Chew Town Passport & Plate

Passport & Plate - Olive all'Ascolana

Italy | Wednesday, January 29, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Dried breadcrumbs
1 cup chicken or beef stock
100g pancetta, cut in tiny cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
100g pork steak, cubed
150g beef steak, cubed
50g chicken livers, cleaned
1 tbsp concentrated tomato paste
3 eggs
Olive oil for frying
50g grated parmesan cheese
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste
75 green olives
Plain flour
Olive oil for frying

 

How to prepare this recipe
Into 1 cup of stock add 3 tbsp breadcrumbs and leave to soak. Add oil to pan and quickly saute the pancetta, then add the pork and beef and fry until browned. Add the tomato paste diluted in hot water and continue cooking. When the meat is cooked, add the chicken livers and let them cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool (if there is a lot of liquid remaining, drain from pan).

Once cooled, transfer to a food processor and blitz until minced. To this mixture add the softened bread crumbs, 1 egg, parmesan cheese, cinnamon and nutmeg, and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

The traditional way to prepare the olives for stuffing is by using a small paring knife to cut the flesh around the pip like you are peeling an orange. When stuffed the olives are then large and long. For those who do not have the patience, you could buy large pitted green olives, make a vertical cut down the olive to open it up for stuffing.

Once olive flesh is prepared they are ready for stuffing. Take a heaped teaspoon sized amount of the meat mixture and stuff in and around the hole left by the pip. Some of the mixture will coat some of the outside of the olive, and this is preferable. Repeat with all olives and set aside.

In three pasta bowls prepare the following, plain flour in one, 2 beaten eggs with a dash of milk in the second and dried breadcrumbs in the third. Take an olive and dip in the flour till coated then trasnsfer to the egg mixture. It is important to evenly coat the olive in the egg mixture so the breadcrumbs stick all around the olive. The final step is to place in the breadcrumbs and ensure an even coating is applied. Continue the same method with all the olives. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to cook.

In a small deep frying pan add olive oil an inch deep from the bottom and heat until sizzling. In small batches fry the olives till the outer coating is golden. Serve with a squeeze of lemon and some peppery rocket.

 

The story behind this recipe
My father moved to Australia from Italy in his early 20s. Hailing from the country town of Quintodecimo in the province of Ascoli Piceno and region of Marche, Dante was an ambitious man and left Italy to build a new life for himself in the land of opportunities – but the impetus to move at the age he did was certainly heavily influenced by his desire to avoid the 2 year compulsory conscription in the Italian army, which all young Italian men faced at the time.

Dante found love in Australia with a young and beautiful Italian girl from Calabria and had three children all born in Australia, me being the youngest, whom he all ensured learned Italian from very young age. Despite all his success in Australia, Quintodecimo was never far from his heart and he never left it too long between drinks in his hometown.

I understand the heavenly call of Quintedecimo through the Mediterranean and across the Indian Ocean to Australia, because even after visiting it as a girl, I always longed for the next time I could return.

These Olive all'Ascola (Olives Ascolana style) are a specialty of the Ascoli Piceno province and can be found served all over Italy. They are prized by the people of Ascoli Piceno who are fiercely proud of their province's most well known dish.

In this recipe olives are carefully pitted and stuffed with a combination of three kinds of meat, then crumbed and fried. They are olives like you have never had them before.

As a child, I never really liked olives, but I always had a place in my heart for Olive all'Ascolana and I'm delighted to share this recipe with you as an important recipe from my fathers home town.