Olives

Every grandmother to whom I spoke had her own recipe for putting up olives. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they have their own olive trees or even that they live in the countryside. They need only go to the greengrocer any time in the late fall when crates of various types of ripe olives appear for sale. Annita di Fonzo Zannella in Lazio does pick her own olives before they become too ripe (so they won’t go soft in the brine) and puts them in water for 2 months, then changes the water and adds 1⅓ ounces of coarse salt for every 2½ pounds of olives. Ausilia d’Arienzo in Molise, on the other hand, adds 2⅔ ounces of salt to every 2⅛ pounds of very mature black olives and leaves them for 40 days in a glass jar without any water. Then she boils water, cools it to room temperature, and adds 1 quart to every 4¼ pounds of olives. When it is time to eat them, she drains as many olives as she needs, dips them into finely minced dried oregano and peperoncino (red pepper flakes), and puts them out on the table. The aunt of Giovanna Passannanti’s friend Rosalba pits and fills white Sicilian olives with a mixture of toasted bread crumbs, chopped almonds, lemon juice or vinegar, and a thread of olive oil; sprinkles them with sugar and cinnamon; lets them sit for a day; and then watches them disappear.