La Cucina Italiana - De Italiaanse Keuken - The Italian Kitchen

A traditional Italian starter, the olive ascolane or olive all’ascolana are a relatively simple dish that requires a somewhat careful preparation and, most of all, the right kind of olives. You will need the ascolane tenere variety...

Ingredients

• 100g beef
• 100g pork
• 100g chicken
• 30g soft white bread
• Half white onion
• Nutmeg
• 80g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• Half lemon rind, grated
• One third of teaspoon of ground cloves
• 1 small carrot
• 1 small celery stalk
• 1 glass white wine
• 3 egg
• Salt
• White flour
• Breadcrumbs
• 500ml extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

Via Mariano Pallottini

[...] The olives are originally from Ascoli Piceno, a province in the Marche region. They are now on pizzeria and trattoria menus in central Italy – including Rome. Served as an antipasto, they are perfect to take the edge off your hunger. But after my endeavor I will never again gobble up these olives when they arrive at the table. Instead, I’ll savor them. In fact, that might be the whole purpose of DIY – you experience how much effort goes into making (artisanal) items, so you’ll give them the attention they deserve. Yes, that’s even true for the funky sweater!

Olive Ascolane (recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano)

A few things before you start. Use big green, tender, slightly salted olives (from Ascoli if you can). The best way to remove the pit is to take a small sharp knife and cut in a spiral movement, the way you peel an apple without breaking its skin. This way, the olive can be put back together without holes after you stuff them. This process definitely takes some practice!

750 grams green, meaty olives (Ascolane)

Ingredients for the stuffing:

2 tbsp olive oil1 onion, chopped1 carrot, chopped1 small celery stalk, chopped75 grams beef, ground or in chunks75 grams ground pork, ground or in chunks75 grams chicken or turkey, ground or in chunks1 cup white wine50 grams breadcrumbs50 grams Parmigiano Reggiano1 egg1 handful of parsley, finely choppedrind of ½ lemonpinch of ground clovespinch of nutmeg

For the breading:

flour3 eggs, lightly beatenbreadcrumbsvegetable oil for frying

Directions
Via Mariano Pallottini

Buca Osteria & Enoteca has been raved by local and international media, Torontonians, tourists (who are lucky enough to find it), and even celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver, who tweeted it as his ”favourite meal of the year” (and he was dining with chef Derek Dammann).

Recommended also by the talented Chef John Horne from the highly acclaimed fine dining restaurant Canoe in Toronto. 

The Restaurant serves Olive Ascolane, the famous stuffed Fried olives ($8 a la carte – comes with 8 olives). Olive Ascolane originated in Ascoli Piceno (Le Marche area in central Italy), but the appetizer is now found throughout Italy. 

Via Mariano Pallottini

Beautiful seaside towns and resorts, long beaches for summer vacations, stunning countryside for walking tours and a strong seafood culinary tradition: Le Marche is all of that and much more. Nestled between the Adriatic shore and the Appennines ranges, the Italian region features typical food coming both from the inland and the seaside. For your next holidays in Italy, think about cooking vacations or gastronomic tours in Le Marche and don’t forget to taste the following recommended dishes.[...]

Try Vincisgrassi, a special kind of lasagne.
If you want to try lasagne as you have never tasted, Vincisgrassi is the traditional first course from Le Marche that you was looking for.
The recipe was first cited by Antonio Nebbia in his book “Il cuoco Maceratese” in 1783. As you many guess by the title, the recipe must have been created in the town of Macerata, but you can find it in many other tourist destinations of Le Marche. It seems to be named after Windischgratz, the Austrian general who is told to have enthusiastically eaten it after a victorious battle against Napoleon.
The secret which makes Vincisgrassi such a delicious dish, must be the flavourful tomato sauce placed among the layers of pasta since it is enriched with ragù made from pork, veal and chicken. If that wasn’t enough mushrooms and truffles are added to give a plentiful savour.
Order Vincisgrassi lasagne as main course in any typical restaurant in Le Marche region… every bite will be a mouthwatering experience for your palate!

