Homemade Ascoli Style Stuffed Olives | Olive all'Ascolana

Sep 30

11 min read

Olive all'Ascolana (Italian Homemade Ascoli Style Stuffed Olives)

Olive all'Ascolana are the fried stuffed olives of Ascoli Piceno, in the Marche: large green olives, unwound and rewrapped around a filling of slow cooked beef, pork and chicken, breaded twice and fried until the crust cracks. They are eaten hot, from paper, and they vanish faster than they are made.

This version follows the town's method, with the olive itself as the only wrapper and no shortcut around the knife.

Yield: 30 olives, 6 appetizer servings. Prep: 1 hour 30 minutes. Cook: 1 hour. Rest: 1 hour. Difficulty: advanced. Course: antipasto. Region: Marche, Ascoli Piceno.

The Story

Ascoli Piceno is a small city of travertine in the southern Marche, and its most famous dish depends on a very local olive. The Tenera Ascolana is large, round, thin skinned and soft fleshed, with a sweet, faintly almond taste, and it has grown on the hills around the city since Picene and Roman times. It is a poor olive for pressing, because it yields little oil, but it is a superb olive for eating, and that is the trait the local cooks learned to use.

The stuffed olive is generally traced to the kitchens of noble households in the nineteenth century, where cooks faced with the remains of large roasts and braises of beef, pork and poultry refused to waste them. The meat was chopped, bound with egg and Parmigiano, and pressed back into the finest olives in the cellar. Whether it began as thrift or as show, it stuck. By the twentieth century the olives had left the palazzo and settled into the bars and trattorie around Piazza del Popolo, where they still arrive in paper cones.

The olives themselves are picked green by hand in early autumn, while the flesh is at its firmest, and cured in brine for weeks so the bitterness fades and the sweet almond note remains. The Tenera Ascolana carries a protected designation of origin, and the label matters here, because an olive with so much flesh around so small a pit is what makes the spiral technique possible at all. In the Marche, Carnival and Christmas are inseparable from fried food, and a tray of these olives on the table has long been the signal that a celebration has begun.

They anchor the fritto misto all'ascolana, alongside crisp lamb cutlets, cubes of fried custard called cremini, and vegetables. Anyone from Ascoli will tell you that the filling matters more than the fryer, and that an olive from a jar of ordinary supermarket brine will never behave like one from the local groves. The ritual is simple: fry to order, serve at once, and eat with your fingers while a glass of local white is still cold. In Ascoli the olives are also a gift of hospitality, because a household that fills a tray of them for guests has spent a whole day on the work, and everyone at the table knows it. That patience is the real ingredient, and it is exactly what the recipe below asks of you.

Ingredients

For the olives and filling

Large green olives in brine, Ascolana Tenera or similar, 30 (about 1 lb 5 oz, 600 g)
Beef chuck, finely diced, 4 oz (115 g)
Pork loin, finely diced, 4 oz (115 g)
Chicken thigh, boneless, finely diced, 3 oz (85 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Yellow onion, small, finely chopped, 1
Carrot, small, finely chopped, 1
Celery stalk, finely chopped, 1
Garlic clove, halved, 1
Tomato paste, 1 tbsp (15 g)
Dry white wine, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Fresh rosemary, 1 small sprig
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, 2 oz (55 g)
Egg yolk, 1
Nutmeg, freshly grated, 1 pinch
Lemon zest, finely grated, 1/2 tsp (1 g)
Fine sea salt, 1 tsp (6 g), or to taste
Black pepper, freshly ground, 1/4 tsp (0.5 g)

For the breading

All purpose flour, 1 cup (125 g)
Large eggs, beaten, 3
Fine dry breadcrumbs, 2 cups (200 g)

For frying and serving

Peanut or sunflower oil, 6 cups (1.4 l)
Flaky sea salt, for finishing, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Lemon, cut into wedges, 1
Flat leaf parsley, chopped, 1 tbsp (4 g)

Preparation

Cook the filling

Cut the beef, pork and chicken into dice of 1/4 inch (6 mm). Dicing rather than grinding matters, because ground meat releases its water at once and steams instead of browning. Warm the oil in a wide skillet over medium heat and soften the onion, carrot, celery and garlic for 8 minutes. Raise the heat, brown the meats in two batches so the pan never crowds, then return everything together and stir in the tomato paste and rosemary. Pour in the wine, let it reduce by half, lower the heat and cook partly covered for 40 minutes, adding a splash of water only if the pan dries before the meat is tender. Discard the rosemary and garlic and cool the mixture completely.

Chop it fine on a board or pulse briefly in a food processor, keeping a granular texture rather than a paste. Stir in the Parmigiano, egg yolk, nutmeg, lemon zest, salt and pepper, and taste it, since it should be well seasoned. Chill for 1 hour, until firm enough to shape.

