Olive all'Ascolana
Marche · street · serves 6 · 90 min total · hard
Ascoli Piceno's labour-of-love antipasto. The local olives are the only ones large and tender enough; the stuffing is a small ragù in itself.
Ingredients
- 40 olives Ascolana tenera olives, large and green
- 150 g ground beef
- 150 g ground pork
- 100 g ground chicken
- 60 g Parmigiano Reggiano
- 2 eggs eggs
- 200 g fine breadcrumbs
- 80 g flour
- 1 L frying oil
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 small carrot
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 small onion
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Method
- Pit each olive in a spiral (knife around like peeling an apple) so it can be reassembled later. Tedious but essential.
- Soffritto of finely diced vegetables. Add the three meats, brown completely. Cool.
- Mince the cooked filling (or pulse in a processor) until very fine. Mix with Parmigiano, 1 egg, nutmeg, lemon zest. Should be a dense paste.
- Stuff each olive with the paste, wrapping the olive spiral around. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Roll each stuffed olive in flour, beaten egg, breadcrumbs.
- Fry at 180°C (355°F) for 3 minutes until deep gold. Drain, eat hot.