THE WHOLE HOG 2006
Tuesday through Friday
February 21 - 24
In spite of our Whole Hog Dinners representing an enormous challenge for the kitchen at Oliveto (some of our dry-cured meats are prepared 18 months in advance!), this event has proved to be the most fun and the most rewarding.
 The dinners recapture an old tradition among farm communities in Italy. A local norcino, or roaming pig butcher, slaughters and butchers the pig, then helps cure much of the meat for the farm family's use throughout the year. At Oliveto we follow in this tradition and take it further by using every part of this "most generous animal" in imaginative and delectable ways.
That includes making many different kinds of terrines, sausages, and pâtés, stews and long-cooked dishes, dishes with offal, a meatball dish, pasta sauces such as sugos and ragùs, cured, smoked, and aged cuts, and our choucroute garni, complete with house-made sauerkraut.
Our pigs come from Paul Willis' hog farm in Thornton, Iowa-our liaison to over 400 farmer-members of the Niman Ranch Pork Company. The pigs we prepare and serve roam free, socialize, eat well, and are fat and happy, raised under the strict protocol of the Animal Welfare Institute. To this year's event we will add another element, that of celebration, for it is in the first half of 2006 that Oliveto's past chef, Paul Bertolli will launch his new salumi business.
FINAL 2006 MENU
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