Ursini

Great Oils and Great Specialties

The Olive Tree Plants Its Roots in Abruzzo

Before being a company, Ursini is a family, taking care of olive orchards and mastering the art of pruning for centuries. Today, such knowledge has enriched and expanded. Ursini produces a wide range of Extra Virgin Olive Oils, “Pestati”, Delicacies in Evo and Pasta Sauces. All these products have been part of the Mediterranean diet for centuries, but Ursini have been able to give them a new twist. The company proudly offers the highest quality products with the most elegant packaging. Ursini is keen to work with strong commitment and great respect for traditions, reinterpreting them through innovation, excellence, and elegance.

Who We Are

The Kitchen

Ursini stands out from other companies starting from its home: no old-school factory and no industrial area, but an ancient site dedicated to the activity of the olive-press and a new and welcoming small-brick structure measuring over 1,400 square metres surrounded by olive groves. Here there is room for the warehouses, offices and above all the kitchen where all our specialities are prepared: situated in the centre of the surface area. The machinery is special too, tailor made for our unique culinary techniques and for soft pasteurisation.

Where We Are

Ursini is in Fossacesia in the heart of Abruzzo, the green region of Europe in which there are three national parks and the enchanting Costa dei Trabocchi. A wonderful land in which the vocation has always been olive growing, where the quality of life and ancient values allow no compromises, exactly like Ursini production. For us, authentic excellence only goes through direct and personnel commitment, not delegated to third parties. Direct olive groves, proprietary olive-presses, internal kitchen-laboratories and directly controlled distribution are the stages of the entire chain. Offering the best product is a commitment we undertake in respect of our roots and the great patriarch, that centuries-old olive tree from the eighteenth century which observes us proudly from the garden of San Giovanni in Venere Abbey.

Ursini Family

Ursini is a family before being a company, a group of olive growers and its fruits whose destiny is already written in its nickname Putì which means olive pruner in dialect. As early as the nineteenth century the members of this family were consider as master experts and were among the most requested by landholders for advice on caring for olive groves. Today such knowledge is enriched and expanded into various forms of producing oil, benefitting from the creativity and innovation innate in Ursini’s Family DNA: the incomparable extra virgin in all its expressions, but also many specialities with new and surprising flavours, albeit linked to tradition and with the common denominator of extra virgin olive oil. An offer of absolute quality which does not permit compromises and allows the freshness of the best raw materials to be enjoyed all year long.

What We Do

The Perfect “Mariage”

Everybody knows that enjoying a wine with the proper food is the right way to enhance its properties. Ursini, in fact, puts together his Pestatos with the fragrance of the most popular wines: here is the range “Pestati di Bacco”, a perfectly organized group work gathering Ursini’s ideas, the professionality of a famous sommelier and the skillfulness of the head cook.

We are proud to introduce you five unique Pestatos, made of accurately selected ingredients to “be married” to several typologies of wine. A perfect harmony of tastes and sensations.

What’s a Spice Flavoured Olive Oil?

The world of flavoured olive oils is not always the right place for a serious olive oil producer. Too many times mid-quality or nearly expired extra virgin olive oils are used for these products, flavoured with aromatic herbs or even worst with artificial fragrances. These are unfair methods, completed by prices too high for the real value of the product. Serious olive oil producers always fear their reputation… stumbles on this unclear branch, if they begin producing flavoured olive oils.

Ursini loves challenges and accepted the risk, by introducing spice-flavoured oils, produced with a similar method to citrus-flavoured ones: olives are therefore pressed in mill together with the spices. In November and in December we crush, together with the olives, basils, chilli pepper, red garlic and a mix of rosemary, sage and parsley. The spice-flavoured olive oil coming out from this processing can’t but be a high quality product. Verba volant, scripta manent!

What is The Citrus Flavoured Olive Oil?

The classical orange flavoured olive oil is an expression of the most ancient food tradition belonging to Trabocchi Coast (Abruzzo), an area very famous in the past and described by the poet Gabriele d’Annunzio for its charming citrus orchards and olive trees along the coast. Recipes have been passed from parents to sons for generations. The citrus fruits flavoured olive oils has always been produced in low quantity, enough for the family and friends, because they are the result of a long and expensive process.

Both the citruses and the olives are biologically grown and selected by ripeness and variety and crushed at the same time in the oil mill. The paste we obtain is extracted with chill, slowly and softly, without stress. This process is very longer and less prolific than normal ones: that’s why a real and true citrus flavoured olive oil is rare and precious. The fruity scent, with a persistent bouquet of olives and oranges, makes the classic citrus flavoured olive oil an inimitable product, not comparable with any other scenting olive oils or amateurish’vinaigrettes. Since it’s a delicate and balanced olive oil, it has to be conserved in dark bottles, as commonly done for real homemade olive oils.

The 4 Secrets of Specialities

As for oil, Ursini is the custodian of secrets of excellence for specialities in oil.