Crisp olive all’ascolana – Stuffed and fried olives.
Large, crunchy, stuffed: they are “olive all’ascolana”, a delicacy of Le Marche region which received the DOP recognition in 2005. This famous appetizer can be ordered at restaurants, bars, pubs and you can find them listed in the Antipasto or Aperitivo section since Ascolana olives are used to be served as an antipasto along with other fried snacks or as finger food in cocktail hours.
The soft crisp external part hides a green olive and a heart of meat. You could even find the recipe to prepare it at home but… don’t make it that simple! The authentic recipe dating from the seventeenth century uses exclusively olives ascolane tenere – from Ascoli indeed – filled with pork, veal, chicken and vegetables.

Flavourful Brodetto all’Anconetana – A fish soup that you will never forget.
If you drop by the coastal towns of San Benedetto del Tronto, Ancona, Porto Recanati and Fano, you will be overwhelmed by the unique flavour of seafood coming from any restaurant, as you have a nice stroll in those quaint villages. So don’t think twice, time has come for you to stop and taste the regional delicacy Brodetto all’anconetana. This tasteful fish soup cooked with 13 or more different varieties of seafood – including mullet and cuttlefish – is a local tradition as old as fishing. Expert chefs in any Le Marche town have created signature versions of Brodetto all’anconetana, giving the opportunity to make an unforgettable gourmet journey. It is recommended to savour Brodetto with the DOC white wine Verdicchio, which best emphasises its characteristics.
Don’t miss to try other typical seafood dishes such as Stoccafisso all’anconetana (salted fish) and Mosciolo (mussel).[...]

Via Mariano Pallottini

Olive ascolane are a traditional Italian food from le Marche, but which is everywhere in Rome as well. Unfortunately olive ascolane are by no means vegan [...]

 

For the filling

Ingredients (makes 20)

100g vegan mince2 carrots, chopped very small1 stick of celery, chopped very small½ red onion, chopped very small2 cloves of garlic, minced⅛ cup of flour¼ cup of nutritional yeast⅛ cup of breadcrumbssaltpepperolive oil

 

Preparation (2 hours)

Drizzle some olive on a large pan and turn it on medium high heat. Add the onion, then after 3 minutes add the garlic. Keep stirring around, and after 2 minutes add the carrot. After 5 minutes add the celery, stir occasionally, and after 10 minutes, add the mince. Leave that on, simmering on medium low heat, for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, and add salt and pepper to taste. Once it’s ready, put it all in a large mixing bowl and wait a bit for it to cool, then add the flour, nutritional yeast, and breadcrumbs. Mix it all around and use your hands to knead it into a kind of dough. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.

 

For the rest

Ingredients

1 jar of large green olives (if they’re already you will save a lot of time)lots and lots of breadcrumbsegg-substitute equivalent of 2 eggs1 cup of flour2 litres of vegetable oil

 

Preparation

While the dough is resting, carefully slice open ever olive until about halfway through the diameter. If they’re not pitted, then cut around the pit so you’re left with an olive without the pit which is open on one side. If they break into half it’s fine, but it does make it easier if you manage to leave one side together. Once the dough is finished take a very small amount of dough (about as big an amount as an olive), roll it into a little ball, and stuff it into the olive. It’s going to be popping out on one side, which is perfectly fine, as long as the entire thing vaguely resembles a sphere and is holds itself together. Once you’ve done that for all of the olives you’re making, take each stuffed olive, roll it around in flour, drop into the egg substitute, make sure it’s entirely covered, then cover with breadcrumbs. If you’re going to be freezing them, do so at this point. If not, leave them for to sit for another 30 minutes and then repeat the breading procedure to make sure they’re extra covered. At this point, heat up the vegetable oil, and, once at the right temperature for deep frying (the stove should be on about medium – high heat), drop them in. [...]

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Via Mariano Pallottini