Know Your Ingredients : Types of Olives and How To Use Them

Most of us who love Mediterranean cuisine, love olives. Olives are versatile and an important part of dishes from Mediterranean cuisine as well as middle eastern cuisine. Until recently, before my travels to Mediterranean region to understand the food better, I never imagined olives has so many delicious varieties, all with very distinct taste and characteristic of their own.

I knew there were few varieties, black olives, green olives, or those Kalamata olives with reddish brown hues and at the most you get them pitted or the better ones stuffed with Pimento. Because that’s what we get off the shelf in India. But gradually after attending various events and promotions organized by Olives boards from various countries, I was introduced to this wonderful world of olives. This year during travels to Mediterranean region and Middle East, I got to learn so much more about more olive varieties, and processes that olives undergo before we get them on our tables.

This year, I decided to devote more and more time to learn and share about wonderful foods we have, and with Festive season shoots off my way, it’s time to start something new on the blog which is more than recipes.

So here’s Know your Ingredients Series and this weekend a peek into a wonderful world of olives. Know about popular olive varieties and dishes that can be cooked using olives, I will keep adding more.

How to Serve and Eat Olives

In the mediterranean region and middle eastern regions Olives have been a part of their diet since thousands of year. In India Olives started making their appearance among masses in very recent years. Olives have been around in India from last decade or decade and a half but only in upscale hotels or restaurants.

It’s very recently after pasta and pizza becoming regular part of Indian diet the olives have started making the appearance on Indian grocery shelfs and still not many varieties except in few gourmet stores. But with more and more people started appreciating global and authentic food, we have started developing palate and have access to the varieties like never before.

So, if you love olives, here are few ways you can eat and serve Olives

You can make them into tapenades, and use tapenades as a spread for sandwiches and wraps as a dip with your favorite snacks and may be in pasta sauce. Toss few olives into your salads for a salty flavor, add them to stews and sauces, into your martini or cocktail or just pop few in your mouth straight out of your hands, olives add taste any which way. You can make various appetizers with olives like these Cheese fried olives and olive cheese bread and A delicious stir fried dish with Olives which I will be posting in next week. These are few most hit party snacks in my home {Another Reason to Subscribe to newsletter from Side bar 🙂 }

Types of Olives

Do you know that there is no such thing as a green olive tree and black olive tree ? Yes! It’s same olive tree the colors of olive you see depends on their level of ripeness. Green olives after ripping become black olives or red or purple depending on the region they are grown or the variety of olive. Green olives are usually picked at the start of harvesting season.

Fun Fact : The pungent taste of olives come from 'Oleuropein' which gives it bitterness. Most of the times Olives which you eat are not raw olives, these are cured ones. Olives are fruits but still have very low sugar content and high fat content

Popular Varieties Of Olives

There are many varieties of olives which are popular, each olive variety comes with distinct qualities depending on the region the olive is grown in, climate and how it was processed { marination, seasoning used etc} after harvesting, even the method of harvesting olives.

KalaMata

Most popular of the table olives (snack) Greek Kalamata olives are pretty ones. Deep purple to reddish in color, shiny skin and distinct rich and smoky flavor makes them extremely attractive to look at. They make a delicious option on your cheese platter, along with wine or simply throw few in your veggie roast for a delicious flavor. I particularly like them in this roasted cauliflower with parmesan.

Cerignola

These are big ones in size, bright green olive color these olives come from Cerignola from Italy’s Puglia region. They are buttery in taste and make great candidates for stuffing. Cerignola tastes especially well with cheese, capers, and garlic. So stuff them with various fillings or add them to your pasta they taste great. {I made these fried olives }

Nicoise

Nicoise Olives are an important ingredient in classic dishes from French riviera, remember Salade Nicoise :). These have bolder flavor with slight notes of licorice. They make great table olives for nibbling.