Unwind the olives

Taste one olive first. If it is harshly salty, soak the olives in cold water for 30 minutes and return them to fresh brine. Work in batches of ten and keep the rest submerged. Hold one olive upright in your left hand, stem end up, and a small paring knife in your right, tip down. Enter beside the stem, keep the blade against the pit, and turn the olive slowly to release one continuous ribbon of flesh about 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick, all the way to the base. Discard the pit. Lay each ribbon on a tray, and pat the ribbons dry with a cloth.

Fill and rewrap

Roll about 1 heaping teaspoon (12 g) of filling into an oval as long as the original olive. Lay it against the ribbon and wind the ribbon back around it, each turn overlapping the last by a quarter, until the olive looks whole again. Roll it gently between your palms to close the seam. Refrigerate the finished olives on a tray lined with parchment paper while you work through the rest, keeping them from touching so the ribbons do not stick together. Each olive should feel snug and slightly firm, without any gap between ribbon and filling.

Bread twice

Set out three shallow bowls: flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs. Roll each olive in flour, shake off the excess, dip in egg and coat in crumbs. Rest the tray in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Dip every olive in egg again, coat in crumbs again, and refrigerate for another 30 minutes before frying.

Fry until deep golden

Heat the frying oil in a heavy pot to 350°F (175°C), at least 3 inches (7.5 cm) deep, and check it with a thermometer. Fry 8 to 10 olives at a time for 2 to 3 minutes, turning once, until deep golden. The filling is already cooked, so the frying only builds the crust. Lift with a spider onto a rack, salt lightly and let the oil return to 350°F (175°C) before the next batch. Serve straight away, or hold finished batches on the rack in a 200°F (95°C) oven for no more than 15 minutes while you fry the rest. Cut one open from the first batch to confirm that the center is hot and the crust is crisp before you continue.

Plating

Serve the moment the last batch comes out of the oil. Line a small paper cone or a warm plate with a sheet of parchment paper, and pile the olives loosely so steam can escape between them instead of softening the crust.

Scatter a little chopped parsley over the top, and set a lemon wedge beside the pile, to be squeezed over at the table. Five olives per person make a generous antipasto, and ten are a fair portion when the olives sit beside cremini and lamb cutlets in a fritto misto. Skip the sauce. The olive is complete, and a dip only hides the crust. If you serve a fritto misto, fry the olives first, since their crust holds longest, and bring everything to the table together on one board.

Professional Technique

The whole dish rests on one gesture: the olive is unrolled in a spiral and wound back over the filling. It is never pierced and never cut in half. Hold the olive upright between the thumb and forefinger of your left hand, stem end up. Hold a thin, sharp paring knife like a pencil, with only the last 1/2 inch (1 cm) of blade free.

Enter beside the stem, and rest the flat of the blade against the pit. Then keep the knife almost still and turn the olive against it, counterclockwise if you are right handed, so the blade follows the curve of the pit and the ribbon peels downward in a continuous spiral. The pit sets the thickness for you, about 1/8 inch (3 mm), as long as you never lose contact with it. To rewrap, reverse the motion, and wind the ribbon back over the filling with each turn overlapping the last by a quarter.

A broken ribbon leaves a bare patch of filling, and in hot oil that patch opens and the olive splits. This is why the olives stay in their brine until the moment you cut them. Brine keeps the flesh supple and elastic. An olive drained early dries at the surface, and its ribbon cracks on the first turn of the knife.

The breading is doubled for a similar reason. The first coat clings to the damp surface, and the rest in the refrigerator lets the egg and crumbs bond and firm. The second coat then covers every gap. Without the rest, the second layer slides off, and a single coat leaves thin spots where the crust cracks.

Texture and Moisture Control

The filling is cooked until nearly dry, then bound with only one yolk and a little cheese. Any free liquid turns to steam in the fryer and pushes at the ribbon from inside, so the meat should feel dense and cold when you shape it. The olive brings its own moisture, which is why the meat needs none. Chopping the cooked meat fine, but not to a paste, leaves small gaps that keep the interior tender instead of rubbery.

The crust depends on the crumbs as much as on the oil. Fine dry breadcrumbs give a thin, even, sandy shell that shatters cleanly, while coarse crumbs stand away from the surface and burn at the tips. Pressing them on gently, without packing, keeps the coat light.

Oil temperature sets the crust. At 350°F (175°C) the crumbs dry and brown in 2 to 3 minutes while the center only warms through. At 320°F (160°C) the crust drinks oil and turns heavy, and at 375°F (190°C) it darkens before the olive is hot. Fry small batches, because a crowded pot drops the temperature fast.

