Crushed olives are a precious side dish or a treat to enjoy with a good aperitif. If you want to prepare crushed green olives with your own hands, you will need to arm yourself with plenty of patience because the preparation phase takes several days. Fresh olives, in fact, must lose their original bitter taste and sweeten, thanks to a preparation process we also explored when discussing olives in salt or oil.
Let us see, then, how to prepare crushed olives in oil to be consumed within a week. Subsequently, we will see how to preserve crushed olives for longer using the brine preservation method. We will also provide recipes for creating some typical Southern variations, such as Calabrian or Sicilian-style crushed olives.
Let us begin with the preparation of crushed olives.
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To prepare tasty crushed green olives, take your raw material and a meat mallet. As you crush them, without splitting them completely, the pit will come out and you can place them in a bowl filled with water.
Once this phase is finished, where you have crushed all the olives and submerged them completely, cover your bowl with a clean cotton cloth. Keep your olives in a cool, dry place. Bear in mind that you will need to change the water every 12 hours. Therefore, avoid preparing your olives in the afternoon. Prefer the morning hours so that you can change the water with the correct frequency in the evening and then again in the morning.
To change the water, drain the olives and cover them again with running water. Continue this process for 6 days. On the seventh day, drain them and salt them, then add water again. Let them rest for 24 hours and then drain them. At this point, the olives will appear darker. Place them on a cloth and pat them dry.
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Once this is done, place them in a bowl and season them with salt and olive oil. To taste, you can add finely sliced garlic and fresh chili pepper, having previously removed the seeds. Also add a little oregano and mix.
For the preservation of these olives, we recommend storing them in the fridge for a maximum of 5 days. You can extend the preservation for up to a week if you cover them with oil. You can consume the olives as an aperitif, with crusty homemade bread, or in a fresh mixed salad.
Let us now see how to prepare crushed olives so they can be preserved for a long time in brine.
Initially, crushed green olives to be preserved in brine follow a procedure similar to the one seen above. Crush the olives, place them in a bowl, cover them with water, and change it every 12 hours. Do this for 8 to 10 days. Subsequently, you can proceed to prepare the brine: boil 2 liters of water. Then remove it from the heat and dissolve 200 g of salt inside.
Then let it cool. Wash the olives and place them in previously sanitized jars. Cover them with the cold brine. At this point, all you have to do is seal the jars hermetically to preserve them for a long time. After a month, you can eat your crushed green olives by draining the brine and adding garlic, oregano, and EVOO to taste.
The Calabrian recipe for crushed olives requires the use of chili pepper and wild fennel. Originally, Calabrian olives were opened with stones. Today, you can use a simple meat mallet for convenience. As we saw above, after crushing them, you must remove the pit and place them in a bowl covered with water and a clean cloth.
You will need to change the water twice a day for a period ranging from 5 to 10 days, depending on when they have lost the bitterness of the freshly picked olive. Following this procedure, you can check by tasting an olive.
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If it is sweet enough, you can season your olives. Therefore, wash and dry them to move on to the next phase. At this point, take the garlic, which you will slice, and the wild fennel seeds with ripe red chili peppers. Depending on your taste, you can choose whether to use spicy ones or not. Add a little salt, about 50 grams per 1 kg of olives.
Then fill the sanitized jars, pressing the olives down to the bottom. Some water will form, which you must remove. Cover completely with olive oil (you can also use flavored EVOO), leaving about two fingers of space at the top. Leave the jars open overnight so the oil can settle, and add more if necessary before sealing them.
Compared to the previous Calabrian recipe, the substantial difference lies in the ingredients rather than the preparation phase. In fact, even for Sicilian-style crushed olives, the olives were originally broken using a stone. Similarly, the phase for removing the bitter taste consists of soaking the olives for several days and changing the water every 12 hours.
What changes, as mentioned, are the ingredients used to flavor Sicilian crushed olives. You can choose from various spices. In addition to oil and garlic, you can add chili pepper, oregano, but also black pepper and small-cut celery stalks. Some add sliced carrots and even fresh mint leaves. If desired, the Sicilian version also calls for the addition of vinegar with the oil.
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If you are wondering about the Apulian variant of the crushed olives recipe, we can tell you that the ingredients are very similar to those of the Calabrian region. In fact, after the preparation phase, the olives are seasoned with chili pepper (including spicy varieties) and wild fennel, along with a little salt and a couple of garlic cloves.
As we have seen so far, the proposed recipes are intended to be consumed within a few days. To preserve crushed olives for a long time, they must be prepared using the brine procedure seen above. Only when opening the jar, after draining the olives from the preservation water and washing them, can you season them to taste with the aromas of the Calabrian, Apulian, or Sicilian recipes.
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Technician and expert in extra virgin olive oils, registered in the National Register, Campania section. Master oil miller with diploma, obtained from International Extravirgin Agency.
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