from the 2025 fall harvest

The new oils have arrived!

Olio Nuovo, which means simply "new oil," is made from olives picked during the very first week of the harvest, usually around the end of October. The olives are then pressed and the resulting oil is bottled right away and then air-shipped to us for optimum freshness.

After olio nuovo, the next bottling comes 1 to 3 months later. Unlike the nuovo, quality producers often do not bottle their oil immediately, and instead they store it in stainless steel containers and only bottle as needed. This process removes all the oxygen in the vats, and lets the organic matter slowly sink to the bottom of the VAT, so that it can be removed – therefore minimizing exposure to water, and therefore oxygen. After this natural filtration process is complete. The olive oil is then bottled as needed.

Olio Nuovo, Olio Novello, Decembers New oil—it is all about a fruitful and prosperous harvest. It has been known to establish and predict what the upcoming year will bring in fruit, harvest, life.

The first taste of oils this year was filled with a vibrant, optimistic flavor of life.

A spoonful will fill the mouth with oily, olivey, fruity and a bitternessy that will roll across the tongue. (Normally bitter is only on the edges)

It can be a wild ride when you swallow as the oil rides to the back of the throat. It can burn and create the unstoppable cough. Wow!

Overall the nuances of the flavors are pronounced, delivering a good strong olive oil impression, with the bitter edges (if there are any) being pushed aside.

Overall great olive oil will share a strong, opinionated, flavorful and optimistically upward positive feel.

Olives takes a year to grow, and one can never predict the end result. Every year it is the same (You can recognize the “touch” of the artisan) and it is different because Mother Nature is.

There are two very glorious ways to enjoy the wonderfulness of a new olive oil.

An open celled Italian bread, freshly sliced, drenched in Olio Nuovo and sprinkled with a nice crunchy sea salt.

Or a straight pasta, like spaghetti, cooked al dente, liberally drizzled with new oil and a nice crunch sea salt, done!

Time to celebrate the harvest with family!

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RECIPE

Classic Bruschetta Recipe

Bruschetta is a classic Italian antipasti, and it's about as simple and delicious as you can imagine.

A perfect way to celebrate your new olive oil!

TASTING NOTES

Fattoria di Petroio Tuscan Olive Oil

To the nose it’s a gentle olive oil, smooth and round.

The first sip and the mouth is gently teased with a Olive healing flavor with no bitter or sharp notes!

For me, the first swallow tickles, and then instantly a robust cough! Excellent!

For the tongue, it feels nice, a classic olive oil, very Italian with a hint of butter in it and vegetable lean.

To the throat, it continues to make me cough. It’s the lower back of my throat that is tingling and making me cough.

To my memory, this year‘s oil has the least amount of bitterness on the edges of any previous years and in many ways, my year favorite ever.

Read more about Fattoria di Petroio

Sal de Portugal in Ceramic Pot

Sea Salt from Portugal

Flor de Sal is a finishing salt, harvested entirely by hand from the historic salt pans of Figueira da Foz on Portugal’s Atlantic coast.

Valued for its delicate texture and exceptional culinary quality, this artisanal salt reflects centuries-old traditions and the purity of Portugal’s coastal heritage.

The salt pans of Figueira da Foz—located roughly an eight-hour bike ride south of Porto—are part of a unique cultural and ecological landscape preserved by the Núcleo Museológico do Sal (Salt Museum Center).

Here, time-honored salt-harvesting methods continue within the rare ecosystem formed where the Mondego River meets the Atlantic Ocean. The area features traditional salinas and wooden storage structures, and offers visitors walking paths, birdwatching opportunities, and the chance to purchase locally produced Flor de Sal while learning about this sustainable, historic craft.

TASTING NOTES

Spedalotto Tonda Iblea Sicilian Olive Oil - Nuovo

A wonderful dark green olive oil.

So dark it looks otherworldly.

To the mouth, the oil feels dense in your mouth, thick. It does tease the throat, but doesn’t bring on the cough like the others.

When the mouth is full of oil. The tip of the tongue tells you the olive oil is complex, delicious full of flavor, but not jumping on your face.

Like always, Tonda Iblea is a pretty special oil and when it’s the first of the year, the Olio Nuovo, it is round, full, flavorful, and super enjoyable.

It makes you wish for more. It makes you ponder and think of ways to consume. As always this is a special oil.

PERFECT WITH NUOVO

Basic Pasta with Olive Oil Recipe

This recipe is inspired by how to celebrate freshly-pressed olive oil. Make pasta, pour a bottle of olive oil over it and toss and share!

I like to toast my slices and then slather them in butter.

Salt from the underground waters

Fossil River Flake Sea Salt

Perhaps you know the Castle of the Pies Negros, also known as Villena Castle. What you may not know is that there are underground rivers & springs in the earth nearby. And from those waters an amazing salt is harvested.

Salt has been one of those favorite things we fell in love with when we started some 28 years ago. Since then we have tried a lot of salt. Hard to imagine but it's pretty difficult to discern the differences between one salt and another when you try more than three in a row. They just start to all taste salty.

When you do try a salt that is out-of-this-world, you know it instantly.

Fossil River salt is indeed one of them. These big, beautiful flakes of salt are created after extracting the water from the river and poured in saline pools whilst the hydrogen and oxygen atoms disperse.

