With this recipe, I will take you on a journey to my region: Marche! Today I am talking about Strained Olives, a simple recipe with a rustic flavor to preserve olives and have them available all year round. They are great on their own as a side dish or added to other dishes to give flavor and taste. STRAINED OLIVES (strinate is a dialectal way from Marche of saying frozen, they have taken a lot of cold) because with the preparation that is done and the addition of salt, they will go through a process where they must indeed freeze=strain and with this step, they will lose all the bitterness they have and will be ready to be enjoyed.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 25 Days
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 3 jars
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn
Ingredients for preparing the strained olives typical Marche recipe
- 2.2 lbs black olives
- 2.2 lbs coarse salt
- 1 to taste extra virgin olive oil (enough to cover the jars with the olives)
Useful tools for preparing strained olives
- 1 Dishcloth
- 3 Jars
- 1 Kitchen twine
Preparation of strained olives (it will take about 20/25 days to be ready for consumption)
Take the olives, clean them by removing the stems and any leaves, rub them with a clean dishcloth to remove any impurities.
Now take a large bowl that fits the olives and the coarse salt well, mix everything well and leave it covered in a dark place for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, take the olives, spread the white cloth on a surface and pour the olives with the salt in the center, close it like a sack by tying the end with a string, leaving a piece of string so the sack can be hung.
Now hang the sack outside but sheltered from rain (so it can strain with the winter frosts), place a basin underneath to collect the liquid that will drip out, which you will then discard.
Twice a day for 25 days, take the sack with the olives and shake it (morning and evening).
After 25 days, take the sack with the olives, open it on the table, and dry them well from the liquid they have with a clean dishcloth or paper towels.
Place them in glass jars and fill with olive oil to the brim, close and store in the pantry, and voilà, the Strained Olives are ready to be preserved for a long time or even to be used immediately.
Do not discard the remaining oil once the olives are finished. Reuse it for cooking and further enhancing the flavor of dishes.
This is the basic recipe. If desired, when placing the strained olives in the jars, you can add besides the oil: rosemary (only needles) or sliced garlic or chili pepper to flavor them as desired.
You can use these strained olives on their own as a side dish or to make rabbit or chicken cacciatore as they are special paired with meat main courses.
Enjoy the typical recipe of my Marche: Strained Olives.
