Olives and Olive Oil

How to Identify Olives

Olives are the small, oval shaped fruits from the olive tree, an evergreen native to the Mediterranean area. Cultivated for centuries - since classic times and before - in Spain, Italy, Greece and France, now grown elsewhere in the Mediterranean and Mediterranean type climate countries in the Americas.

The tree often has a gnarled trunk and branches. The leaves are oval shaped with a silvery green color. The olive tree flowers in spring and bears fruit from late summer to winter.

Types of Olives

Green olives - unripe, picked in summer; found whole or stoned and stuffed; often pickled with aromatic herbs, spices and other condiments.

Dark olives - half-ripe, picked in autumn; found pickled or packed in salt.

Black olives - ripe, whole or dried, picked in winter; found also pickled or packed in salt.

Types of Olive oil

Olive oil is extracted by pressing the ripe olives. Depending how the fruit is pressed - once or more, cold or heated and refined - the oil varies in quality, color and flavor.

Color is not a reliable indicator for flavor - darker color does not necessarily translate into more flavor. A green color may be produced by olives harvested earlier, when they were green and not fully ripe.

Understanding the labels

Extra virgin olive oil - oil obtained from the first cold pressing. Color goes form a pale yellow to light green, depending on the region and olives used. It has a delicate flavor, with no more than 1% acidity. This is the bes quality and more expensive olive oil.

Virgin olive oil - also cold pressed but higher level of acidity, acidity range goes from 1% to 3%.

Fino olive oil - a blend of extra virgin and virgin olive oil

Olive oil - this oil is a combination of refined, virgin and extra virgin olive oil. Refined oil loses flavor and aroma and needs to be mixed with some virgin and extra virgin oil to regain it.

Light olive oil - it does not refer to the number of calories, which are the same, nor the number of mono-unsaturated acids, but to the fact the oil is finely filtered to produce an oil with a light aroma and color, and a higher smoke point than regular olive oil.

Pomace oil - oil extracted from pressing not the fruit but the paste left after the frist pressing, including the seed. Heat and chemical solvents used to extract the oil in a refinery.

How to use and store Olives and Olive Oil

Olives, black when fully matured and green when unripe, are only edible if pickled in brine. They may be flavored with herbs and spiced, and also come stoned and stuffed with a variety of fillings. Found usually canned or in jars, or loose, in the grocery stores. Unopened cans and jars keep for 1-2 years. Once opned, transfer to an airtight container, keep in the fridge, and use olives within the week. Keep loose olives in the fridge, in an airtight container, and use within 2-3 days from the purchase.

Olive oil is usually found in bottles or cans. Light is said to affect its quality, so dark colored bottles or cans are supposed to keep its characteristics for longer. Most olive oils in the market are a blends from oil obtained from different olive varieties and different regions. Oil becomes rancid if stored for too long, so try to get yours from a grocery store with fast stock rotation, especially if buying oil in clear bottles. Store olive oil in a cool, dark place for up to 6 months.

Extra virgin olive oil is best for salads and salad dressings or to flavor finished dishes. Use virgin or fino olive oil for marinades or sautéing, regular olive oil for frying and baking - but its smoke point is too low to be good for deep frying. Light olive oil, the filtered variety with less flavor, is good for frying and baking, as it does not impart the characteristic flavor regular olive oil has. Extra virgin olive oil loses its qualities when heated to the high temperatures in sautéeing and frying, so using it for general cooking is usually not worth the extra expense.

How to Grow Olives

Olive trees are propagated by cuttings. A new tree will not bear fruit until it is 5 or 6 years old, and will reach full production only when it is 15 to 20 years old.

Olive trees are irrigated in California, producing high yields. This practice is not embraced often in the Mediterranean, where traditional wisdom says irrigated olives are not good for pickling.

Cooking with Olives and Olive Oil

15 large or 36 small pitted olives make
1 cup chopped

Olives are ever present in Mediterranean cuisine. Add to all sorts of salads, slice them and sprinkle over pizza as topping, turn them into seasoned pastes such as tapenade, add olives to sauces as in putanesca sauce or this feta and olives dressing, and add them to meat and fish casseroles.

if your recipe calls for olives and you don't have them, substitute olives in sauces with 1/4 amount of capers, it will add a similar salty, pickled flavor. For a cocktail garnish, substitute with same amount of caper berries or cocktail onions.

Use olive oil in general cooking for the unique flavor it imparts. Drizzle olive oil over steamed or boiled vegetables for a simple dressing. Try a salad, especially tomato, with no more dressing than salt and olive oil or turn it into a sauce such as vinaigrette, mayonnaise, alioli, pesto Genovese or almond, parsley and sage pesto.

Add olive oil to bread dough, as in this Italian focaccia bread. To use olive oil in baking, follow your normal recipe and substitute 1 oz of hard fat - butter, margarine or lard - with 1 Tbs olive oil.

In cooking, substitute olive oil with sunflower, peanut, safflower or soybean oil, all of which have a similar smoke point.

Cooking Suggestions

Add your own touch to olives and alter these marinated olives recipe with your own seasonings.

Use olive oil mixed with fresh chopped herbs to baste grilled or barbecued fish.

Mash potatoes and other root vegetables with olive oil instead of butter for a healthier option. You are substituting saturated fats with healthier, un-saturated ones, it does not affect the calories.

Roast a chicken with olive oil and your favorite herbs, and condiments. Mix salt, olive oil, finely chopped parsley, and crushed garlic to a paste and rub it on the skin of a 2-4 lb roasting ckicken. Roast as usual.

Substitute melted butter with olive oil to brush phyllo pastry.