The Role of Table Olives in Italy’s Culinary Heritage

Summary

Table olives are a pop­u­lar food in Italy, with the most prized vari­ety being the Taggiasca olive in Liguria. Different regions of Italy use var­i­ous olive cul­ti­vars in tra­di­tional dishes, and olives are pre­pared using meth­ods such as nat­ural brin­ing to pre­serve their fla­vor and tex­ture.

Table olives are among the most pop­u­lar foods in Italy. 

They are eaten at any time of day, from a quick snack to an appe­tizer, such as a pasta dish with olives, or a main course fea­tur­ing fish and olives.

Every year, Italy con­sumes more than 120,000 met­ric tons of table olives, accord­ing to data from the International Olive Council (IOC). Only a few Mediterranean coun­tries have higher con­sump­tion lev­els.

Taggiasca, Italy’s most prized table olive

In Liguria, in north­west­ern Italy, the term ​“Taggiasca” refers to the most pop­u­lar local olive cul­ti­var, whose trees dot the moun­tains and the coast­lines of the region. It is also a sym­bol of pride and iden­tity for the entire ter­ri­tory.

“Olives are the cen­ter­piece of any aper­i­tif or antipasto,” Fausto Scola, owner of Scola Restaurant in Savona, told Olive Oil Times. ​“That means Taggiasca olives, the only one that deserves to be con­sumed.”

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While many Taggiasca olives are avail­able on the mar­ket, ready to be taken from sealed jars, most restau­rants pre­pare their own, using their own recipe.

For his olives, Scola uses a per­sonal brine for­mula. ​“Our brine has ten per­cent salt and gets changed every two months to ensure that the olives main­tain their pro­file and sapid­ity,” he explained.

The Ligurian salad known as condiglione becomes a cel­e­bra­tion of the Taggiasca olive. Tomato, bell pep­per, anchovy, hard-boiled egg, red onion, oregano and the brine all come together in this tra­di­tional dish.

“The brine is essen­tial because it adds savori­ness with­out com­pro­mis­ing the fla­vor of the olive,” Scola said.

The chef added that he sel­dom cooks Taggiasca olives when using them in food prepa­ra­tion, as this would upset the del­i­cate bal­ance of fla­vors.

“In less-than-per­fect cook­ing con­di­tions, the olive turns bit­ter and, in any case, loses its unique char­ac­ter­is­tics. You might not even real­ize that you are tast­ing a Taggiasca,” Scola said.

“It’s bet­ter to use them as a final gar­nish on hot dishes, if any­thing, to pre­serve their aroma and tex­ture,” he added.

Its uncon­ven­tional use, such as in savory tiramisu, demon­strates the ver­sa­til­ity of this olive.

“The dom­i­nant fla­vor there is that of the Taggiasca itself, with a layer of olive pâté and an outer dust­ing of olive pow­der, between two lay­ers of cheese,” Scola said.

The savory tiramisu, which bor­rows its name from the iconic Italian dessert, is often seen as a fine din­ing dish that blends tra­di­tion with an inno­v­a­tive twist. It is fre­quently served at buf­fets and is ideal for high­light­ing the qual­ity of the ingre­di­ents.

The dif­fer­ent fla­vors of olive cul­ti­vars

While Ligurian chefs are proud of what many con­sider the most cel­e­brated table olive in the coun­try, table olives in Italy come from a wide range of olive cul­ti­vars.

Their taste and tex­ture vary from north to south, lead­ing to dif­fer­ent uses in regional cuisines.

A clear exam­ple of regional sig­nif­i­cance can be found in the Marche region with olive all’ascolana. These large green olives are stuffed with meat, breaded and fried.

The Ascolana olive is a cen­ter­piece of fes­tive tables and pizze­rias and was granted PDO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in 2005 as Olive Ascolane del Piceno. PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) is a European Union cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that ensures the qual­ity and local ori­gin of spe­cific foods.

The recipe, found through­out the region, calls for green olives filled with a mix­ture of beef, pork (and some­times chicken), Parmigiano cheese, and nut­meg. They are then breaded and deep-fried.

