Roasted Olives

These roasted olives are the perfect addition to an antipasto dish, a cheese board, a tapas dinner, or even just as a snack with crusty or sourdough bread.

You can’t come from a Sephardic Lebanese family, grow up in Spain, and not have a love affair with olives. It’s bred into our DNA. This roasted olives recipe brings delicious briny olives to another level of flavor.

Use roasted lived to either accent an entree, as the base of a creamy dip, or to add some color and spice to the appetizer course. We may or may not have even eaten them for breakfast! Olives are among the most delicious foods, in my opinion; my sister Ruth and Rebeca will strongly disagree.

It’s no accident that olives are a staple in Mediterranean cuisine. In our family we eat roasted olives and other olive-based dishes like they’re going out of style.

But do us a favor: don’t eat one raw; the taste is on par with a scoop of the world’s bitterest coffee grounds, multiplied by 1000. Olives need a good, long soak in brine before they’re edible.

One of our favorite roasted olive recipes is also one of the simplest. Just select four types of olives (you can choose your favorites), and roast them for 20 minutes with thyme, oregano, hot pepper flakes, black pepper, and fresh lemon. By roasting the olives, you boost the “olivy” sweetness while cutting the “briny” bite. These roasted olives are the perfect addition to an antipasto dish, a cheese board, a tapas dinner, or even just as a snack with crusty or sourdough bread.

For the record, you hands-on types can cure your own olives at home. All it takes is a mason jar and a little patience. Submerge raw olives in a brine of ¼ cup kosher salt to 4 cups water, plus ½ cup of white wine, cider or simple white vinegar. You can also add bay leaves and coriander seeds, citrus rind, black pepper, chiles, oregano, rosemary, sage, garlic, or any herbs you like. Top the jar with cheesecloth or something else to keep them underwater, and check them weekly for 6-8 months. When you use them for your roasted olive dish, you can wow your guests by telling them you really made them yourself. Get creative: It’s olive up to you!

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