The secret ingredient for week nine is olives and it was selected by Jerry. As soon I saw Jerry's selection, I knew exactly what I was going to make; fried olives. I first had fried olives in a small restaurant in Mestre, outside of Venice.Called ascolane, the fried olives are stuffed with meats and cheese. I believe that I've dreamed about them since then. I found a great recipe for Italian fried olives by Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network Website, and decided to try it.
In my initial attempt, I bought these nice big pitted green olives from the olive bar in the gorecery store, stuffed them according to recipe and tried to coat them with bread crumbs to no avail. Then I realized that perhaps the olives are too oily since they've been sitting in oil, tried to wipe the oil off, cover it with flour, nope, still no luck. Well, needless to say I had a little kitchen tantrum and walked away. Later that evening, we ate the olives stuffed with cheese and not fried and they were great.
I decided it to give Giada's recipe another run. I bought pitted green olives in a can this time, they are not as big or pretty, but at least they are not oily. I patted the olives dry, stuffed them, patted them dry again, let them dredge in flour, dipped them in the beaten egg, coated them with bread crumbs and then let them sit to dry for almost an hour. When I fried them, they held well!
I was very thrilled that they worked this time. And although the taste was not the one stored in my memory from Mestre, they tasted pretty good, especially for small olives. My mission now is to try to find large pitted olives that are not soaked in oil or pit large olives myself. (Not sure the latter would happen soon though.)
Here is Giada's recipe for Italian Fried Olives:
Ingredients
1-ounce Gorgonzola cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup ricotta cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
20 pitted green olives, rinsed and dried thoroughly
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying
Special equipment: a pastry bag, a plain tip with a 1/4-inch opening
Combine the cheeses, thyme, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Place the cheese mixture into the pastry bag and pipe into each olive.
Using three bowls, place the flour in one,the beaten egg in another and the bread crumbs in the last bowl. Dredge the olives in the flour. Using a slotted spoon, remove the olives and place in the bowl with the beaten egg. Coat the olives with the egg and transfer to the bowl of bread crumbs. Coat the olives with the bread crumbs.
In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, pour in enough oil to fill the pan (about 1/3of the way). Heat over medium heat until a deep-frying thermometer inserted in the oil reaches 350 degrees F. (If you don't have a thermometer a cube of bread will brown in a couple of minutes.) Fry the olives, in batches, for 30 to 45 seconds until golden brown. Drain the fried olives on paper towels. Cool for 5 minutes.
Thanks Giada!
Comments (1)
Hi Candi, when at first you don't succeed, try try again... that quote popped into my head reading your wonderful post. Your fried Olives recipe sounds very good and they look very delicious.
Thank you for sharing your recipe. Have a great day today.
Posted by Kathy (Trekcapri) | November 3, 2009 5:54 AM
Posted on November 3, 2009 05:54