Black olives (Recipe: vinegar veggies)

Kalamata, picholine, frantoio, arbequina, souri ... I've never met an olive I didn't want to take home, but good old black olives in a can are the only ones that merit a permanent place in my pantry.

Native to the Mediterranean region, olive trees can grow to an old age, with trunks up to 30 feet in diameter. More than 300 cultivars of olives grow in Italy. Spanish missionaries brought olive trees to California, now a major producer of olives.

Olives aren't a low-calorie food, but they are high in monounsaturated fat (the "good" fat). The mild flavor of ripe black olives perks up, but doesn't overwhelm, my famous summer salad, made with chunks of crispy green lettuce, tomato, nectarine, cucumber, and Great Hill blue cheese (sounds weird, I know, but try it).

Later in The Perfect Pantry, I'll share my recipe for black olive tapenade, but because it's summer and the sun is shining this morning, I'm in the mood for vinegar vegetables, a favorite accompaniment to grilled fish, chicken or beef.

VINEGAR VEGGIES
A wonderful, beautiful hot or cold side dish, really a salad, that's great to make in the summer when the zucchini and peppers are plentiful, but adaptable to any time of year and whatever is available. Perfect for picnics or as part of a buffet. Serves 6 as a side dish. You can make this a day ahead and let it mellow in the refrigerator.

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced on an angle
1 large clove garlic, sliced
1 large zucchini, sliced on an angle
1 yellow squash, sliced on an angle
1 green pepper, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
10 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 can small pitted black olives
1 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme or oregano
Black pepper to taste
Rice wine vinegar, 1/4 cup or more

In a large nonstick frying pan, heat the olive oil. Add onion and saute briefly. Add garlic, celery, zucchini and peppers, and continue to saute for 2-3 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, and cook until all vegetables are just tender. You may want to add more rice wine vinegar to taste — basically you're making a cooked vinaigrette dressing. Serve at room temperature, or warm, or cold.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]

Comments

[Jennifer]

Oh, black olives in a can! I have fond, fond memories of putting them on my fingers before eating them.

[Pamela]

I am all olives all the time~ I eat some most days in a salad. This 4th of July, I slow cooked a pork roast on the smoker that was stuffed with black olives, sausage spinach and cheese. Talk about a fabulous roast and showy, too~ We wrapped the roast in bacon and tied it up so it wouldn't get dried out. We bought a 4-5 lb pork tenderloin and butterflied it. Then, stuffed it and slow cooked it for a few hours. The presentation was a WOW factor. It wasn't too difficult to do either.

[Pamela]

Here is a crunchy summer salad..

1 red bell pepper, cut chuncky
1 green bell pepper, cut chuncky
1 small onion of choice, cut thin
3 tomatoes of choice, cut in chunks
1/2 can of black olives
1 cucumber, sliced
quartered artichokes, if desired
your favorite Italian salad dressing (I enjoy a balsamic and evoo dressing)
some oregano, basil, garlic salt and fresh ground black pepper
some chunks of cheese and/or pepperoni

Just cut up everything and put it in a bowl..add the dressing and let it marinade at room temperature. Eat with a slice of Italian bread grilled. This has lots of crunch and is really just a salad without the lettuce~

Enjoy

[Pauline]

There's no end to including black olives in a recipe. Most savory recipes can be enhanced by using these black gems. I love crunchy salads and I'm going to try Pamela's.