Olives

A variety of green and black olives are found throughout Italy, and each variety can be used to give its own particular nuance to a pasta sauce. The olives are pitted—easy to accomplish by just squeezing the pointier ends together between thumb and forefinger—and left otherwise whole, coarsely chopped, or on occasion ground to a paste. Olives give a salty and bitter note to pasta sauces, which makes them excellent in combination with basil, tomatoes, garlic, and anchovies.