Olive Inspiration

A favorite olive of mine for cooking is the Kalamata from Greece. It is a plump, juicy, brine-cured black olive with a nice balance of flavor: fruity and salty with just a pleasant touch of bitterness.

In addition to their great taste, Kalamata olives are very easy to pit because they are so juicy. Place an olive on a cutting board and place the flat side of a chef’s knife on top. Press down hard on the knife and the skin splits open and the pit comes right out.

Kalamata olives are wonderful baked with fish, pureed into a spread for crostini, mixed into bean salads or finely chopped and sprinkled over tomato salad or cooked vegetable dishes.

In her recently published cookbook, “The Greek Vegetarian” (St. Martin’s Press, 1996), Diane Kochilas has a recipe for potatoes stewed with Kalamata olives. She explains in the headnote to the recipe, “It is unusual in Greece to actually cook with olives. This recipe is from Zakinthos, in the Ionian, where the cuisine is still rife with traces of Venetian cooking. This stew is rich from the potatoes, which break down a bit during cooking, and acidic from the brine of the olives.”

I found the flavors irresistible and the recipe very simple to prepare. The potatoes are tossed with olive oil and garlic. Tomatoes and olives are added and the mixture is slowly stewed on top of the stove for about 30 minutes. I used red-skinned potatoes that didn’t need peeling, which made the preparation time even shorter.

Kochilas suggests serving this dish with good bread and some feta cheese. If you follow her suggestion, try to find a mild creamy feta in a specialty cheese shop because, in this instance, I think the supermarket variety will be much too salty next to the olives.

As a meal, I enjoyed this stew accompanied by a bowl of braised escarole and a good hearty loaf of country-style bread. This is a hearty stew and could easily be enjoyed as a meatless main dish as part of a vegetarian menu, as I have featured it here. For dessert, serve a cooling lemon or orange sorbet or ice.

POTATOES STEWED WITH KALAMATA OLIVES

2 1/2 pounds red-skinned boiling potatoes

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 pound Kalamata olives, rinsed and pitted

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can plum tomatoes with juices or 1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes with juices

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and cut each half into 1/2-inch-thick pieces.

Heat olive oil in large broad pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add potatoes and stir to coat. Stir in garlic. Add olives, tossing potatoes to keep from sticking, and cook 2 to 3 minutes. (Note: Olives will break apart a little and potatoes will change color.)

Stir in tomatoes, breaking them up with spoon. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, until potatoes are tender and sauce reduced and thickened, about 25 minutes. Stir occasionally during cooking, adding a little water occasionally, if needed, to keep potatoes moist. Add oregano and season to taste with salt and pepper.

4 generous servings. Per serving:

612 calories; 1963 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 39 grams fat; 65 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams protein; 3.94 grams fiber.

BRAISED ESCAROLE WITH OLIVE OIL

2 heads escarole (about 1 1/2 pounds), washed, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

Salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, bruised with side of knife

Plunge escarole into large pan of boiling salted water and cook until tender, about 6 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat oil and garlic in large skillet. When garlic begins to sizzle and turn golden, remove and discard. Add drained escarole to garlic-flavored oil and toss to coat. Serve warm.

4 servings. Per serving:

91 calories; 89 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 6 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 1.20 grams fiber.