If you have done any amount of traveling in the Mediterranean region you know how much olives are a part of daily life. Not only in olive oil which is used throughout the region, but in the fruit itself.  The trees are remarkably short unless they are extremely old, trees have been verified to be over 3000 years (not a typo) and still bearing fruit. In Tuscan and Italian cuisine, as well as many other Mediterranean cuisines, olive fruit is used abundantly.

The fruit itself will give you a nasty little surprise if you pluck one from a tree and eat it fresh.  If you have ever seen a baby suck on a slice of lemon and remember that face, then you know the kind of response I’m talking about.  The fruit itself is naturally quite bitter.  The olives you find in your store will have been fermented or brined or fermented and the brined.  The milder the olive, the more likely it has only been brined and not fermented.  If you taste a “California” olive alongside a Kalamata olive you will notice a distinctly milder flavor in the “California” olive.

Olives as an appetizer or snack are extremely common through all of the Mediterranean.  But they are used extensively in entrees as well.  They are a surprisingly good combination with raisins when you are creating your own dishes, especially with pork and chicken.  For snacks and appetizers olives that are not pitted are fine, and there are a much greater number of varieties of non pitted olives available, some of the deepest, darkest, tastiest olives still have their seeds.  When you are using them in an entree it is highly recommended to either slice around the pits or buy pitted olives.  You or a friend biting into a pit and needing immediate dental care is not the most entertaining way to spend an evening.

Open yourself up to the many different types of olives as well.  There are a huge number of varieties beyond the pimento stuffed version the bartender tosses into your martini.   You can find them fermented with peppers for those that like a little kick, stuffed with the typical pimentos, stuffed with a variety of cheeses from feta to blue and even stuffed with capers for those that like the full brine effect.  For most cooking the smaller darker varieties, kalamata, niciose and lugano work best in most dishes.  If you have a neighborhood Italian deli they will possibly let you have a taste before buying.  If you happen to visit wine country in California there are a fair number of producers there and some will offer wine and olive tastings, this is a growing trend as more and more artisanal olive producers are popping up in the region.  For a little further reading: http://tinyurl.com/cuk3ht. or http://tinyurl.com/2uc5p4