How to cure olives, the Italian way

I've just finished the process of curing our own olives using the simplest local recipe from the Sabine Hills. It is so easy, that I wanted to share the local secrets on how to cure olives.

The olives (a 'carboncella' native Italian variety) collected from one of our trees back in December, were put inside a bowl, under layers of sea salt for 60 days.

Covered with large sea salt for 60 days

After rinsing off all the sea salt I left the olives to dry for 2 days on a cotton towel 

Then, I simply rinsed the olives and left them to dry on several cotton towels. I turned them every now and then to ensure they dried well.

I then chopped some orange peel and some garlic until I had a small handful of this mixture.

Finally, I put the cured olives in jars, mixing them with the orange peel and garlic and  finally covered them with our own olive oil. Fatto (done)!

Making sure all the olives are covered with extra virgin olive oil

PS: Nothing is ever wasted: for once all the olives are eaten, the olive oil from the jars can be re-used for dressing or cooking, with its wonderful flavour of orange and garlic.

Every Italian region have their own local recipes and methods on how to cure olives.

Let me know what way you cure olives as I would love to hear from you.

Convivio Rome conducts Rome Olive Tours, Italian Cooking Classes, 3 and 5 night Italian Culinary Vacations and Wine tours, all in the Sabine Hills, just north of Rome in Italy.

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

Amatriciana - Chef Guido's simple Roman Pasta Sauce

Amariciana, is named after Amatrice, a town that lies in the mountains of northern Lazio, famous for producing the finest guanciale (cured pork cheek). Amariciana is another one of my 'go to' Roman pasta sauce recipes, because it is simple, quick and full of flavour.

Amatriciana
Ingredients (serves 6): 50g of guanciale (cured pork cheek), 50 g of pecorino romano, 1 can of peeled S.Marzano tomatoes (no added sugar), salt, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil.

Method: Cut the guanciale into short sticks. Put a little olive oil in a pan and fry guanciale until crispy. Put guanciale aside and cook tomatoes with a pinch of salt in the juice that’s left in the pan for 10 minutes. Add crispy guanciale at the end. Mix this sauce with cooked ‘aldente’ pasta and grated pecorino cheese. Serve with extra pecorino and plenty of black pepper.

(Pasta shapes traditionally used: bucatini, rigatoni, mezze maniche)
Dried Pasta: 80-100g per serving

Chef Guido is an eighth generation Roman, who runs Italian cooking classes  and Convivio Rome, with Sally, his Australian wife, in the beautiful Sabine Hills, just north of Rome. Italian Cooking Classes, Culinary Holidays and Olive Tours, plus Wine Tours.

Cooking Holidays and Day Tours  with Convivio Rome, are available all year round

For further information

www.conviviorome.com (cooking holidays, cooking classes and olive tours)

www.winetoursrome.com (wine tours)