How to make marinated Olives the easy way - simple Moroccan recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is special about Castelvetrano olives? ›

Castelvetrano olives are one of Italy's most popular olive exports, and for good reason! Their irresistible buttery flavor and meaty texture really make them stand out in the olive crowd.

Strong, intense and rich in flavour, these black sundried Moroccan olives simply soaked with extra virgin olive oil. The rich taste of these olives really comes out when added to sauces or to enrich casseroles and of course enjoyed in a Greek salad.

Fill with vinegar (I like white vinegar for green olives and red wine for purples) and one teaspoon of salt to one inch below top of jar. Add 1/2 inch of olive oil. Seal firmly and agitate the mixture, then store in a cool, dark, place.

Peel off long thick strips of lemon zest and place in a bowl with the olives. Squeeze the lemon then top with 3 times as much extra virgin olive oil. Add salt, pepper and the crushed coriander seeds. Pour the dressing over the olives and leave to marinate.

Kalamata olives may reduce your risks of heart disease. This is due to the presence of hydroxytyrosol in olives. Hydroxytyrosol is an antioxidant that has been shown to decrease LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

These olives are naturally very salty and are best consumed in salads, dips and other starters. Store in the fridge in an air-tight container and consume within a month of purchase.

Substitutions for Castelvetrano Olives

If you can find Picholine or Cerignola olives in a specialty foods store near you, they will likely have pits. But if you're up for an adventure, you can pit them and use them in most recipes that call for Castelvetranos, which are more commonly found pitted.

If the Kalamata olive is a red wine olive, then the Castelvetrano is a white wine olive, as its flavor complements the bright, crisp, lighter wine perfectly.

Unlike olives in only brine, all olives marinated with other ingredients should be refrigerated after opening. If refrigerated, they will last up to three months.

The most common curing processes use brine, dry salt, water, or lye treatments. During these curing processes the water-soluble oleuropein compound is leached out of the olive flesh. The flavor and texture of each style of olive depends partly on the curing process used.

What is a good brine for olives? ›

Prepare approximately 10 litres of 1:10 salt solution (brine), ie: 1kg salt in 10L potable water. Place 5kg olives in container and fill with brine. It is not necessary to wash the olives. Add 100ml vinegar or equivalent citric/acetic acid.

The olives should be mostly submerged in brine. "That's your first clue as to whether or not they're being taken care of. This will keep them fresh and moist, and from drying out and oxidizing," Foote says. It's not a bad idea to spoon some of the brine into the container with your olives.

Keep the olives in a cool place. Once you like its flavor, cover the olives in a brine of 4 cups water to 1/4 cup kosher salt and 1 cup vinegar. Feel free to add other flavoring agents to your olives, such as garlic, chiles, dried herbs, or citrus zest. Again, weight the olives to keep them below the brine line.

Adding flavours to your cured olives

Infusion: you can split some olives into a smaller jar and add things to the brine, such as dried and crushed chillies, bay leaves, fennel seeds, vinegar, etc. Leave to sit for a couple of weeks and the flavour will gently infuse.

Choose the best

Good varieties to look out for include juicy Queen or smaller Manzanilla olives, both from Spain, or the Italian Cerignola. As black olives have been given longer to ripen, they have a higher oil content, which gives them a milder flavour and softer texture.

They are harvested from the Nocellara del Belice olive tree variety, which is unique to the region. The fact that these olives cannot be found anywhere else helped olive producers to receive a DOP status for their product.

Unopened, jarred olives will stay fresh for up to two years and don't require refrigeration. Even once opened, jarred olives will remain fresh for 12 to 18 months, provided they are sealed and stored properly in the fridge. By contrast, olives from the olive bar will only last in the fridge for up to three weeks.