“It's simple: just do this”.

How many times have you heard of a preparation that is child's play? Surely it could have happened to you if we talk about pickled olives, given that the main "ingredients" accompanying the olives are water and salt. In reality, the pitfalls are hidden precisely in this supposed simplicity of execution: attention to detail!

Your brine is not at stake, mind you, but the final result will change considerably. In other words, the point is not "to be capable or not", but to be able to create the perfect brine capable of enhancing the characteristics of your olives.

Yes, the olives. The starting point, of course, is them. We Ligurians are a bit parochial, we pamper our taggiasche which seem to us to be the ideal fruit capable of expressing itself all year round, in various ways.

Find out if you agree, try to follow our instructions!

Ligurian recipe

The Ligurian recipe for preparing olives in brine plays everything on the balance of salt percentages in the various stages of preparation, so as to obtain a final product with many nuances of flavour, ideal for the delicate taste of the typical Taggiasca olives.

Which olives to use?

It is not necessary to have perfectly ripe fruit, it is sufficient that they are slightly darkened. The best harvesting period is the month of November and it would be best to harvest by hand.

Rinse the olives well, which must be intact, and remove any impurities.

Brine

As a first step, we recommend immersing the olives in a 10% brine, which means 1 pound of salt for each liter of water. After at least one month of immersion in this solution, a 12% brine will be prepared, with 120 g of salt per litre.

In this second phase, spices (thyme, bay leaf or rosemary) can be added, although many prefer to maintain the "purity" of the brine by avoiding flavourings.

The olives will be left to rest again for three months. After this time, the salty taste will soften by preparing a 6% brine, which will be replaced with the previous one, making the final taste more delicate.

At this point the olives will have lost the excess bitterness and you can start using them. The formation of a harmless light white layer on the surface will be natural and can be easily removed with a spoon.

Always keep the olives immersed in their liquid in which they will be kept for a very long time.

What is the secret of your brine? Tell us about it and...in the meantime try ours!