We like the full flavor and juiciness of olives that come with their pits still inside. If you're going to cook with olives, though, you'll need to remove the pits. Pitting olives adds a few minutes of prep time to a dish, but isn't hard to do.
You can buy tools made specifically to pit olives, but they often don't work for oddly sized olives and end up living permanently in the back of a kitchen drawer. Instead, we use a dough scraper or pastry cutter. You could use any tool that has a wide, flat surface (the flat side of a knife, a small skillet, etc.)
Just press straight down onto the olive with the flat surface until you feel the olive pop.
Continuing to press down gently, pull the tool back toward you. This will often make the seed pop right out.
If the seed hasn't popped out yet, just squeeze with your fingers to release it. Now you're free to keep the pitted olive whole to toss into a pasta or salad, chop it to stir into a sauce for grilled meat or fish, or toss it into the food processor to make tapenade.
Find more olive recipes on Cookthink.com.
Tapenade is an olive-based Provençal condiment.
To make it, you pound together olives, capers and anchovies with a mortar and pestle (or a food processor), plus olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, herbs and a possible drop of Cognac. The end result is a slightly chunky paste you can spread on toasted baguette slices or scoop up with raw vegetables. Tapenade can also be spread on fish before baking, blended with roasted vegetables or served as an accompaniment to grilled meats.
Reference: What's the difference between a sardine and an anchovy? (Cookthink)
Reference: What are herbes de Provence? (Cookthink)
Recipe: Pan-Seared Chicken With Two-Olive Tapenade And Sun-Dried Tomato Cream (hogwash)
Pasta alla Puttanesca is an Italian pasta dish invented in the 1960s that was named after the whores of Naples. Whether its racy name is a result of its hot, spicy taste, pungent aroma or the fact that it was a cheap dish that working girls could down between customers is anyone's guess.
Pasta the way a whore -- not your mama -- would make it includes ingredients such as garlic, olive oil, hot dried peperoncino peppers, anchovies, tomatoes, capers and smashed up olives. The dish is garnished with parsley. Sugo alla puttanesca is usually served over spaghetti, but is a willing partner for pasta of any shape or size.
Fermentation is a process where certain so-called "good" or "preferable" microbes living on the surface of plants flourish and feed on those plants, supressing the growth of "bad" bacteria. These microbes also produce substances like lactic acid and alcohol, preserving food's texture and nutrients and enhancing its taste and flavor.
Commonly fermented foods and drinks include wine and bread, where yeast is encouraged to consume sugar. To make olives, preserved lemons, sauerkraut and pickles, vegetables are submerged in brine to create the proper oxygen-free atmosphere for good bacteria to flourish, extending their shelf-life.
