My sister and I were at our friend’s party, and, like most, I wandered over to the food table. Propped up close to the table was the friend’s daughter, a happy two-year-old eating from a bowl of jumbo black olives. Her chubby finger speared an olive and she happily pulled it from her fingertip, eating it with delight. Amused, I watched as she then bejeweled all her fingertips with olives and ate them one by one. Her mother, close by, noticed my curiosity and laughed, moving her daughter out of reach of the olive bowl, and said: “She loves these so much! She’ll eat the whole bowl if I don’t move her!” Laughing, I grabbed an olive to see what was so amazing about them. My tongue rolled the black olive around, savoring the umami, sweet-briny flavor. My eyes opened with renewed appreciation, and I reached for more. Soon five more olives were gone. So much one can learn from the youth!
Since then, I make a beeline for the olive bars at food markets, such as Publix, The Fresh Market and Lucky’s Market. The kinds of olives available range from pitted Kalamata to stuffed garlic, feta or pimiento pepper Cerignola to crunchy Picholine. Each is delicious and deserves a tasting if you’ve never tried one.
Especially delicious are roasted olives: Just roast olives in a baking sheet at high-heat, 400 degrees, for 15-20 minutes, for a heightened, intensely flavored olive bite. It’s so delicious this way, it might become your new favorite way to eat olives. It sure is for me.
Roasted Olives:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Scatter olives, a variety is especially nice (my favorite are Nyon olives, small, jet black, shiny olives from southern France with a mild, salty bitterness), in a baking sheet with edges to contain the rolling olives. Roast about 20 minutes. Enjoy immediately with a toothpick or cocktail fork. Or, don your fingers like I learned from a highly knowledgeable little girl and enjoy pulling from them.
