Thinking about Olives

Lavender and I love olives and knew that our antipasto course wouldn’t be complete without them. The salty, briny taste went extremely well with the rest of our rich, cheesy appetizers. Although we simply served our olives in bowls, one of our favourite “olive recipes” is an easy tapenade that looks fancy but is really very simple so we've included it at the bottom of the post because it's easy to make and tasty to eat.  

The olive tree, olea europaea, is a slow growing, relatively small tree with an impressively long lifespan. The oldest known olive tree is the Tree of Vouves on the island of Crete. There are seven ancient olive trees in Greece and the Mediterranean but the Tree of Vouves is likely the oldest, estimated at over 3,000 years old!

Arancini: Little Orange Joys

Arancini.  It literally means little orange.  But it is so much more than that.  These deep fried, cheese-stuffed, risotto balls look like tiny little oranges but they taste like delicious goodness (not that oranges aren’t great either).  Originating from Sicily, arancini are the perfect solution for leftover risotto – and let’s face it, leftover risotto is just not quite as good as the freshly made stuff.  But trust me, these deep-fried joys will have you tripling your next risotto recipe in order to make sure that you have enough to make a few batches of arancini. 

The more traditional kind of arancini is made with a ragu filling, but the possibilities are endless.  We made ours with a mozzarella filling and were really happy with the results.  You can also turn arancini into a dessert.  Simply swap risotto with rice pudding and fill it with nutella, chocolate, or dried fruit.

Playing Around with Pesto

Let’s talk about pesto. Sure yeah, it’s delicious and is typically made with basil, olive oil, fresh parmesan and pine nuts. But those ingredients are expensive and can be difficult to find out of season.

Did you know that the word “pesto” comes from the Italian pestare meaning to crush or to blend? The basil pesto that we’ve all come to know and love is originally from Liguria, a city in the Northwest of Italy, close to the French boarder. Basil plants grow in abundance around Liguria because the ideal growing conditions and mineral rich soil. It was, and still is, traditionally made with a mortar and pestle and served fresh.

Trade Routes and Tzatziki

Tzatziki, a humble dish prepared with yogurt and cucumber, has a rich and diverse history that spans the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and India.  In fact, tzatziki is perhaps the most Ottoman of all the dishes we prepared.  It demonstrates the scope and importance of Ottoman trade routes, especially in fostering cultural, and in our case culinary, exchange.  To make a long story very short, this quintessentially Greek appetizer and dip traveled from India through the Middle East before it made its way into Greek cookbooks. 

I am sure you are all wondering when and where India enters tzatziki’s history.  The simple answer is that tzatziki is a Greek interpretation of Indian raita.  Tracing the culinary and cultural exchanges that occurred over time allowing for raita to be transformed into tzatziki is what makes this story interesting.