Green Olives and Tomatoes

This recipe is based on one from the province of Bari, where raw (and incredibly bitter) ripe black olives are cooked in a manner between a sauté and a stew with fresh tomato, garlic and oil until soft, when their flavour tempers to produce a pleasingly bitter and astringent dish, often eaten simply with bread. Given the short season, and difficulty in procuring uncured eating olives far from the Mediterranean, the present recipe is an approximation in flavour — green cured olives providing