Cracked olive of the Vallée des Baux ✦

Olive cassée de la vallée des Baux

What it is

The olives are struck open with a wooden mallet while still green and hard, then held in brine changed daily so the bitterness escapes through the crack. The 1997 appellation decree fixes both the varieties, Salonenque and Béruguette, and a hand harvest before ripeness — which is why the wild fennel has already gone to seed by the time the olives come in.

In the kitchen

They are alive and unpasteurised, so they keep weeks rather than months, and only cold. Store them submerged in their own brine in the fridge; exposed to air the cut flesh browns within a day.

Goes with

Fennel seed Olive oil Thyme Garlic Bay leaf Lemon Coriander seed Anchovy

Same species

Agrumato lemon oil Olive Castelvetrano olive Bella di Cerignola olive Gaeta olive Gordal olive

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