By this point in our use-up-the-old-to-make–way-for the-new store cupboard forage, you may well have polished off all the dates, but I hope you haven't quite finished with the capers, if only because they go so wonderfully with this week's ingredient, olives. Whether your olives come in tubs, jars or tins, in oil or in brine, their punchy flavour and fleshy nature make them just the thing to whizz into a dip, perk up a stew or add an extra dimension to a salad or pizza.
Olives are probably one of the Earth's oldest cultivated crops. They were grown on Crete by 3000BC and excavations of later Minoan palaces found tools, amphorae and wall paintings relating to their production. In legend, the olive tree was created by the goddess Athena as a gift to the city that bears her name, while they're mentioned in the Bible as synonymous with plenty, and their branches symbolise peace, wisdom and victory. So when you nibble on a bowl of olives with your pre-dinner drink, you're waking up your appetite with something very ancient indeed – as Lawrence Durrell wrote in Prospero's Cell, "Ataste older than meat, older than wine. Ataste as old as cold water."
There are hundreds of varieties of olives, each with its own distinctive flavour and texture. You could fall in love with them for their names alone, from Andalusian manzanilla and sevillano olives, to the south of France's tiny, chewy nyons (delicious on today's pissaladière), green picholine, pert, creamy lucques and fleshy, violet-brown kalamatas from Greece. Green and black olives are not necessarily different varieties: some are better picked early and used green, others if left to ripen to inky blackness.
When buying olives to cook with, do so in small batches with the stones intact because they have a far better flavour. (Though that tin of stoned olives in the cupboard is a great standby for quick pasta sauces or dips.) As a nibble with drinks, serve them as they come or marinate in extra-virgin olive oil to which you've added chilli, lemon or orange zest, thyme leaves, or bashed coriander or fennel seeds – or all of the above.
Olives are a great addition to stews, as they counterbalance the richness of fatty meats (see the lamb dish below), while their saltiness makes them exceptionally good with sweet citrus: try black olives and toasted, slivered almonds scattered over thinly sliced oranges and red onions, dressed with olive oil and asplash of orange flower water.
By way of a playful ending, here's one of my favourite crossword clues: I love co*cktail snacks (5). As you may discern, I'm quite bad at crosswords.
Green olive tapenade
Delicious on its own with bread or toast, but also a versatile ingredient to add an olivey bite to all sorts of other dishes. To make it vegetarian, leave out the anchovies. Makes 400g.
2 garlic cloves, minced
Juice and grated zest of ½ lemon
2 tbsp salted capers, soaked in water for 10 minutes, drained and rinsed
6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
¼ tsp chilli flakes (optional)
400g oil-cured green olives, drained and pitted
Up to 100ml extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Put the garlic, juice and zest, capers, anchovies, thyme and chilli in afood processor and pulse until well blended. Add the olives and pulse to a coarse paste. Slowly pour the oil through the feed tube, pulsing as you go, until it's the texture you like – you may not need all the oil. Taste and add black pepper if necessary.
Five things to do with tapenade:
Push under the skin of achicken before roasting it.
Mix a few tablespoons with breadcrumbs and spread over breast of lamb before rolling and roasting.
Serve on crostini with some crumbled soft goat's cheese.
Toss with just-cooked potatoes as a salad to go with grilled sardines.
Brush over a sheet of bought puff pastry, roll up, cut into thin rounds and bake at 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for 12 minutes, until puffed and golden. Serve as a nibble with drinks.
Pissaladière
I'm a big fan of this wonderfully oniony pizza from southern France, not just because it's delicious, but because I can make it from stuff Inormally have knocking about in the cupboards. Serves four to six.
For the dough
125g plain flour
125g strong white bread flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp fast-action yeast
160ml warm water
1 tbsp olive oil, plus a little more for oiling the bowl and tin
For the topping
3 tbsp olive oil
1kg onions (about 4 big ones), peeled, halved and very thinly sliced
A pinch of salt
3 garlic cloves, peeled, halved and finely sliced
8-10 anchovy fillets in oil
1 small handful black olives – nyons are perfect
2 tsp capers, drained and rinsed (optional)
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
Freshly ground black pepper
Combine the flours, salt and yeast in a large bowl, add the water and oil, and mix to a rough dough. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until silky and elastic, about 10 minutes. Put in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat, cover with cling-film and leave in a warm place to rise for an hour, until doubled in size.
While the dough is rising, make the topping. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onions and agood pinch of salt, and cook very gently, partially covered, over avery low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 50 minutes – they should be meltingly soft, golden and translucent, but not browned. Stir in the garlic for a minute or two, andremove from the heat.
Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7 and lightly oil a shallow, rectangular baking tin or similar.
Punch down the risen dough and turn out on to a lightly floured surface. Knead it briefly, then roll out quite thinly and line the tin, pressing the dough up the sides. Brush with a little olive oil, then spread the onions over the base and scatter the anchovies, olives, capers and thyme over the top, before trickling over a tablespoon or two of oil from the anchovy tin. Grind on some pepper and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the crust is slightly browned. Serve hot, warm or cold.
Lamb shanks with black olives
Tangy olives cut through the richness of slow-cooked shanks. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the juices, or with mash. Serves six.
6 lamb shanks
100g seasoned flour, for dusting
6 tbsp olive oil
3 large onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
400g potatoes, cut into 4cm chunks
4 carrots, cut into 1cm dice
1 celery stalk, diced
4 garlic cloves, peeled, 3 thinly sliced, the other finely minced
3 tbsp tomato puree
350ml dry white wine
800ml chicken stock
80g black olives, stones in
1 large sprig fresh rosemary
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice and finely grated zest of 2lemons
1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, stalks removed, finely chopped
Heat the oven to 160C/325F/gas mark3. Dust the lamb with the flour.Heat four tablespoons of oil ina large casserole and on amedium-high heat brown the shanks all over in batches, before setting them aside on a plate.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan, turn down the heat to medium-lowand gently sauté the onions with the bay leaves, stirring from time to time, until very soft – about15 minutes. Add the potatoes, carrots and celery, stir for five minutes, then add the sliced garlic and tomato puree, and sauté for aminute longer.
Pour in the wine, let it bubble for acouple of minutes, thenpour in the stock. Bring to asimmer and return the lamb to the pan with anyjuices that have collected on theplate, along with the olives, rosemary, some salt and afew grindsof black pepper. Bring to asimmer, cover with a circle of baking parchment and a lid, and cook in the oven for two hours, untilthe meat is very tender.
Remove from the oven and stir in the lemon juice. Just before serving, combine the zest, parsley and minced garlic, and sprinkle over.
