In Focus: The Taggiasca Olive
The Taggiasca is the pride of Liguria, the slim coastal region of the Italian Riviera. Small, brown-purple and intensely flavoured, it does double duty — a prized table olive and the source of one of Italy’s most delicate, sought-after oils. It is also one of the most imitated names in the trade.
Liguria’s little jewel
Taggiasca takes its name from the town of Taggia, near Imperia in western Liguria, where it has been grown on steep coastal terraces for centuries. The fruit is small, ripening from green to a warm brown-purple, with a sweet, almondy, gently bitter taste that makes it a star table olive — it is the classic olive of true Ligurian cooking and the soul of a proper coniglio alla ligure. Pressed for oil, the same fruit gives a light, delicate, sweetly fruity extra virgin with mild bitterness and a faint almond note — refined rather than powerful, and perfect with the region’s fish and vegetables.
Small harvest, big reputation, many fakes
Here is where the buyer must stay sharp. Those Ligurian terraces are steep, hand-worked and low-yielding, so true Taggiasca — olives or oil — is genuinely scarce and genuinely expensive. Its fame far outstrips its supply, which means the name is heavily borrowed: jars of small dark olives and bottles of “Ligurian-style” oil that owe little to Taggia. For the real thing, look for a Ligurian source and ideally the “Riviera Ligure” PDO on oil. If a Taggiasca looks cheap, be sceptical — honest Taggiasca rarely is.
Whole Taggiasca olives, stones in and packed in good oil, are worth seeking out for antipasti, fish stews and Ligurian sauces — don’t waste them in heavy, spiced dishes that would bury their delicacy. The oil, light and sweet, is for finishing fish, steamed vegetables and fresh pasta, not for hard frying. Buy small, buy fresh, and let its subtlety do the talking.
Drawn from Riviera Ligure PDO documentation and Italian variety references.