spicy olive oil.

Recipe: unknown. All we knew is she always had a bunch of giant bottles infusing in a dark corner of her kitchen. Don’t ask to much, drizzle a few drops: Boom! That’s family.

Half a century later, you too can experience Olio Piccante and understand what patience, family, and tradition tastes like.