I was looking for the origin of the word Ascolana and discovered it simply meant from Ascoli Piceno," a city in the Marche region of Italy... which is where the olive varietal derives from. I also discovered Oliva ascolana: a culinary specialty of stuffed, breaded, and fried olives that originated in Ascoli Piceno around the 1800s.
I love fried pickles (I think they originated in a Blues club in the American south... but that's another research project), so being the Olive Lady, I had to try fried olives myself.
The Ascolana olive has to be a pretty big fat olive for it to get stuffed. You may or may not be able to find big olives for this recipe. You can also just buy garlic stuffed olives and then bread/fry them and skip the stuffing part below.
Serve with cocktails or other antipasto.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 small carrot finely chopped
- 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 celery stick finely chopped
- 2 2/3 oz of ground pork
- 2 2/3 oz of ground beef
- 2 fl oz of dry white wine
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/16 oz of grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- 40 large pitted olives - drained and halved lengthwise
- 1 cup fine breadcrumbs
- 3 tbsp plain flour
- Olive oil or vegetable oil, for frying
- fine sea salt and black pepper to taste
In a large skillet, heat the 2T of olive oil. Add the chopped carrot, onion and celery until softened, about 10 minutes
Add the pork and beef. Brown the meat for about 10 minutes, stirring often.
Add the wine. Let it evaporate. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Cover and continue cooking over a low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring often. Add water or wine if the mixture becomes too dry. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Transfer to a food processor. Add one egg, a tablespoon of breadcrumbs, and the grated Parmigiano.
Pulse until you have a fine, well-combined mixture.
You should have a solid, compact filling that you can easily shape into a ball.
Using a 1/2 or 1/4 teaspoon (depending on size of olive) - stuff the halved olives with a little meat filling and fit the halves back together. Roll them in flour and place on a tray lined with parchment.
In a small bowl, beat the remaining egg. Dip the olives into the egg, followed by the breadcrumbs. If you don't think you have sufficient batter - repeat the egg and breadcrumb dip.
Heat the oil in a saucepan - high enough for the olives to float. Bring to 180°C. Once the oil has reached the right temperature, begin frying the olives in batches. Fry for about 3 minutes, turning them gently to brown evenly. Fry in small batches (do not overcrowd the pan otherwise the temperature will drop significantly),
Remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels or clean brown bags (which absorb oil better than paper towels). Repeat in batches. Serve hot, sprinkled with salt and pepper.
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