Olive Vinaigrette

 A couple of weeks ago I shared a copycat recipe for Olive Garden’s salad dressing. Today I was thinking about olives, and wondered how a simple vinaigrette would taste with the addition of chopped pimiento-stuffed olives. I must say that I quite like it. It has a bolder, zingier taste than does vinaigrette without. Next time I’m going to try a “dirty martini” version, and add a tablespoon of gin. Imagine how good that would be? Give this a try, and mix things up by adding olives stuffed with garlic, jalapeños, blue or feta cheeses, or try, black olives, or Kalamata olives. Be bold!

Olive Vinaigrette 

1/3 c. cider vinegar

1½ t. sugar

1 T. olive juice

¼ t. dry mustard

¼ t. freshly ground pepper

1 t. garlic salt

Few gratings freshly ground black pepper

½ c. vegetable oil

5 large or 10 small pimiento-stuffed olives

 Place all ingredients into a blender or mini food processor, and process until emulsified.

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Olive Salad Three Ways

It’s human nature to want what you can’t have, and today I really wanted one of those authentic New Orleans muffaletta sandwiches. As I was rummaging through my pathetically overstuffed fridge, I thought, why not make my own? I think the biggest secret to making one that is super delicious is to have good, fresh olive salad, the tangier, the better. So I made some olive salad (using up more of those wonderful olives that I bought sometime back), and the results were phenomenal.

This is something you need to try, not just for the sandwich, but also for the versatility. The next morning, while I was toasting a bagel, I decided I wanted a tasty topping, so I made my own muffaletta cream cheese by adding ¼ cup of olive salad to 8 ounces of cream cheese and beat it together. Wonderful!

The next day, I wanted an easy pasta dish, so I added a half-cup of the muffaletta salad to cooked pasta, added a bit of pasta water to make it creamy, squeezed in a little fresh lemon juice, and it was superb.

Make this easy recipe, and it will serve you in a variety of ways. Having this on hand makes future meals easy, and doesn’t that sound pretty good right now?

Olive Salad Three Ways

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 (6 oz.) can black olives, drained

1 (5 oz.) jar pitted green olives, rinsed and drained

1 (6.5 oz.) jar marinated artichoke hearts, undrained

1 small red onion, chopped

¼ c. red wine vinegar

½ c. olive oil

1 t. dried minced garlic

½ t. celery seed

1 t. dried oregano

1 t. dried basil

¾ t. freshly ground black pepper

Place the black olives, green olives, artichoke hearts with their juice, and onion into a food processor. Pour in the vinegar and olive oil, and season with garlic, celery seed, oregano, basil and black pepper. Cover, and process until finely chopped. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Buy Olive Oil from a source you can trust. The good old U.S.A.!

Garlic and Green Olive Pasta with Dill

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Remember that willful jar of olives that I bought some time ago, and told you about here? The one I drove around town in an effort to open? Once I did get it open, I was off and running making one olive dish after another. You’re going to see a couple of them this week, including this quick, easy, and tasty pasta dish. It’s great as a light starter when served in small portions, or satisfying as a main dish when served in larger ones. I can never get enough olives, so if you’re the same, give it a try. By the way, fresh dill is an absolute must here. I liked this so well, that I plan on having a lot of dill in this summer’s garden.

Garlic and Green Olive Pasta with Dill

As seen in Sweet Paul

¼ c. olive oil
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 thick slices country-style bread, broken into small pieces
20 green olives, pitted and broken into pieces
2 T. fresh dill
1 lb. cooked spaghetti
Salt and white pepper

Heat oil over medium heat in a large pan. Add garlic, bread, and olives.

Cook the mixture until the bread and garlic turn golden, taking care not to burn the garlic.

Add dill and cooked pasta, and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Serves 2-4.

Olive Parmesan Tart

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Those of you who read last week’s post on the Brandied Mushroom Steak Tarts know that I had a bit of trouble getting a jar of olives open. Finally, after carting that jar all around town, I stopped by the house of a friend who’s currently employing the use of a builder that I used to create my deck. If anyone could get that jar of olives open, I knew that Joe could. As with every man I encountered on this journey, he tried to unscrew the lid right off the bat assuming, no doubt, that I was too weak to do so. Now, I’m not saying that I’m not too weak, but having tried everything and everyone, that was not the place to start.

What did work was using a paint can opener to break the seal where the lid met the jar, and then it unscrewed with no problem. Had this not worked, my plan was to get out my concrete drill bit, and drill straight down through the top. I wanted those olives!

The recipe below is the reason why. I spotted this in a current issue of Sweet Paul magazine. I love everything that he makes, and this recipe was no different. It is so easy to put together, and so delectable, you’ll feel as if you are dining in some high end, wood-fired pizza place. It works equally well as appetizers, you just need to cut it into smaller squares. It’s a great party dish because it tastes good hot from the oven, or at room temperature.

