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.”

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.

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.

“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.