Monday, September 22, 2008

Fried Nolca Olives




Right. So, by now you've figured out that I live "amid the olive trees." And a great by-product of living in this particular setting is....we have lots of olives!

Today's "If It Ain't Easy, I Don't Cook It" lesson is on the preparation of fried black olives. These are Nolca olives and they have a lot of "fruit" to them. They are completely inedible raw (like all olives, as far as I know), but fried they are quite delicious!






The olives should be washed in cold water and then dried thoroughly. Heat a fair quantity of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and throw in your olives, plus some halved cherry tomatoes, some fresh basil and a pinch of salt.

Cook over a medium-high flame to get started. Then cover the pan and reduce the flame to the lowest possible setting. Shake the pan to mix the olives regularly. Cook until the olives soften.









Serve as an appetizer with bread and cheese, if you like. Yum, yum!

7 comments:

Rosa said...

By raw you mean freshly picked off the tree and not treated in salt and water ? I've never seen them prepared this way!

Fabrizio Zanelli said...

In any way they look delicious !!!!!!!!!!

Saretta said...

Scintilla - that's right, just picked off the tree and fried! I believe you can only do this with "sweeter" types of olives (meaning less bitter) such as the Nolca or the Pasola varieties.

Fabrizio - yes, they are delicious!

Kathleen McQueen Wright said...

Oh Yumm!!I will have to try this!!

Hilda said...

Finally got around to this. I can't cook this! We only get bottled, preserved olives here! =(

Sigh. And it looks sooo yummy!

mouse (aka kimy) said...

yum!!thanks....hope I can get hold of some nolca olives!

a wine bar em and I like has this wonderful warm olive appetizer on their menu which we always get....until I had these there I never had warm olives before - but they are delish!

Maria Verivaki said...

this is probably the most incredible recipe i have ever seen for olives - we live amid olive trees too, so this recipe is definitely on my list of must-try ,,,