Five places to eat olives from Ascoli to Ascoli (traditional or revisited) and seafood versions to taste in San Benedetto del Tronto. We also give you the recipe, because if it is not prepared by hand it is not the authentic "fried ascoli liva".
Eat the Ascoli Olives in Ascoli Piceno It is the guarantee to be able to enjoy the original flavor of the tradition. The recipe for stuffed olives is old. It dates back to 1800. The preparation takes several hours and each family has their own version. The differences come from choice of meats, dall 'use of spices or lemon, breadcrumbs And, of course, olive type.
Traditionally, they must be made with the "Tender Ascolane", one of the three Italian PDOs, but the production is particularly limited and, above all, the offer is difficult to debone with a knife due to its fragility. This is why artisan producers charge a higher price for ascolane with PDO. At Ascoli Piceno, each restaurateur has their own little secret that makes them unique, local delicatessens send them home all over Italy.
The traditional recipe for Ascoli olives
To make 100 stuffed olives (approximately 1,5 kg of finished product) you will need:
1 kilo of soft Ascoli olives; 300 grams of beef pulp; 100 grams of pork pulp; 100 grams of chicken or turkey breast; a pound of grated Parmesan; three fresh eggs; Nutmeg; the zest of half an untreated lemon; a clove a branch of celery; an onion; A white wine cup; 00 flour; breadcrumbs; extra virgin olive oil and salt.
Once the olives have been drained from their brine, one of the main steps is to soak the olives for a few hours in fresh water with a generous dose of wild fennel (in the local dialect, "bastard fennel").
Chop the celery, carrot and onion and a clove and simply fry them with a little oil in a saucepan.
Cut the meat into small pieces, brown it with the vegetables and the lemon zest until golden brown, then add the white wine, preferably from the Piceno hills (a good falerio) and season with salt.
When the meat is cooked, it should be allowed to cool and then grind it with a meat grinder. Add a pinch of nutmeg, 2 eggs and the Parmesan; knead well, mixing until smooth.
Meanwhile, pit the olives with a small knife with a smooth blade: starting from the petiole, cut the pulp from the pit, pulling a spiral without ever detaching the olive leaf, thus obtaining a single strip of pulp.
Take the dough and fill the olives, recomposing the original shape of the fruit with the peel. Dip each olive first in the flour, then in the beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs.
Bring the temperature of the extra virgin olive oil (or sunflower) to 170 degrees in a large saucepan and soak the olives, turning until golden brown on the outside; drain them, place them on a sheet of absorbent paper and serve them still hot.
Ascoli olives served in the Niche d'Ascoli Piceno.
Five places to eat Ascoli olives in Ascoli Piceno
From a charming farmhouse to local cuisine, you have many options to choose from. Outside the alleys of the historic center, many activities related to Ascoli fingerlings have flourished in recent years.
In 2015, Maria Rita Petrucci founded with two partners Excellencies Ascoli (via dei Cappuccini 36), a laboratory on the outskirts of the historic center that prepares and ships Ascoli olives throughout Italy on request. Here, the olives can also be eaten over the counter, fried for the time being. Among its secrets, the freshest and highest quality meat. Among the variants: olives flavored with truffle, vegan, vegetarian and fish. Don't miss the fried cremini flavored with Rosati anise.
Immersed in the countryside that surrounds Ascoli, five minutes from the center there are Villa Cicchi (in the hamlet of Rosara), a charming farmhouse with farm and cattle. The people of Ascoli know this well, as it is one of the most sought after locations for style ceremonies. Opened in 1995. Maria Elena Cicchi is in charge of cooking and the olives are the protagonists of the frying. All raw materials come from the farm and chicken meat has been banned in the dough in favor of turkey. To enrich the whole, a splash of béchamel that gives a particular creaminess to the garnish; the same one that is also used in the splendid zucchini rolls. Villa Cicchi offers "agricultural catering" and, on request, also sends the olives abroad. For an Italian lunch or cooking lessons, the staff hits international destinations.
And there are also three women behind the deli counter. Three benefits (District of Monticelli, Largo Martiri delle Foibe). Here you can eat them hot, simply fried. There is to prepare them Sunday Constantini Following the grandmother's recipe, they are prepared with a very fine and particularly fragrant ground nutmeg. Here at Christmas, don't miss the Ascoli olives stuffed with cod.
In the hills, a stone's throw from the center, there is another restaurant that has turned Ascoli olives into workaholics. IT IS' "Sir ok«(Via Spalvieri 20). Heir to the historian “Mario del Pennile”, a chef from Ascoli who contributed to the fame of Ascoli cuisine and mixed frying David vitelli he is the owner and Fabrizia Fiori deals with the production of olives. Pitted by hand, with a knife, the olives are an integral part of the catering offered by the family business. No chicken in the dough and the possibility of tasting gluten-free olives. The "skinny olives", stuffed with tuna, stand out and become the highlight of Christmas.
Back in the historic center, a young chef has bet everything on French fries, which opened less than a year ago «The niche»(Largo dei Cataldi, 9) an intimate restaurant that is a maze of stone rooms that offers Ascoli olives in a deliberately salty version that needs to be accompanied by a good Passerina, preferably foamy. Guido NadiThis is the name of the Chef who returned to Ascoli Piceno after a long experience in Los Angeles, London and also in Armenia, where he made Ascoli style olives bringing the raw material directly from Piceno.
Near San Benedetto del Tronto, Ascolana olives come from the sea
A few kilometers from Ascoli, on the coast, Ascoli olives turn marine: “alla Sambenedettese”. It goes without saying that even in San Benedetto del Tronto everyone has their own family recipe. The classic meat filling gives way to fresh fish and olives turn into delicate, crunchy marinated delicacies. Fabrizio Prosperi mi Irene Martinucci They opened a fish market with a kitchen in San Benedetto del Tronto in 2014 (via Luigi Luciani, 57) and prepare olives with white fish pulp. They are served in the forty-seat restaurant next to the fish market, but you can also enjoy a simple fried bag for now. The quick menu for business lunches is extensive and delicious with the option of dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. Olives are undoubtedly one of the main dishes. The recipe is based on the raw material that must always be fresh. Cod, turbot or monkfish are the base of the filling. Steam cooking guarantees softness and the olives, rigorously pitted by hand, have an artisan flavor.
