"Shaken, not stirred ..."

You are very precise about which brand of gin and which brand of vermouth; equally precise about the ratio of gin to vermouth (dry is almost no vermouth) in your martini.  Straight up or on the rocks?  Less traditional, vodka instead of gin?  Then the fundamental question: one, two or three olives?  Wait a minute, should you be equally specific about the kind of olives (has anyone ever questioned what kind of olives the bartender uses)?

According to Lindsay, the 100+ year purveyor of olives in the US, Spanish Queen olives are the gold star of martini olives.  Large, firm, meaty and a bolder taste than a typical green olive, the pimiento stuffed olive is the standard for martinis.  Cannot find Spanish Queen olives, use the more readily available Spanish Manzanilla olives.

Canned, bottled or the olive bar?  Obviously, the best choice is the olive bar; the fresher the better (as is true for every food!).

To most casual consumers, it appears there are two predominant types of olives: black and green.  However, all olives begin as green olives and slowly transform to light brown and reddish-purple, before fully ripening and becoming dark black.  Martini olives describe the green ones; what about the black ones?

"The color of the olive corresponds to how ripe they are when picked, in addition to the curing process they undergo.  Green olives are picked before ripening, and black olives are picked while ripe, which is when the color has turned from green to black.  Raw and freshly picked olives are inedible due to their very strong bitter flavor, so both green and ripe varieties are cured, either by being packed in salt, brine, or water, before being eaten," according to Shea Rosen, Director of Product Development at Mezzetta.

The black olives you buy in the can are fully oxidized and the least flavorful of olives.  They are picked green, pumped with oxygen to turn them black, and their color fixed with a black chemical (ferrous gluconate) … some people can react to ferrous gluconate.  You can think of these olives as the “Kraft Singles” (not real cheese) of the olive world.

Green, black, the olive world is much more complex.  The International Olive Council estimates that 139 olive varieties, “cultivars,” grown in twenty-three different countries comprise about eighty-five percent of the world’s olives.  Each cultivar has its own taste and chemical characteristics that depend on where and how it is grown, harvested and processed.

Crete and Syria were the first countries to domesticate olive trees, Olea europaea, over 6,000 years ago.  Thanks to Phoenician traders cultivation of olive trees expanded across the Mediterranean region … Egypt, Lebanon, Iberia, Greece, Carthage (Tunis), Arabia, Italy, Spain and France.  Spanish missionaries brought the trees to the Americas.  Today olive trees are cultivated on every continent except Antarctica.

Olive trees have always been prized for their fruit and their wood.  They have also become cultural icons.  Olive branches have come to symbolize peace, longevity, fertility, maturity, wealth, and prosperity.  Olive trees have inspired artists who have tried to capture the emerald and silver hues of shimmering leaves against the azure Mediterranean sky, or the gnarled and twisted branches that have withstood ages (often measured in centuries).  They have even financially supported a few artists.  Henri Matisse lived, raised his family, and painted in his atelier within a working olive orchard in Cagnes-sur-Mer near Nice, France.

Much has been written about the Mediterranean diet (you do not have to live near the Mediterranean to participate … although it is a wonderful place to be …).  The Mediterranean diet has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, may slow cognitive decline and prevent progressive diseases like Alzheimer’s, can help people lose weight and keep it off (almost as much weight as a low-carb diet), reduce the risk of having a stroke, prevent or manage Type 2 diabetes, may benefit people with arthritis, protect against cancer, and reduce blood pressure and LDL cholesterol levels.  Going beyond the scientifically proven health benefits, the Mediterranean diet is consistently ranked a top diet because it allows for dietary preferences, encourages food and flavor variety, and includes foods from all food groups, nixing the restrictive feelings characteristic of many diets.  Olives are a cornerstone ingredient of the Mediterranean diet, a good source of vitamin E, good monounsaturated fat, polyphenols and flavonoids (antioxidants with anti-inflammatory benefits).  Green or black, get started eating those olives!  Note, martinis as a source of olives are ok in moderation … too many calories in the booze.