In Puglia, the south­ern region where most of Italy’s olives are grown, local chefs uti­lize cul­ti­vars such as Bella di Cerignola, renowned for its large size and juicy flesh, along with Sant’Agostino, Peranzana, and Santa Caterina.

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There, olives are added cold to friselle, warm to focac­cia and used in both hot and cold tra­di­tional dishes pre­pared for hol­i­days and spe­cial occa­sions.

“There are over 540 olive vari­eties in Italy, dozens of which are suit­able for table olive pro­duc­tion,” Roberto De Andreis, table olive tast­ing panel leader, author and olive oil pro­ducer, told Olive Oil Times.

Each region works with its own cul­ti­vars. In Tuscany, vari­eties such as Frantoio, Leccino and Santa Caterina are com­monly found. In the north, around Lake Iseo and Lake Garda, Sbresa and Casaliva are cul­ti­vated.

In Ligurian cui­sine, olives are also used in dishes like Ligurian rab­bit, where they are added at the end of cook­ing to pre­serve aroma and tex­ture.

In Sicily, Nocellara del Belice olives appear in caponata and pane cun­zato, a rus­tic bread dish topped with toma­toes, anchovies, and olives. They are also used in scac­ciata, a savory stuffed bread pre­pared dur­ing fes­tive peri­ods.

Throughout south­ern Italy, includ­ing regions such as Calabria and Campania, olives are often sea­soned with chili, gar­lic and herbs, then served warm or used in dishes like focac­cia and meat.

In Campania, the well-known red­dish Gaeta olives are a key ingre­di­ent in tra­di­tional dishes, such as spaghetti alla put­tanesca — a pasta dish fea­tur­ing toma­toes, olives, anchovies and capers.

Different prepa­ra­tion meth­ods

Not all table olives are the same. Beyond the cul­ti­var, the key dif­fer­ences lie in the meth­ods used to make them edi­ble after har­vest.

The nat­ural brine method, or ​“olive in salam­oia” process, is by far the most com­mon way to treat olives in Italy.

“First, the olives are har­vested, cleaned, the stems and leaves are removed, and then washed to elim­i­nate any soil residues,” De Andreis said.

“They are then placed in a brine solu­tion with a salt con­cen­tra­tion of around nine to ten per­cent,” he explained.

This method trig­gers nat­ural lac­tic fer­men­ta­tion, dur­ing which the pH of the olives drops from approx­i­mately seven to below four.

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“Once fer­men­ta­tion is com­plete, the olives are sorted to remove any that may have phys­i­cal defects,” De Andreis said.

A fresh brine, lighter at around four per­cent salt, is then pre­pared for pack­ag­ing. The goal is to allow con­sumers to open the jar and enjoy olives that are ready to eat, with no rins­ing required.

“The jars are pas­teur­ized, heated to 85 ºC for at least 15 min­utes, and then quickly cooled down to pre­vent the olives from becom­ing too soft,” De Andreis explained.

“This process pre­serves the olives nat­u­rally, main­tain­ing their fla­vor and tex­ture while ensur­ing they are safe to con­sume,” he added.

Another method some­times used for large olives is the Sevillian method, or Spanish method.

“In this case, the olives are first treated with a 1.5 per­cent caus­tic soda solu­tion, fol­lowed by fer­men­ta­tion in brine,” De Andreis said.

On the mar­ket, it is also easy to find com­pletely black olives.

“They come from another method known as the Californian method,” he said. ​“It uses air and fer­rous glu­conate and requires ster­il­iza­tion in an auto­clave at 130 ºC. It is a faster approach, but it offers less nutri­tional value.”

After this process, the black olives all look the same. ​“And they lose most of their taste,” De Andreis said.

“The nat­ural brine method is the best way we have to pre­serve the true char­ac­ter of an olive and main­tain its nutri­tional value,” he added.

Scola sees a more per­sonal and cul­tural dimen­sion in how olives should be served.

“It may be a los­ing bat­tle. Still, I keep telling peo­ple to take it with the brine. It won’t hurt you. It’s good for you,” he con­cluded.