Here is the article at it's source.

I found this last weekend and I am dying to try it. I even found UNSTUFFED green olives at Central Market this week. I see this as a project to undertake on the next rainy day I get to spend with my awesome boyfriend.

When I first read it I fretted over the stuffing issue, so I posted a comment to the article - and got a response from the AUTHOR. How cool is that?

Did I mention that it's pumpkin season, and if you all remember, I LOVE pumpkin. Not that this has anything to do with pumpkins, I was just thinking about it.


Mmmm, I'm hungry.

Olive Ascolana
Anna Youngquist

Loretta Lacche hesitates to call this recipe Olive Ascolana. She's made some modifications, so she's dubbed her version Olive Marchegianna, or Le Marche-style Olives.

Makes about 50

1 jar medium to large, unpitted green olives (about 50)
Scant 1/2 cup (about 3.5 ounces) each of: ground pork, ground lean beef, ground chicken, ground prosciutto
Scant 1/2 cup (about 3.5 ounces) butter
Nutmeg to taste (start with 1/2 teaspoon)
Scant 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 beaten eggs (use one for making the filling; use two for breading the olives)
1 cup flour
1 cup finely crushed breadcrumbs
About 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, for frying

Drain the brine from the olives. Place them in a bowl and cover with lukewarm water. Let them soak while preparing the filling.

Mix the meats together. In a large saucepan, melt butter and saute meats and nutmeg over low-to-medium heat until the meat is no longer pink. Add the grated Parmesan cheese and one beaten egg. Cook, stirring until the meat mixture is dry. Set aside to cool.

Drain the water from the olives and pat dry. Starting from the end without the hole, cut the olive away from the pit in a spiral, as if you're peeling an apple. The olive will coil. Place the olive meat in a bowl.

Pinch a bit of the meat mixture between your thumb and forefinger and roll into a small ball. Shape the olive meat around the filling, so the fruit regains its original shape. Set aside on a cookie sheet or on a shallow pan.

Dredge the olives lightly in flour. Pour the other two beaten eggs into a shallow bowl. Place the stuffed olives -- a few at a time -- into the bowl and spoon the egg over them. Remove olives from the egg, roll them in the breadcrumbs, then repeat the process. The breading should be thick. Set aside, and bread the remaining olives.

Pour the olive oil into a medium-sized frying pan and heat until the oil is bubbling. Fry the olives until the breading is golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain. Serve the olives while warm.

Comments

After reading about the fried olives, and reviewing the recipe given online, I was wondering if there was any suggestion for a vegetarian stuffing instead of meat?

Author's Note: I imagine you could stuff the olives with anything that (1) holds together and (2) can be shaped into a small ball. I might try some kind of a pate: maybe pesto based, or even a chick-pea pate made with light olive oil, lemon and basil. You might even want to try a paste of feta cheese with garlic and a bit of olive oil.
Whatever, you do, make sure the stuffing has enough body and is moist enough to be shaped into a little ball. Shape the olive around it, and make sure the breading is thick enough to keep the suffing from leaking out of the olive.
By the way, I made this dish for my birthday. I had a hard time finding moderately priced green olives that weren't already stuffed. I found a can of green olives that were already pitted. I simply slit them, stuffed them and breaded them. They worked out great! -- Afi