If you love marinated olives like I do but find the store-bought varieties a bit pricey you can easily make them yourself for a fraction of the cost. Here we mixed regular old canned pitted black olives with orange and lemon zest, a little minced garlic, and fresh thyme. If you don’t like thyme try rosemary or fennel fronds instead, both work remarkably well. You can switch out the citrus for salty stuff like capers or anchovies if you want. Add some dried crushed red pepper (the pizza parlor kind) in there if you want a little heat.
The potential variations on this theme are almost endless so don’t be afraid to mix and match different herbs, spices, or whatever to your olives. You almost can’t make a mistake, and even if you do, it’ll probably still taste good.
Need This
1 – 6 ounce can of pitted black olives (store brand is fine)
1 Tablespoon of orange peel diced into fine julienne strips*
1/2 Tablespoon of lemon peel diced into fine julienne strips*
1 clove of garlic – minced
Olive oil
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
Crusty bread
Do This
Drain the water off of the olives real good.
Pour the olives into a deep bowl. Add a good glug of olive oil to the olives.
Add the minced garlic to the olives and oil and mix it up nice. Add the orange and lemon zest. Strip off the thyme leaves from the twigs and flurry them in. Mix it up thoroughly one more time.
Pack the olive mixture into a tight container with a lid (a sterilized Ball jar works best) and refrigerate for at least two hours – longer is better. Remove from the fridge about an hour before serving. Mix well and serve at room temperature.
Don’t forget the bread.
Serves 4 as an appetizer. My cost approx. $ 1.85 total (sans bread) – about 47 cents per serving.
* Use a potato peeler to lightly remove the orange and lemon peels, avoiding as much of the white
pith as possible. GMN