Italian Fried Olives Recipes

AMEILIA'S ITALIAN STUFFED OLIVES

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Cook and stir celery, onion, and garlic in hot oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add pork and chicken and cook for 7 to 10 minutes. Combine tomato puree and tomato paste with 1 cup water, and add to meat mixture. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 hours, or until pork and chicken are falling off the bone. Remove meat from the pot to cool, and set sauce aside.
• Meanwhile, remove olive pits using a special olive pitting tool. Make a slit in one side of each olive large enough to insert stuffing.
• Once cooled, remove pork and chicken meat from the bones, and mince. Mix together with 2 beaten eggs, Parmesan cheese, ground nutmeg, lemon zest, and 1/4 cup of reserved sauce. Use more or less sauce as needed so that meat mixture is moist, but not too wet.
• Fill each olive with enough stuffing so that a small amount is pushing out of the slit. Dip each stuffed olive in flour, then beaten egg, then bread crumbs. Stuffed olives may be frozen in an air-tight container at this point until ready to use.
• Heat oil in deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Fry olives in hot oil for about 3 minutes, or until golden brown on the outside. Serve warm.

FRIED GREEN OLIVES

Steps:

• Set up your dredging station:
• plate of flour, 1 shallow bowl of the beaten egg, and 1 plate of breadcrumbs.
• Lightly dip the olives in the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, making sure to cover all sides.
• Heat the canola oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
• Working in batches, fry the olives until golden, about 2 minutes.
• With a slotted spoon, transfer the olives to a plate covered with paper towel. Serve warm with aioli for dipping.
• Place the first five ingredients into a food processor and mix.
• While the mixer is running, slowly add the olive oil through the spout. The mixture will emulsify and become thicker as you add more oil.
• Once it reaches a thick consistency you're set.
• Stir in the Tabasco sauce, chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated before serving.

ITALIAN FRIED OLIVES

Steps:

• Special equipment: a pastry bag, a plain tip with a 1/4-inch opening
• In a small bowl, combine the cheeses, thyme, and lemon zest. Place the cheese mixture into the pastry bag. Pipe the cheese mixture into each olive.
• Place the flour in a small bowl. Pour the beaten egg in another small bowl and the bread crumbs in a third small 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.