Once fried, the crust is at its best for only a few minutes. Steam from the center travels outward and softens the crumbs, so drain the olives on a rack, never on paper towels, which trap steam against the underside. Salt them while they are still glistening, and serve immediately.

Professional Mise en Place

This is a dish of patient handwork followed by a very short fry, so nearly everything happens before the oil is hot. Only the frying and the salting are done at the last minute. Set the trays out in order of use, and label the bowls, so the assembly line moves without any hesitation.

Equipment and tools

Small paring knife with a thin, very sharp blade
Heavy pot and a frying thermometer
Spider skimmer and a wire rack over a tray
Three shallow bowls for the breading
Damp cloth, kitchen scale and parchment paper

Prepared ahead

Filling, cooked and chilled, up to 2 days ahead
Olives filled and rewrapped, refrigerated up to 1 day ahead
Breaded olives held on a tray in the refrigerator, up to 3 hours ahead
Breadcrumbs measured, and eggs beaten, on the day

Service setup

Oil held at 350°F (175°C) before the first batch goes in
Rack, salt and lemon wedges within reach
Oven set to 200°F (95°C) for holding finished batches
Cones or plates ready, so nothing waits after the fry

Chef Tips

Buy olives that are large, firm and only lightly salty, and choose them for the flesh, not the size of the pit. If they taste harsh, soak them in cold water for 30 minutes before unwinding, then return them to fresh brine.

Taste the filling before you shape anything. It should be savory and quite well seasoned, because the crust and the olive both dilute it. Fry a single test olive first, and adjust the salt in the rest if needed.

If a ribbon tears, do not press it back together. Patch the gap with a piece of a second ribbon, overlapping generously, or chop the damaged olive and stir it into the filling.

Freeze the fully breaded olives on a tray, and fry them straight from the freezer for 4 minutes, without thawing. Thawing makes the crumbs damp and the crust turns greasy. Keep the frying oil clean by skimming loose crumbs between batches, since burnt crumbs give the next olives a bitter taste.

Common Mistakes

Cutting the olive in half. Two halves pressed around a filling never seal, and the seam gapes in the oil. Only a continuous ribbon closes the olive around the filling.

Draining the olives too early. Dry olives go stiff and the ribbon cracks on the first turn of the knife. Take a few at a time from the brine and keep the rest covered.

Filling the olive with wet meat. Liquid becomes steam in the oil and bursts the ribbon. Cook the filling until almost dry, chill it, and shape it cold.

Skipping the refrigerator rest. Fresh coats bond poorly, and the crumbs slide off in the oil. Give the tray 30 minutes after each coat.

Frying at the wrong temperature. Oil that is too cool makes the olives greasy, and oil that is too hot burns the crust before the center warms. Use a thermometer and fry in small batches.

Overfilling the ribbon. A fat filling stretches the ribbon until it thins and tears. Keep the oval the size of the original olive.

Wine Pairing

Offida Pecorino DOCG: The Marche's own dry white, and the natural partner. Its lively acidity and saline, herbal finish cut through the fried crust and the richness of the meats, while a faint almond note echoes the olive itself. Serve it cold, so the freshness resets the palate after each bite and the next olive tastes as good as the first.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Riserva DOCG: A structured Marchigiana white with citrus, bitter almond and a firm mineral spine. Its extra body stands up to the beef and pork in the filling, and its acidity keeps the fried crumbs from feeling heavy. It is the right bottle when the olives are one part of a larger fritto misto with lamb and custard.

Trento DOC: A dry metodo classico sparkling wine, and the classic answer to anything fried. Fine bubbles lift the oil from the palate, high acidity refreshes the crust, and the toasty, yeasty notes flatter the browned meat and the Parmigiano. Serve it well chilled, as an aperitivo, while the first batch is still steaming.

Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC: A dry, pale, brightly acidic red with low tannin and a fine sparkle. The bubbles and red berry fruit cleanse the fat of pork and beef, and the light body never overwhelms the delicate olive. Serve it slightly cool, at around 54°F (12°C), for an informal table.

Storage & Reheating

Fried olives are best eaten within minutes, when the crust is still crisp. Leftovers keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, though the crust softens as they cool. Store the unfried filling separately for up to 2 days, in a covered bowl.

Reheat the olives on a rack set over a tray in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until hot through and crisp again. Avoid the microwave, which turns the crust soft and rubbery and drives the moisture from the filling.

Freezing works best before frying. Freeze the breaded olives on a tray, move them to a bag once solid, and keep them for up to 2 months. Fry directly from frozen at 350°F (175°C) for 4 minutes. Do not freeze fried olives, because the crust turns leathery when they are reheated.