Picholine olive

Olive picholine

What it is

The name belongs to a method rather than to a tree: the Picholini brothers worked out an eighteenth-century lye cure that let green olives be eaten without waiting for them to ripen, and the variety took the name of the treatment. The brine is seasoned with coriander and fennel, which is the flavour most people take for the olive's own.

In the kitchen

Buy them unpasteurised and keep them in their brine in the fridge; the crunch is the entire point and heat destroys it. Crush a couple into an anchovy dressing rather than cooking them.

Goes with

Coriander seed Fennel seed Lemon Almond Dry vermouth Thyme Goat cheese 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

Red porgy Iberian pork (bellota)

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