Olive ascolane (Ascoli Style Stuffed Olives)

By Frank / 27 May 2016 / 47 Comments

Olive ascolane—with their soft and savory meat stuffing surrounded by a crisp, breaded crust—are a speciality of Ascoli Piceno in the region of Le Marche, but they have become a staple on the tables of pizzerias in Rome, where I lived for so many years, and elsewhere in Italy. They are perfect for nibbling on, washed down by the house white wine, while you wait for your pizza to arrive. Olive ascolane are so popular, in fact, that they sold ready-made in specialty shops and even frozen in supermarkets. You just fry them up at home and, truth be told, they are none too bad. Oddly enough, even with the burgeoning interest in Italian cooking abroad, this is one dish that seems to have gone pretty much unnoticed. So if you want to try this delightful snack outside Italy, you’ll probably need to make it yourself. And that’s just what I did this week. Tasting this long time favorite after so many years brought back some fond memories!

Yes it’s a project, but well worth it!

The recipe, I have to admit, is neither quick nor particularly easy, so I would plan to make them on some morning or afternoon when you have time to spare. There are several steps to it: sautéing the meat stuffing in a typical Italian soffritto of onion, carrot and celery, then puréeing and seasoning the stuffing mixture with cheese and spices, then pitting and stuffing the olives, then rolling them in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and then, finally, frying them in abundant olive oil. Each of these steps will take its time, although using pre-pitted olives will, of course, save you some considerable work. Stuffing the olives itself can be pretty fussy—and a bit messy, as can the breading process. But each step can be done in stages, whenever it’s convenient. The final step of frying the olives takes no time at all, and can be done at the last minute. And unlike most fried foods, the whole thing can be made ahead; olive ascolane are equally delicious served at room temperature or gently reheated.

Olive ascolane are categorized as an antipasto, but to me they’re the perfect finger food with cocktails. Leftovers makes a fine quick snack. They also make a nice addition to any fritto misto.

Ingredients

Serves a crowd as finger food

500g (1 lb) mild green olives, pitted or unpitted (see Notes)

For the stuffing:

1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 small stalk of celery, finely chopped
50g (1-1/2 oz) pancetta, cut into small cubes (optional)
150g (5 oz) each of ground beef, pork and turkey (or chicken)
White wine

50g (1-1.5 oz) breadcrumbs
75g (2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
A pinch of ground nutmeg
A pinch of ground cloves
Salt and pepper

For frying:

6-8 eggs, beaten
Flour
Breadcrumbs

Directions

Step 1: Make the stuffing: In a large skillet, gently sauté the onion, carrot and celery, along with the pancetta if using, in olive oil until the onion is soft and translucent, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Add the ground meats and break them up and mix them with the soffritto. Sauté until the meats have lost their raw color, then add a splash of white wine and simmer gently until the wine has evaporated, about 10 minutes or so. Remove the skillet from the heat and let the mixture cool completely.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor and process until you have a smooth paste. Transfer the paste to a mixing bowl and add the grated cheese, breadcrumbs, egg, and spices. Turn everything together with a spatula or wooden spoon until you have a uniform mixture which is soft but compact. If it’s bit too loose or too moist, add more breadcrumbs or grated cheese to the mixture. Place the mixture in the fridge and let it rest there for at least 30 minutes.

Step 2: Stuff the olives: Remove the mixture from the fridge and stuff your olives:

If using pitted olives, split them down the middle vertically, leaving a bit at the bottom connected. Open the olive like a book and insert a small amount of the stuffing mixture, then press the two sides back together to re-form the olive.

If using unpitted olives, you’ll need to pit them. You could use an olive pitter, but the traditional method is to use a small paring knife to cut the flesh away from the pit in a spiral motion. Of course, your olive will not retain its shape. Rather, you’ll wind up with a spiral strip of olive. You then take a small ball of stuffing and wrap the olive strip around it, “reconstructing” the olive, as it were, slightly larger than it was before.

Step 3: Bread the olives: Set up three bowls with the flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Now, as if you were making breaded cutlets, flour each stuffed olive lightly, shaking off the excess, then dip it in the egg and finally roll it in the breadcrumbs. Roll the breaded olive between the palms of your hands to give it a nice round shape. As you go, set the olives out to dry a bit. Although not absolutely necessary, it is a good idea to repeat the process for a uniform and crispy crust; since olives have a rather smooth, round surface, the breading (for me at least) tends to be uneven on the first go.

Step 4: Fry the olives: Once all the olives are breaded, fry them in abundant olive oil until they are golden brown, turning them frequently so they cook evenly. Drain on paper towels or a baking rack.

Olive ascolane can be served warm or room temperature, as you prefer. But unlike most fried foods, I would not eat them straight from the fryer, unless you enjoy a scalded tongue!

Notes on Olive ascolane

Essential for successful olive ascolane are, of course, the olives themselves. The olives should be green, rather large and mildly flavored. Italian recipes are unanimous in calling for the ancient local olive from Ascoli Piceno called the Ascolana Tenera, which is cured in a very gentle brine with just a hint of wild fennel. You should look for something similar where you live. I found some Sicilian olives from Castelvetrano at the local Whole Foods, which more or less fit the bill. They are sweet, mildly flavored green olives, although a bit smaller than you might ideally want, which made stuffing them a bit fussy if not impossible. The Cerignola olive from Puglia is larger and would likely make for easier stuffing. Really small, strongly brined olives like the Gaeta or Nicoise, or dried ones like the Beldi from Morocco, as lovely as they are to eat, would not do for this dish.

The exact mixture of meats and their proportions vary a lot from recipe to recipe. Beef and pork are more or less mandatory, but I think the choice here of equal shares of beef, pork and poultry makes for a nicely balanced flavor, even if this Wikipedia article rather disdains the addition of poultry. A bit of cured pork, pancetta or lardo or perhaps some mild sausage, intensifies the flavor, although Maria Batali’s version with fennel salami sounds, frankly, like an attempt to ‘dumb down’ the recipe. Veal sometimes makes it into the mix as well.

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