Part recipe, part culinary lesson, please enjoy…

The process of turning the hard Olive fruit from the tree into a palatable, edible and enjoyable olive is lengthy…

Originally olives, known under their botanical name ‘Olea Europaea’, were found in the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, but now they are grown wherever the climate is suitable, like Australia. Olive trees grow very old. It is not uncommon to find 600-year-old trees in groves that are still fully operational across Spain and Italy, with some trees claimed to be as old as 1500-2000 years.

Basically, there are 2 types of olives, the ones used for making olive oil and table olives. 90% of the global olive production is turned into oil and only 10% are consumed as table olives. The two types differ greatly in shape and size, and flavor for that matter.

Raw or freshly harvested table olives are naturally very bitter, and to make them palatable they need to be cured and fermented. On a smaller production scale, you first salt-pack them to cure, then rinse changing the water several times a week. All methods of curing involve fermentation, which can be induced using the naturally occurring bacteria in the fruit or with the addition of chemicals, or a combination of both. Depending on the type of process this may take from a few days to a few months. Once this process is finished the olives are ‘edible’ and can be stored without refrigeration, but best covered with a salty water brine to prevent them from oxidizing.

This is the stage you normally would buy olives in the supermarket or delicatessen. However plain, brined table olives tend to have an overly salty flavour. To make them tastier you must marinate them. Of course, there are many traditional and regional recipes.

Tinto’s house recipe is a mixture of traditional and modern, a type of ‘Mediterranean-rim’ recipe and the types of olives we use are Spanish Manzanilla, Greek Kalamata and green Sicilian olives.

We make our olives in large batches to satisfy our hungry Amigos, using 2kg of each variety, but of course, you can use the same recipe with smaller quantities.

Method:

In a large saucepan mix the drained olives and add sprigs of thyme, rosemary and oregano, several squashed cloves of garlic, bay leaves, zests or lemons and oranges and some thinly sliced chilli. Add a generous ‘swig’ of olive oil and slowly heat the mixture while stirring occasionally until it reaches approximately 35-40 degrees. Turn the heat off, cover saucepan with a lid and let it cool down.

Asi lo tienes! Warmed marinated olives with Mediterranean flavours.

Now you can either serve them straight away or transfer into a glass jar and store refrigerated to infuse the flavours further. When needed heat up again in an oven at 175 deg for approximately 3-5 minutes. This softens the olives and intensifies the flavours again … and the residual olive oil will make them luscious and shiny on the table.

Delicioso!