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Olives are grown in the whole Mediterranean region and are a most important part of the diet in all Mediterranean countries: Olive oil is ubiquitously used as a cooking medium, and pickled olives are popular both a spice and as a snack.
Pickled olives are either black or green, depending whether they have been harvested unripe or ripe. Green olives are plucked unripe and either repeatedly watered or treated with concentrated lye before pickling; by the latter procedure, which dates back to ancient Rome, bitterness is greatly reduced and the texture is improved. Black olives are plucked ripe; in Greece, they are treated with salt or undergo lactic fermentation, which results in an intense flavour. The brine olives are pickled in is often further enhanced by addition of some herbs (thyme, oregano) or garlic.
Pickled olives are a common decoration for cold dishes and tasty sauces. Of course, they fit best to specialties from the Mediterranean. Olive's flavour can be enhanced by preparing a paste of finely cut and squeezed olives with good olive oil. Adding anchovies (fermented fish), garlic and capers to such a paste from black olives and olive oil gives tapenade, a Southern French condiment and appetizer which tastes best with crispy baguettes.
The use of olives for warm dishes is more or less restricted to Mediterranean cuisines. Tomato sauces containing onion, garlic, capers and green (or sometimes black) olives are characteristic of Italy; they may be made even tastier by adding fresh herbs (basil, oregano and rue). Sauces of this kind may be used to cook meat or poultry or they can simply be served together with noodles (pasta). Italian pizza is often prepared with (usually black) olives, mostly so in Southern Italy (see oregano).
Far more important than pickled olives is, however, olive oil, whose production consumes about 90% of olive acreage. The best quality, native olive oil extra (formerly known by the Italian term extra vergine), is quite variable in appearance and taste; after having tried some oils, most people develop different preferences. Some oils are subtle and flowery, others intense and fruity. It is probably a good idea to stock a few different varieties in the kitchen.
There is a huge variety in olive oils, both regarding colour and flavour.
The multitude of olive oil qualities can, essentially, be reduced to two
factors: Quality of the underlying olives, and method of extraction.
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Best extra vergine olive oil is produced from several different varieties of olives, the fruits being picked all at the same time, at different stages of ripeness. Furthermore, climate, altitude and soil influence the flavour of the oil. Last of all, olives must be extracted as soon as possible after plucking, and in the meantime, they require dry storage and careful handling to avoid the formation of marks on the fruits.
When extracting olives, one encounters a problem rarely found with
other oil crops: High water content. By grinding, one does not arrive at
a dry mass suitable for high-pressure extraction, but one gets a
liquid if viscous emulsion of oil in water. Under these conditions,
lipases (fat-cleaving enzymes) can quickly degrade the oil. To counteract,
one has to cool efficiently and to work as quickly as possible. For
best quality, temperature must never exceed 25 °C, which is only
possible with special grinding machines. After grinding (which is more
a kind of puréeing), the oil is separated by sedimentation or
centrifugation. The next fraction of oil, obtained
from the watery residue of the first centrifugation, often at slightly
elevated temperature, is less aromatic. Any oil produced in this way may be
marketed as “native olive oil” or even “native olive oil extra” if the free
acid level permits.
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Native olive oil extra should be used for cold foods only, since the flavour detoriates on heating: Volatile constituents may evaporate or react toward unpleasantly flavoured compounds. Native olive oil, which is from the beginning poorer in aroma, is well suited for careful shallow-frying. Nevertheless, even native olive oils does not tolerate the high temperatures typical of deep-frying, for which therefore other oils are better choice (e.g., peanut or sunflower oil); when using olive oil, one has to fry at comparatively low temperatures that do not allow for efficient browning of meats or vegetables. To improve the smoke point, one can add butter or better butter fat, which also may be beneficial for the flavour.
Many of the dishes of Southern Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa owe much of their character to extra vergine olive oil. It is used for salads, for the Near East chick pea paste hummus (see sesame), cold appetizers (in Israel collectively known as mezes) and the salads of the Eastern Mediterranean based on bulgur, this is, cracked and precooked wheat (tabbouleh, kısır; see parsley). Furthermore, olive oil is used for spicy dips like Egypt dukka (see thyme) or the famous Provençal garlic mayonnaise aïoli. Italian noodles (pasta) are often boiled with a spoonful of olive oil to prevent them from sticking together; before serving, olive oil is often spooned over to increase the flavour.
By using olive oil instead of bland vegetable oil, everyday dishes like shallow-fried vegetables (zucchini, aubergines, capsicum) get a typically Mediterranean character, even more if they are served with yoghurt or tomato sauce. A famous example from Turkey is imam bayıldı (“the İmam fainted”, probably for pleasure), aubergine fried in olive oil stuffed with a spicy paste of tomatoes and garlic. Slow frying of vegetables in olive oil consumes a lot of the oil; sometimes, it is possible to deep-fry (or grill) the vegetables instead, pat them dry and sprinkle some with high-quality olive oil before serving.
The taste of olive oil harmonizes excellently with the fragrance of Mediterranean herbs. In the Mediterranean countries, olive oil is often flavoured with branches of rosemary, lavender, tarragon or, on Cyprus, with fresh capers. Most fresh herbs can be preserved in olive oil; their aroma compounds dissolve better in oil than in an aqueous medium. A most famous recipe of this kind is pesto, a paste of ground basil leaves in olive oil.
Not only the gentle fragrance of fresh herbs, but also the pungency of chiles has an affinity for a fatty medium. In Italy,
small but powerful chiles (peperoncini) are often used to
convert olive oil into a fiery condiment (olio santo).
I have seen a comparable chile
oil in Arizona. According to personal taste, it may be used drop by drop or
tablespoon by tablespoon. In some variants of the Yemeni condiment zhoug (see coriander), the heat of
green chiles is transmitted by olive oil.
