Geröstete Oliven mit würzigen Brotbröseln

Roasted olives with spicy breadcrumbs is a tapa that goes well with any aperitif or tapas dinner/antipasto dinner.

The olive is a Mediterranean stone fruit. It is not edible raw because of its bitterness but becomes edible after being soaked in water several times to remove the bitter substances. Genuine black olives are ripe olives. There are over 1,000 varieties of olive trees in the Mediterranean region alone. Depending on the climate and soil conditions, the olive tree has developed differently over hundreds of years, with some olive tree varieties being limited to individual villages.

Spain is the world’s largest olive producer. The varieties grown today still date back to the beginning of cultivation. The range of Spanish varieties today corresponds to that of the 15th century. Around 200 olive varieties are cultivated in Spain.

The fruits are also sold directly as food. However, olives are not edible straight from the tree due to their bitterness. They are placed in brine, which removes the bitter substances.

In Mediterranean cuisine, they are often used in bread, ragouts, salads, and sauces. Black and green olives are available in stores. Genuine black olives are ripe, carefully harvested, and always prepared with pits for sale; they are about three times as expensive as green olives and require hardly any spices or flavored brine. Just as inexpensive as green olives (with or without pits, empty or with contents) are olives colored black with iron gluconate, typically always without pits; like green olives, they are harvested unripe. Of the different varieties, some are better suited for producing unripe green olives, others for producing black olives.

This article is part of Volkermampft’s culinary world tour, which is traveling to Spain this month.