This is a delicious melange of flavors. After making fougasse with our ffwd group, I knew that this would be a fun combination – olives, herbs and a bit of orange for the citrus note. This is a great do-ahead recipe (and is probably better if it has a chance for the flavors to blend). This was our French Fridays recipe for Thanksgiving week, so it worked out perfectly to get the olives done ahead (unfortunately, I didn’t actually get the post completed ahead – so, not unusually, I’m behind). They waited patiently for the big day in their jar in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
This is an easy recipe – and made even easier if you just happen to have fresh rosemary and thyme in the garden. Of course, there’s some garlic, a chile for a bit of heat, bay leaf, some spices and a bit lot of olive oil. I used a combination of un-pitted olives, and chose the orange, since I think it’s such a great combination with olives. Though I’m sure that lemon, or even lime would be a good choice.
Some of the herbs get chopped, others stay on the stem (so that they can look pretty). Just a bit of prep prior to the whole thing going together. The olives go into a jar – I chose a bit fancier one, just for fun.
The spices get warmed a bit, then some of the olive oil and the remaining flavor elements get added and warmed to begin the flavor infusion process. All of this is then added to the jar with the olives, and then topped off with more olive oil. The one thing about this recipe is that there was no where near the amount of oil noted in the recipe than what I needed to cover the olives. I have no idea how that was supposed to work, but luckily, I wasn’t trying to do this with the last bit of oil in the house – so it didn’t matter.
One note: my oil nearly solidified in the refrigerator – not a problem, but that’s why there are no pictures of the beautiful jar of olives… Once it was time to serve – we were finalizing Thanksgiving dinner with little time to take pictures.
These were a great addition to the table, and were a big hit. I’m looking forward to using the oil as well – perhaps for some of that fougasse!
dulceshome 
This is a great recipe and I plan to make a double batch to have on hand for the Christmas
entertaining. The aroma while cooking was fantastic. The oil is excellent for dipping bread
or using on salads. Yours look perfect.
I agree, Nana. I also think it would make a nice gift too!
A great recipe especially with fresh herbs. I too thought of the fougasse and would´ve loved to have some now! It looks wonderful!
Now I think I will have to make fougasse for my wreath-making party next week… I always serve soup, bread and wine. Now just to figure out what to go with!
I had to add extra oil, as well. It was very smart of you to get these going a few weeks before your big dinner. They just keep getting better and better in flavour the longer they sit, don’t they?
Me too. I think I used at least double the oil called for. These are perfect to have on hand for snacking, and particularly lovely to start off the Thanksgiving (or any) meal. I like your colorful assortment in the fancy jar.
These were beautiful, weren’t they?
Thank you for the tip on the beef cheeks – I will have to try looking there next time. I ended up using a chuck roast and it was very good 🙂
What a delicious looking presentation of your Herbed Olives – nice that you mixed different varities in your lovely serving dishes and I think I will use strips of orange zest next time as well, just to add a bit of of a different taste!
This was a quick and easy dish and totally delicious! I also mixed my olives…looks much more interesting that way. I also used more oil than called for. Your photos are lovely!!
I skipped this one specifically because of the time crunch of Thanksgiving. I’m hoping to come around to it again though!
I’ve been nibbling on my olives all week and plan to make another batch before the Christmas holidays- this was a wonderful recipe!!
I had fresh herbs also and that really pumped up their flavor, I think. I used Orange Blush, an orange-flavored olive oil but, like you, I needed alot to cover the olives. I didn’t like the “solid” look so took no pictures of the jar either. You were smart to make the olives so far ahead of the big turkey day. Yes, they were delicious.
Beautiful olives! I also had to use way more oil – and I did have to use up all the olive oil in the house! lol Oh, well, it was worth it.Lovely job, these look great!