Olive

About

Black olives are simply ripe green olives and are naturally sweeter, while green olives tend to be more sour; both are bitter in their raw state and require curing to become palatable. Traditional curing, salting or sun-drying followed by months in brine, draws out bitterness slowly, while industrial curing in a lye solution takes less than a day but strips out more flavor along with the bitterness. Specific cultivars vary widely: Gaeta olives from Italy are small, wrinkled, and dry-cured with a dried-fruit flavor; Nyons olives are dry-cured then brine-aged with a leathery, nutty character; Picholine olives are tart, green, and crisp; Lucques olives are buttery and mild, with notes of almond and avocado. Olive oil flavor also varies widely, from mild and sweet to dark and peppery, with oil from early-picked fruit tending to be greener and more peppery and oil from riper fruit softer in flavor. Common flavor notes in olive oil include floral, melon, apple, butter, pepper, artichoke, herbal, tomato leaf, and grass.

Pairs well with olive

• CiLemonIn Moroccan cooking, preserved lemon and green olives are paired to bring bitterness, boldness and tang to chicken dishes, balancing the…
• EaPotatoPotatoes and olives can be stewed together in olive oil with tomatoes, onion and garlic as an accompaniment for fish, or chopped olives…
• CiOrangePoet F.
• FrTomatoA quick "lazy puttanesca" sauce combines garlic, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, chopped pitted black olives, anchovy fillets, capers and…
• SuGarlicA whole garlic clove stuffed into a green olive looks striking but doesn't deliver much flavor payoff -- it mostly just adds an odd, firm…
• WoAlmondGreen olives and salted almonds are a simple, classic savory snack pairing, valued for its straightforward combination of briny and nutty…
• MeBeefBlack olives add a dark, briny depth to a beef daube.
• MaShellfishSalty-sweet shellfish and salty-bitter olives pair naturally, as described by Elizabeth David in an account of freshly boiled prawns and…
• GrAniseBlack, wrinkly olives naturally carry a licorice-like flavor, and green Picholine olives have a subtler anise undertone.
• GrChiliResearch from UC Davis found that capsaicin, responsible for chili's heat, also suppresses the perception of bitterness, explaining why…
• WoCarrotInexpensive Turkish and Greek restaurants often serve black olives with raw carrot sticks as a starter; the salty, oily olives and sweet,…
• ChGoat CheeseA Greek salad pairs salty, tangy feta with meaty kalamata olives, cured in red wine vinegar and brine for a vinous edge that cuts through…
• BrAnchovyAnchovy and olive add a salty, briny intensity to simple dishes like pizza margherita.
• BeRosemaryFocaccia topped with olive and rosemary is characteristic of the Maremma region spanning southern Tuscany and northern Lazio: the olive…
• BeThymeBoth thyme and olives grow on the dry, rocky soil of the Mediterranean.
• MuCaperCombined in tapenade, a coarse paste of capers, olives, thyme and olive oil, sometimes with anchovy or garlic.
• BrProsciuttoSmall Arbequina olives, though not always easy to find, pair especially well with prosciutto, their nutty, buttery character carries…
• MaWhite FishThere's no strict rule pairing green olives with delicate white fish and black olives with richer, oilier fish.
• GrBell PepperA green olive stuffed with red pepper is the classic garnish for a gin martini; anchovy- or Gorgonzola-stuffed olives are used as less…
• FfCoriander SeedIn Greece and Cyprus, olives are typically split or cracked before marinating so the seasoning penetrates fully.
• BeJuniperA dirty martini adds brine from the olive jar to a gin martini.
• FfWhite ChocolateChocolatier Vosges makes a white chocolate bar studded with dried kalamata olive, following the same logic as other sweet-salty chocolate…