- Raw materials which are only the freshest are carefully selected and worked on the day, excluding the use of semi‐finished goods or frozen or pickled products.

- The greatest respect for the seasonality of the products, which allows their fragrance and taste to be enhanced so that they can be enjoyed all year ground thanks to the art of ideal preservation.

- Sincere and safe transformation, based on avant‐garde technologies and unique working techniques adopted by great Italian cuisine, all without preservatives and in the case of mashed goods, without applying vinegars or citric acids.

- The originality of the recipes, very tasty bases which give life to specialities of an innovative gastronomic tongue and prove to be much more than simple foods in oil.

A Triumph of Deliciousness

The quality of Ursini products is homemade. In fact, Delicacies by Ursini have their own pure and simple character, because they were also created to be enjoyable just in the way they are, as complete meal. Delicacies by Ursini are born after an accurate procedure: stored in a jar, with specially designed production techniques, so as not to impoverish the freshness of vegetables and vegetable crops as happens in conventional conversion processes used today. Specialties of the highest quality products are exclusively made with fresh products, only in harmoniously tasting extra virgin olive oil. These are authentic recipes guaranteed by our delicious and meticulous cooks. You’ll taste an uncompareable gourmet dish. Our products in olive oil do not contain any additives, they are absolutely natural and traditional, containing no chemical adjustments at all. Ours are high quality products and as such should be treated. Despite being pasteurized in a bain-marie they have a growing life cycle, which matures and declines in 18-22 months depending on the ingredients and method of preservation of the jar. After the opening we recommend to cover the product with quality extra virgin olive oil or refrigerate.

Taste as beginning. Love for the Earth simple gifts and the art of knowing how to conserve them, preserving their natural flavour, to be enjoyed even out of season. These are Ursini Delicacies: not mere food in oil (sott’oli), but masterpieces of fantasy, gastronomic research and tradition. The Delicacies are realized only with the fresh vegetables in season, because, according to Ursini, preserving means providing the palate with the gift of the quality of the food, without compromising the natural flavour. That’s why for each product, a dedicated professional staff oversees the boiling of vegetables in a totally balanced mix of water, vinegar and white wine; in this way, any bitter taste, though necessary, is kept to a minimum. Once dried, the same vegetables are dipped in high quality extra virgin olive oil.

Oil we use. The art of preserving food, since the most ancient and remote times, cannot be separated from the usage of pure extra virgin olive oil. The olive oil we use is our “Terre dell’Abbazia”, an excellent extra virgin olive oil tasting round, smooth and flawless, perfect for keeping all types of food under glass. We firmly reject to use any olive oil or seed oil: they are inappropriate because they have been manipulated in olive oil refineries. And do not believe in people trying to get across the concept of olive oil and seeds as most suitable because of their being tasteless. Not at all! They try to justify their use of cheap products, regardless of the consequences on the final product.

The 4 Secrets of Oil

Sono pochi ma decisivi i fattori che rendono così straordinario olio extra vergine Ursini:

- La materia prima dell’olio, composta solo da olive sane che vengono raccolte nel momento di maturazione ideale con metodo manuale, per poi essere macinate all’istante nella giornata della raccolta.

- La trasformazione, caratterizzata da minore acidità e maggiore stabilità per un olio armonico ed equilibrato, dal profumo intenso e dal colore verde rubino brillante.

- Il metodo di lavorazione individuale delle olive, curate e divise per singole varietà già nei campi, in modo da preservarne quel patrimonio gustativo che manca nelle lavorazioni che mischiano le varie tipologie.

- La doppia decantazione dell’olio, che non viene filtrato, da effettuare ogni due mesi e seguita da un destino personalizzato scelto dal Mastro Oleario.

More About Us

To Recognize a Good Olive Oil

To have more knowledge about olive oil it is importan to know that the tasting of an oil reset the analysis of oil in the laboratory: an oil which is perfect for a laboratory could, however, show a bad organoleptic level. Moreover is necessary to know exactely how to taste an oil: who says with fingertip dipped in oil, on bread or boiled rice; others say with a spoon or cup; many others rubbing the olive oil on the palm of the hand or on the wrist.

However for a perfect tasting of an olive oil is indispensable to use a dark container glass, defined “Tulipano”, easy to clean and perfect for a tasting of oil void of opinions not objective. If you don’t have the “Tulipano”, you can use also a small plastic glass.

The Meeting Between The Oil and The 5 Senses

Tasting an olive oil means stimulate our brain and put in action the 5 senses.

Smell: the olfactory membrane is tasked to detect the smell of oil;

Taste: the taste buds have the advantage of detecting the taste and consistency of oil;

Sight: the eyes have the task of showing the color and chromatic note oil;

Touch: touching the fingers to understand the quality and consistency of oil;

Hear: the sounds, memories and perceptions of oil tasting are shown through the auditory system.

