Fried stuffed olives, Ascolana style
( Olive fritte all'Ascolana )

Fried stuffed olives How-To

This is the authentic Italian recipe for fried stuffed olives, Ascoli-style.
Below the link to our no cheese version for people who have cheese intolerance or allergy.

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare meat for stuffing.
  Clean and wash carrot and cut it into three pieces.
  Clean and wash celery and cut it into three pieces.
  Peel onion, cut into four wedges and stud it with some cloves.
  Cut meat into pieces.
  Heat 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil in a saucepan and add carrot, celery and onion. Fry slightly.
  Add all meat, season to taste with salt and pepper and fry slightly.
  Pour in wine and cook, half-covered, stirring now and then, until all cooking juice is well reduced and meat is tender.
  A couple of minutes before turning off the stove, add chicken liver and tomato paste and stir very well.
  Chicken liver needs few minutes to cook.
  Let all your ingredients cool.
• - Meanwhile prepare olives.
  Remove their pits with a sharp knife, making a spiral cut from top to bottom without breaking them.
  Now your olives are ready to be filled with the meat mixture.
  If you aren't able to make a spiral cut try to halve them.
  This is a delicate step and you need a lot of time, if you are completely inexperienced.
• - Prepare your filling.
  Wash lemon and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
  Now grate lemon peel and put apart.
  Remove any trace of carrot, celery and onion from the meat mixture and finely chop meat.
  The best would be to mince your meat. But you can also purée it in a food processor until smooth.
  Put your minced or puréed meat in a bowl.
  Now add cheese, an egg (lightly beaten), lemon zest, a hint of nutmeg.
  Stir accurately.
  You must have a firm filling.
  If it is too firm you can make it softer adding some crustless bread you should have prepared before, a little at a time. The crustless bread should be soaked in broth and squeezed dry before using.
  On the contrary you could obtain a too soft filling.
  Don't worry! Stuff your olives, put them in a plate and then in the fridge.
  Chill for at least 30 minutes and then dip them in all purpose flour ...
• - Prepare olives.
  Take a bit of your filling and give it the same shape of an olive.
  Put the olive you've prepared before around it and press among the palms of your hands.
  Continue until all your ingredients are used up.
  The olives should become large and fat.
  Dip every olive in all purpose flour, then in remaining egg (lightly beaten) and at last in plain breadcrumbs.
• - Fry olives.
  Heat remaining olive oil in a pan and fry olives until golden on all their sides.
  Remove them from the pan with a skimming ladle and put on absorbent kitchen paper to remove all fat in excess.
  Season to taste with salt only if necessary when still hot

Just before serving

• - Serve your ascolana olives at once or even at room temperature.

Note

Tips

• - If possible, use large and tender Ascolan olives. If you aren't able to find them choose a good-quality variety of olives whose pulp must be full, fine and dense.
• - You need less time if you have stoned olives.
• - It may be some variations to this traditional recipe especially in the filling. Somebody substitutes one kind of meat with fresh sausage, others add parsley or garlic too ...
• - Season to taste with salt moderately. Remember you have to use two kinds of cheeses ...
• - Fried stuffed olives are a long-to-do recipe. Generally I prepare a lot of stuffed olives and freeze them unfried when I have enough time. So I have only to fry them just before serving. You can make their filling, stuff it into olives and freeze them unfried at this time. To freeze stuffed olives follow my suggestions: put them on a serving tray, well separated. Put the serving tray in the freezer. The day after, you can transfer all your frozen olives into a bag. So when you have to fry them, you can take only the right number. Allow frozen olives to completely defrost before frying.

Menu planning

• - Serve fried stuffed olives, Ascolana style as appetizer (in this case you can serve more people) or second course in full menu Italian-style or in a buffet with other finger food.

Useful links to this recipe

• - Here's the link to no-cheese ascolana olives How-To!

Healthy eating

• - It's very difficult to have the real amount of the olive oil used for frying these stuffed olives. So nutrition facts don't include the olive oil for frying but only the amount used for cooking their filling (2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon). If you want to include this ingredient too, you have to add about 150 kcal per 100 g of this dish. Frying - especially deep frying - adds a serious amount of fat and calories to a meal, and so it should really be used only as an occasional cooking method.
• - You can make a tasty, lower-fat dish of Ascolana olives by oven-frying them as a lot of people are used to do nowadays. Read more in the page dedicated to no-cheese Ascolana olives!
• - Fiber per serving: 7.0 grams

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Fried stuffed olives, Ascolana style "?

Generally, my husband and I pair Rosso Piceno (a red wine from Marche-Italy) to fried stuffed olives.

You could be interested in other recipes or wines from Marches, in this case follow the link.