Worldwide just under 20 million tons of olives are harvested annually; that’s 39 billion pounds!  Spain is the largest producer with about 6 million tons, Italy second with just over 2 million tons, and Morocco with just under 2 million tons.  Spain, Italy and Morocco produce over half of the world’s harvest of olives.  The US is fourteenth with about 150,000 tons.  Interestingly, France is twenty-seventh at 23,500 tons; just behind Mexico at 25,400 tons.  The International Olive Council estimates that ninety percent of the olives grown today are destined for oil production; only ten percent are table olives.  However, at roughly 3.9 billion pounds that’s a lot of olives to eat.

Technically, the olive is a "drupe," a fruit with a single large stone inside.  Raw olives are inedible because they contain oleuropein that gives them an intense bitter taste.  Olives are low in sugar and sky-high in oil content (12-30%), both of which vary depending on the cultivar and time of harvest.

Olives have to be cured before they are ready to eat, basically a fermentation process in which the olive's natural sugars are converted into lactic acid.  The bitter tasting oleuropein and phenols get leached from the fruit in one of five ways. Ripe, dark purple or black olives are fermented in brine, salt water.  Brine curing can take up to a year; the result is intense flavor.  Water-curing is similar to brine-curing, but a very slow process.  The olives are repeatedly rinsed in plain water.  Water-curing is rare today; supplanted by brine-curing.  Dry cured olives are packed in salt for a month or more, then bathed in olive oil to keep them juicy and plump.  Dry-cured olives have a deeply concentrate flavor.  Lye curing is an industrial process wherein raw olives are submerged in vats of an alkaline lye solution.  Fast, it leaves a sad, bland-tasting olive with a chemical aftertaste (avoid these olives).  Finally, after picking, some olives are left out in the sun to cure.

Which brings us to olive oil.  Olive oil is analogous to wine … single estate, reserve blends, blends, and the rest … with corresponding terroir and taste; all on top of cultivar and country of origin or countries of origin.  Olive oils are also divided into those best for cooking and those best for eating directly.  Walk into the olive oil aisle in any grocery store and instant confusion … big bottles, small bottles … high prices, low prices … colors from light yellow to gold to green to almost black.  How to choose?

There are some basic guidelines.  You should only buy “extra virgin olive oil.”  Ok, what does that mean and why is it important?  To be classed as “extra virgin olive oil,” the oil must contain no more than 0.8 percent acidity.  To get this level, only machinery is used to squeeze the oil from the olive, commonly termed the “first press.”  The temperature is also kept low to ensure essential nutrients and minerals are retained.  As you should expect, chemicals may be used to extract lesser quality oils.

As a general rule, an “organic” label is almost always better than not, but the label can be misleading when it comes to the very best olive oils.  An extra-virgin olive oil has no defects from picking, to processing, to bottling, and the best single estate oils are organically grown even if they do not say so on the label.   Olive oil is the only edible commodity in the world that involves human taste testing in addition to laboratory testing to establish the minimum threshold of “extra-virgin.”

You have decided to purchase extra-virgin, now what.  First, check the harvest date.  Can’t find one, move on.  Olive oil is the living juice of a fruit; it gets dull tasting in about a year and has most probably gone bad by eighteen months.  Caution, expiration dates can be misleading; they are measured from bottling, not from the date the fruit was picked or processed.  It is possible the olive oil has been sitting in a vat for some time.

Another key indicator of freshness is bottle color and material. Light, heat, and oxygen are all enemies of olive oil. Look for dark glass or an entirely opaque bottle, not made of plastic or non-stainless-steel, and stored away from windows or industrial lights. Hint, avoid bottles stored on the top shelf. A good way to store and have ready access to olive oil is to use a cruet. The Emile Henry ceramic cruet is consistently rated as one of the best.

Unfortunately in today’s world, sometimes things are not what they are represented to be.  Italy is the single largest importer of olives in the world.  When olives are pressed in Italy, regardless of origin, they can be labelled “Italian.”  If you want Italian olive oil pressed from olives grown in Italy, look on the bottle label.  If you find the name of a region, for example, Toscana (Toscano or Tuscany), you can be assured that the olives were grown and pressed in that region.  To go for the ultimate in taste, look for the olive cultivar or the estate on which the olives were grown and pressed.  Many Italian wineries also produce estate olive oil.

