With this recipe, I take you on a journey to my region: the Marche! Today I’m introducing you to Wrinkled Olives, a simple recipe with a rustic flavor to preserve olives and have them available all year round, great on their own as a side dish or added to other dishes to add flavor and taste. WRINKLED OLIVES (wrinkled is a dialect term from Marche meaning frozen, having taken a lot of cold) because with the preparation and the addition of salt, they will go through a process where they will freeze=wrinkle, losing all their bitterness and then will be ready to be enjoyed.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 25 Days
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 3 jars
- Cooking methods: No-cook
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall
Ingredients to prepare wrinkled olives, a traditional recipe from Marche
- 2.2 lbs black olives
- 2.2 lbs coarse salt
- 1 to taste extra virgin olive oil (enough to cover the jars with olives)
Useful tools to prepare wrinkled olives
- 1 Tea towel
- 3 Jars
- 1 Kitchen string
Preparation of wrinkled olives (it will take about 20/25 days to be ready to consume)
Take the olives, clean them by removing the stems and any leaves, rub them with a clean tea towel to remove impurities.
Now take a large bowl that can hold the olives and coarse salt well, mix it all well and leave covered in a dark place for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, take the olives again, lay out the white cloth on a surface and pour the olives with the salt in the center, close it like a bag, tying the end with a string and leaving a piece of string so the bag can be hung.
Now hang the bag outside but sheltered from the rain (so it can wrinkle with the winter frosts), place a basin underneath to collect the liquid that will drain and then be discarded.
Twice a day for 25 days, take the bag with the olives and shake it (morning and evening).
After 25 days, take the bag with the olives, open it on the table, and with a clean tea towel or paper towels, dry them well from the liquid they will have.
Place them in glass jars and fill with olive oil up to the rim, close and store in the pantry and voilà, the Wrinkled Olives are ready to be preserved for a long time or even used immediately.
Do not discard the oil that will remain once the olives are finished but reuse it to cook and further flavor dishes.
This is the basic recipe, if you want when placing the wrinkled olives in jars, you can add besides the oil: rosemary (only needles) or sliced garlic or chili peppers to flavor them as you like.
You can use these wrinkled olives on their own as a side dish or to make rabbit or chicken cacciatore as they are especially good paired with meat main courses.
Enjoy the typical recipe from my Marche: Wrinkled Olives.