This allows the natural elements to be retained and remain in these glorious salt crystals.

Big flakes that crunch and disappear with ease, leaving nothing but the flavor of salt.

So large you can pick them up with delicate fingertips and by placing one or two choice crystals in key strategic locations on a brownie, it is indeed divine.

I only just met the salt, but I am in love. I expect you will be too, as there is plenty to share.

What's Happening in the Store

The New Just-Harvested Olive Oils!!

Come, taste and compare! Pick your favorite and meet friends old and new who all love food.

January 3-30, 2026
Friday & Saturday: 10am-5pm
ChefShop Retail Shop, 1425 Elliott Ave West, Seattle

TASTING NOTES

Frantoio Grove Olio Nuovo!

When you pour this olive oil out and before you can even smell it, the color is pronounced, dark, rich, vibrant, full of personality!

To the nose, there’s a lot of Olive.

To the mouthful, the oil has a thickness and a bit of oiliness to it.

As you swish it around, there is a hint of bitterness to it.

Your first swallow and you will notice there is an edge. Not big or sharp, but with some bitterness, edgy, across the outside edges of your tongue and then it lingers above the tongue as you suck your cheeks in to finish the flavors.

When it’s done, the flavor hangs out nicely, reminding you it was there.

It leaves a little bit of it itself on the lips and in the mouth. Not in a bad way, in a friendly way.

It hangs in the back of the throat not in a punchy kicking way, just a tickle.

An oil with personality to make you happy.

DRAWN THRU BRONZE DIES

Pasta di Gragnano I.G.P. Pastificio Gentile Organic Spaghetti Pasta

Pastificio Gentile is a continuation of Gragnano’s historical pasta-making tradition, using artisanal techniques and ingredient choices.

The company is known for its use of bronze-drawn extrusion that produces a textured pasta surface to better absorb sauces. The pasta relies on high-quality Italian durum wheat semolina and the processes rooted in history.

Pastificio Gentile produces roughly 50 artisanal pasta shapes. Alongside familiar long pastas, Pastificio Gentile maintains the production of historically handmade forms, most notably hand-rolled fusilli, as well as larger shapes such as paccheri. Across the assortment, emphasis is placed on traditional methods and slow, deliberate production rather than industrial efficiency.

Gragnano’s prominence as a pasta-making center dates back several centuries and is closely tied to its environmental conditions. The town’s location between mountains and sea historically provided a steady circulation of air, clean water sources, and a mild climate—factors that supported natural pasta drying.

These characteristics contributed to Gragnano receiving European Union Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status for “Pasta di Gragnano.” Pastificio Gentile operates within this framework, aligning its production methods with the geographic and cultural context that defines the region’s identity.

CLASSIC RECIPE

Mezzi Paccheri with Pumpkin, Sausage & Smoked Provola Recipe

A classic Italian recipe you can use with big shaped pasta.

REALLY BIG SHELLS

GENTILE Organic Lumaconi Pasta Shells

Looking for a large, stuffable pasta shape? This one is great!

The bronze drawn giant shells have a wonderful stipple to hold your sauce!

Slowly air dried brings out the best in the flour and water!

A HEARTY SAUCE

Red Sauce Recipe!

The beauty of this recipe is that you can adjust and modify and not be perfect with the quantity and it is still good! The quantity in this recipe is good for a gaggle of actors. Making less is easy as the ratio of ingredients is not critical.

I constantly change this recipe and have updated it for this year!

Know someone who loves food?

PASTA FROM ITALY

Gentile Organic Rigatoni Pasta

These shells are gorgeous!

With a wonderful tubular shape drawn through bronze dies and then air dried slowly allows these large pasta to have a wonderful bite and shine when they are filled with a sauce.

SIMPLE GARLIC AND OLIVE OIL

Pasta with Garlic & Olive Oil Recipe!!

So simple and, oh, so good! The key, as with all simple Italian recipes, is having the right ingredients -- the right olive oil, the right garlic, and the right pasta!

BUNS

Red Walnut Sticky Buns Recipe

You may be familiar with pecan sticky buns, but if you haven’t tried a classic sticky bun with California red walnuts, you’re missing out. With red walnuts, you'll notice a milder, nuttier flavor than your average grocery store walnut, lacking the bitter profile you might have become accustomed to with walnuts.

The sticky buns do take a little preparation time, but the good news (besides ending up with sticky buns) is that you get two pans of them, so you can take one to the office or stick one in the freezer for later, doubling the yumminess.

ESSENTIAL PANTRY

ChefShop Cocoa Powder

This Deep Dark Dutch-processed dark unsweetened cocoa powder is in a class unto itself. We have removed less fat from our cocoa (22-24% fat content), which results in a more intense and immediate chocolate flavor.

This "service pack" of ChefShop cocoa powder is designed for commercial users like baristas, bakers, and gelato makers. It is sealed in a thick zip-lock style bag for production baking with a Plain Jane label. Like many of the foods and ingredients that go to the back of the house, the contents are more important than being pretty.

And price relative to quantity is also a crucial part of the commercial kitchen. So that is why we have chosen this cocoa, for the quality and consistency of product relative to the cost.

And that's what we have here in this bag of exceptional cocoa powder. The resealable bag keeps the cocoa powder fresh and it can last a good long time.