Borgo Santo Pietro is a 300-acre organically cultivated estate in Tuscany, where the farmers, culinary gardeners and chefs produce biodynamic gastronomy that nourishes the body and soul.  Borgo Santo Pietro produces its own olive oil from olives grown on the estate.  Dip some of the estate-baked fresh bread into its olive oil … taste heaven!

Costco sells several different oil olives.  The particular origins of its “Extra Virgin Olive Oil” are not disclosed.  The label on Costco’s “Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil” states it is “made from select olives grown organically throughout the Mediterranean region.  The label on Costco’s “Kirkland Signature 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil” states that it is “traceable to its origin” and carries an Italian BureauVeritas certification of origin and processing.  Costco is bulk, and these bottles are all half-gallon.  Costco also sells “Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil Val di Mazara” crafted from Biancolilla and Cerasuola olives from Sicily.  It also sometimes sells smaller bottles of olive oil from and labeled “Tuscany.”  Now you have no reason not to use quality olive oil; we use Costco olive oil for cooking and estate specialty olive oil for dipping.  Yum!

You know Spanish Queen and Manzanilla olives from your martinis, and black olives (mostly Manzanilla) from your pizza, now go to the olive bar and experiment … buy what you have never heard of and find your taste.  Pick olives in brine, they will taste better.  Here are some suggestions …

Most people know the king of Greek Olives, the Kalamata. Deep purple; rich, smoky, fruity.

Sicily brings us the Castelvetrono, Italy’s most ubiquitous snack olive.  Bright green, mild, buttery; they are often referred to as dolce (sweet).

From the heel of Italy’s boot, Puglia, come Cerignola olives, green and red. Crisp, buttery and huge, they cry out to be stuffed.

Liguria, in Italy’s northwestern-most region, gives us their namesake olives. Petite green and black, they are often cured with aromatics, bay leaves, rosemary and thyme; they are rich and flavorful. Liguria olives are similar to French niçoise olives, which are grown nearby.

Niçoise olives are a crucial ingredient in the classic dishes of the French Riviera.

Now let’s put it all together, an olive-centric Mediterranean dish … Salad Niçoise.

Salad Niçoise

Our interpretation of this classic summer salad is made with Italian Yellowfin tuna that is packed in oil, not water, for more flavor.  The French way to make this salad is to marinate the ingredients, not including the greens, in the vinaigrette before adding to chilled greens.

½ pound new potatoes, quartered

¼ cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped

½ cup pitted niçoise olives

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

5-6 oz. canned Italian tuna packed in oil

½ pound fresh green beans – rinsed, trimmed and blanched

½ pound mixed salad greens

1 cup lemon vinaigrette (see recipe below)

3 large eggs, hard-cooked and quartered

3 plum Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons capers

8 anchovies filets

Fleur de Sel (French or Sicilian sea salt preferred)

Pepper, freshly ground

1.              Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.  Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes.  Drain and cool.

2.              In a large bowl combine potatoes, parsley, olives, onion, tuna and green beans.  Refrigerate 2 to 4 hours.

3.              In a large bowl toss greens with vinaigrette and top with chilled potato mixture.

4.              Garnish with tomatoes, eggs, capers and anchovies.

5.              Season to taste with Fleur de Sel and freshly ground pepper.

Lemon Vinaigrette

¼ cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (step up the vinaigrette with Moutarde de Meaux Pommery)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 clove garlic, minced

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

½ cup extra virgin olive oil (pick the best you can)

2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

1.              Whisk red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper together in a small bowl.

2.              Slowly stream olive oil into the vinegar mixture while whisking briskly.  Beat lemon juice into mixture.

3.              Pour dressing into a sealable jar or bottle, seal, and shake until emulsified.  (Remember those Good Seasons salad dressing bottles from your childhood?)

Wine Pairing:             Sauvignon Blanc, Fumé Blanc, Marsannay, Anjou, Côtes du Rhône

Bon appétit!  Profitez de vos olives et de votre huile d’olive.