It is also important being in a good physical form, tasting during the morning or mid afternoon, never after meals; the environment should be as sterile as possible: odors, noises and colors are distracting elements.

The Game of The Tasting of Oil

Here you can find some information for a perfect tasting of oil:

- Pour a small quantity of oil into “Tulipano”;

- Heat the oil with the heat of the hand holding the container;

- Cover the container with a concave glass for closing the evaporation of scents of oil;

- Bring the container to the nose and remove it, inhale the oil slowly two or at most three times;

- Bring the container to the mouth, on the lower lip and slip away on the tongue the equivalent of eight or maximum ten drops of oil, never swallow;

- Move the tongue creating the shape of a spoon toward the teeth superiors, barely resting on inferiors;

- Inhale from the ajar mouth one or twice in quick succession;

- The air mixed with oil sprays the tongue and the palate, where the receptors reside promptly activated from the tasting of olive oil;

- Storing in the memory the different perceptions (sweet, bitter, spicy), the merits and defects of oil;

- After a few minutes and after getting clean the tongue and palate with natural water repeat the tasting a second time.

Strenghts and Weeknesses of an Extra Virgin Oil

To recognize a real extra virgin olive oil means to understand the strenghts and weeknesses.

The weeknesses more common are:

- “Rancid” oil due to aging of oil fbecause of light, heat and oxidation;

- Impression of “mold” oil due to bad conservation of olives before being pressed;

- Smell of “sludge” due to contact with sludge residues;

- “Coarse” taste due to a lack of harmony and cleaning in general.

The strenghts more common are:

- “Bitter” oil when it is an oil at the beginning of the new harvest;

- “Hot” taste when it is an oil at first months after pressing;

- “Harmonious” character when fragrance, taste and texture are in perfect balance;

- “Sweet” taste when it is a delicate oil, typical of an area and variety of plants;

- “Vegetable” oil when it is an oil comparable to that of vegetables, plants or fruits.

Too often the weekneeses of oil have prevented to the extra virgin record, especially abroad, that universal success that always deserves. So the indispensable prerogatives to speak, treat and especially to produce oil concern professionalism, passion and a deep knowledge of the sector.

Giuseppe Ursini

Awards and Certifications

An exclusively Italian phenomenon is to present the awards. The company Ursini has participated few times but every time it did, it always presented the type of oil actually corresponding to that sold in the distribution channels.

The Thought of Giuseppe Ursini

To enter in a competition, the producer typically sends the oil to the various locations and within the time allowed, paying a minimum for the costs of running the contest.

Everyone can participate, just be a credited producer (though to be a producer is not required to have olive plants or mills) and have a minimum of bottles to show, regardless of the fact that these bottles are for sale or not.

At best, it happens that the competition is won by a credible company, but many others, however, the oil that has won will not go on the market because often the amount produced was aimed only to the participation of the competition: the few bottles go to friends and relatives of the producer, who eventually sold to the public another kind of oil but he will be proud of his partecipation at the competition.

So lot of peole buy an oil believing that it is rewarded but do not know that in reality they are buying another one.

This happens because there are no constraints to the participation. There are not controls to check if the producer effectively creates economy with that product. Every company can participate with only one oil, maybe produced for only a hundred bottles around, so they do not judge the high level global production company. It is not considered the products taken from the store and if that goods are sent on the market or not.

Finally the judges are highly trained technicians, but not all with the same preparation. During the competitions the assessment is still too empirical, too casual. Considering more than 20 winners in Italy, including national and regional competitions, how is it that who wins a national competition, does not classify to a regional one?

I am not gree. I do not want to be subjected to superficial evaluations, whether positive or negative.

But we have to say that there are some exceptions, such as the Guide Extra Virgin Olive Oil of Slow Food that is among the closest to the idea of meritocratic competition. The Guide does not evaluate only a product but interacts effectively with the participating companies and, above all, does not claim to declare a winner. Also here there are the products presented by producers and selected on the market, but at least no one on the podium.

Giuseppe Ursini

The Italian Talent is Unique - Unici Group

Seven friends producers among the highest examples of the italian gastronomy who joined their talents. They work together to reach two ambitious goals: excellence and originality, both in production and design.

Seven strong personalities meeting frequently to exchange ideas and to plan new projects for the future.

Seven birthplaces aiming to become international thanks to their “special” productions: Prato, Forcoli (Pisa), Albinea (Reggio Emilia), Monte San Pietrangeli (Fermo), Fossacesia (Chieti), Pantelleria (Tp) and Florence.

Seven colours. Black and White for “Ursini”, White for “Mancini”, Red for “Il Borgo del Balsamico”, Blue for il “Biscottificio Mattei Deseo”, Brown for “Savini”, Pastel for “la Nicchia”, Green for “La Via del Tè”.

A real tale writing itself, to leave a mark in the authentic italian gastronomy.

Products Ursini