Gordal olive

Olive gordal

What it is

Gordal means the fat one, and the cultivar holds so little oil that Andalusia never pressed it — it went to the table instead, cured Sevillian-style in a short lye bath and then fermented in salt water. That snapping flesh is why it became the olive you stuff, and why bars thread it onto a cocktail stick with an anchovy and a guindilla.

In the kitchen

Buy them unpitted: the machine bruises a channel through the flesh and brine floods it, ruining exactly the texture you paid extra for. Stone them by pressing until the fruit splits along its own seam.

Goes with

Anchovy Guindilla Manchego Almond Sherry vinegar Piquillo pepper Thyme Olive oil

Same species

Agrumato lemon oil Olive Cracked olive of the Vallée des Baux Castelvetrano olive Bella di Cerignola olive Gaeta olive

Also used with

Piparra Ventresca Fino sherry Manzanilla

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