Olive Parmesan Tart

Sweet Paul

All-purpose flour
1 sheet of puff pastry
1 c. cured olives, coarsely chopped
½ c. grated Parmesan
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
½ t. dried thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Sprinkle work surface with a little flour, and roll out the puff pastry to double its size. Transfer to a baking tray covered with parchment paper.

Top with olives, Parmesan, red onion, thyme, and pepper.

Finish off with a drizzle of olive oil.

Bake until golden, about 18–20 minutes. Serve with another little drizzle of oil.

Chicken with Olives & Capers

Delicious, company-worthy food need not take a lot of effort. This beautiful chicken dish, the recipe of which I found in Sweet Paul’s cookbook, Sweet Paul Eat and Make: Charming Recipes and Kitchen Crafts You Will Love, couldn’t be easier. A handful of ingredients, in my case, an hour in the oven, yielded a unique, tender, juicy piece of chicken in a wonderfully different, light lemony sauce. It was so good, that I have decided to always keep a jar of mixed olives on hand so that I can make it whenever I want. My guess is, it would do well to be served on a bed of mashed potatoes so that the juices can be absorbed, flavoring every mouthful of mash. I marinated mine in buttermilk in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for four hours before making this dish. I patted each chicken thigh dry with a paper towel before placing into the baking dish. Wonderful!

Chicken with Olives & Capers

from Sweet Paul Eat & Make

Serves 4

4 large or 8 small organic chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)

1 lemon, cut into wedges

1 cup mixed pitted olives

2 tablespoons drained nonpareil capers

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

NOTE: I had to bake this close to an hour before the skin became brown and got crispy, and the internal temperature reached 165°.

Preheat the oven to 400°F, with a rack in the middle position.

Place the chicken, skin side up, in a baking dish. Scatter the lemon wedges, olives, and capers on top of the chicken.

Pour the lemon juice and olive oil over the chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake until golden, basting with the juices once, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh reads 165°F. Serve.

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Marinated Olives

Not only do I like pizza, but I also like all of the components of pizza. That’s what I like about Abrams’ new release, Genuine Pizza, Better Pizza at Home by Michael Schwartz. It is a book that provides the reader with fabulous recipes for pizza crust, various pizzas, but also recipes for the various components of pizza, along with cocktails and dessert. In short, this book will supply you with incredibly delicious, complete meals.

Because I love olives as much as I do (you all should know this by now, I post a lot of recipes for them), I had to try the Marinated Olives recipe in this book. It is super simple, and so flavorful! Not only will I be making these again, but, next time, I will be making a double batch. I will use half of them on homemade pizza, and the other half just to eat on their own with a glass of hearty red wine, and a loaf of crusty Italian bread for soaking up the marinade. If you like olives like I do, you have to try this recipe.

Marinated Olives
From Genuine Pizza by Michael Schwartz

1¼ cups extra-virgin olive oil

2 sprigs fresh rosemary
¾ teaspoon fennel seeds
¾ teaspoon crushed red pepper*
2 cups mixed olives
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1½ teaspoons finely grated orange zest
1½ teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

In a small pot, combine the oil, rosemary, fennel, and crushed red pepper, and warm the ingredients over low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the oil is infused.

While the oil mixture is warming up, rinse the olives under cold running water. Drain the olives thoroughly and transfer to a one-quart container.

Remove the oil from the heat and let cool slightly. Start in the garlic, orange zest, and lemon zest, and then pour the oil mixture over the olives. Let the olives marinate at room temperature for two hours, then cover and refrigerate until needed and for up to two weeks.

*I used less

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In case you missed it, be sure to check out the recipe for Blistered Olives as well.

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Bacon-Wrapped Olives

Sometimes the simplest things turn out to be the best, and that certainly is the case with these easy and delicious nibbles. One of the many tasty recipes that I’ve tried from Martina McBride’s new cookbook (You can read my review here.), that are make ahead, take no time to put together, work equally well outdoors on the grill, or indoors under the broiler, and are irresistible with a cocktail. I have found that they also make welcome and tasty toppers to sandwiches. Just run a long bamboo pick through the top of the olive and directly into the sandwich, and serve. Great presentation!

Bacon-Wrapped Olives
Adapted from Martina's Kitchen Mix

25 wooden toothpicks
1 lb. low-sodium smoked bacon (not thick cut), cut into thirds
1 (7-ounce) jar pimento-stuffed queen olives, drained

Soak the wooden picks in water for one hour; drain.

Preheat a grill to 300° to 350° F (medium), or heat up the broiler in your oven.

Wrap each piece of bacon around an olive, securing with a wooden pick. Grill over medium (or broil until crispy), turning often, until bacon is browned and crisp. Serve warm.

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One of my most popular blog posts (and soon to overtake the number one spot) is this Olive Cheese Spread. Get the bigger jar of olives, and use the rest in this!

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