More Good Eats

This time I think I need to praise olives. Recently, we went to our favorite pizza place, Settebello, and I got the capricciosa: it features Greek olives, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and thinly sliced Italian ham. As I was savoring the olives, I recalled my olive evolution.

As a little kid, we ate olives fairly often, as I recall. They were not just reserved for special event meals, like Thanksgiving or Easter. Although we always had them on those occasions. It was always black olives. Sometimes they had pits, but sometimes not, because I distinctly remember putting olives on my fingers, and you can only do that with the pitted kind. As usual, my mother was serving 10 people most of the time, so everyone knew that you got three olives and that's all. But, we'd still put our olives on our fingers. I don't know why it is so irresistible to do that. But it is still occurring...

Black olives are really fine. They're good as a snack or with a meal. They are tasty cooked into things, they are great sliced up on pizza. They're just delicious. Then, I discovered green olives.

Green olives or Spanish olives, became my teen aged snob food. They weren't tasty to little kids. They are very sharp and vinegary and had a serious kick when you ate them. But I loved them! I felt sophisticated when I ate them. These were definitely only bought by my mother for holidays. But when I finally got a little cash of my own through babysitting, I bought my own bottle. The kind I found in our little grocery in the mountains always came with pimento stuffed inside. This just made them even more appealing because pimento was also exotic. To me. Then, I moved to California.

I could buy green olives with almonds stuffed inside. Or green olives with garlic stuffed inside. I even found green olives stuffed with jalapenos. Many of these were offered at the market stands that were along side an orchard. I'd buy bags of oddly shaped oranges that couldn't be sold to stores, but were perfectly delicious. They were offered at a bargain rate, so I'd have enough money to treat myself to exotic versions of green olives.

I don't know when I first tried Greek olives. I didn't like them. So, I avoided them for years. However, there must be something about being a Woman of A Certain Age, because now, they are my favorite version of olives. I buy them at the olive bar in markets that offer hummus and marinated mushrooms and sell specialty cheese. During school, I'll make a salad for lunch, and carry kalamata olives and fresh cooked beets in another container to add so that the marinade from the olives and the beets is the dressing. Yummm....salty and vinegary! Just the thing to satisfy for entire afternoon.

 I know that olives are an ancient food, mentioned in the Iliad, even.  The Bible references olive trees and olive cultivation over and over. I know that there are olive trees that are documented to be over 2000 years old. It is astonishing to me to realize that a plant can live so long and be productive yet.Olives and olive oil are such a part of Mediterranean culture and cuisine that I'm amazed that they made it, even in the canned form, to my little Wyoming world so long ago.

 Olive oil is so versatile, so amazingly varied and so healthy for you. I've watched television shows where the host joins in the olive harvest, and helps with pressing the oil. They drink it right from the press in a little cup and savor its amazing variety of flavors. When I looked up facts about olives, I learned that there are more than twenty varieties. I also found that more than twenty countries have a significant olive crop, Spain being the leader. Not all of them were Mediterranean countries either---Peru! Australia! Olives and the production and consumption of olive oil are no longer exotic. Both are world wide staples. I hardly use any other type of oil in my cooking.

So, when you feel tempted to put an olive on each finger tip, go ahead. Then slurp them off, one by one and savor the taste. Olives are full of fat, but it is the "good" kind. You'll be helping your heart with your consumption of olive oil and olives, and you'll be eating a food that the world has savored for millennia.