Turned or Stoned Olives

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •7 to 9 cm sharp paring knife
• •Handheld cherry and olive pitter, optional
• •Small nonreactive bowl with lid
• •Stable cutting board

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the saline

   Whisk the fine sea salt into the cold water until no grains remain. The water should taste faintly saline, not aggressively salty; this gentle 1 percent mixture keeps the cut olives plump without seasoning them like a pickle. If it tastes too strong, dilute it with another spoonful of cold water.

2. 2

   Prepare the work

   Set the saline beside the cutting board so each olive can go into it immediately. Lift out only a few olives at a time and blot their surfaces dry enough to grip. Choose the pitter for quick, whole-looking dénoyautées, or the paring knife for true olives tournées with the flesh freed in a spiral.

   Use a sharp, narrow paring knife. A dull blade demands pressure, and pressure is what makes a small slippery olive escape your fingers.
3. 3

   Turn around the stone

   For olives tournées, hold one olive lengthwise with your wrist braced over the board and your fingertips behind the blade's path. Cut into the stem end until the edge touches the stone, then roll the olive slowly away from the blade while maintaining that light contact. Let the fruit do most of the moving, following the stone in a continuous spiral until the flesh comes free. Never pull the knife toward your palm. If the strip snaps, don't discard it. Ça se rattrape: begin again at the break and remove the remaining flesh in one or two shorter sections. The olive is still properly stoned, only less theatrical.

4. 4

   Use the pitter

   For olives dénoyautées, seat an olive lengthwise in the pitter, aligning the stem end with the plunger, and press with slow, even pressure until the stone passes cleanly through. If the olive tears, realign the next one more carefully and press more gently. Very soft fruit will collapse in a pitter; switch to the knife and remove its flesh in shorter sections rather than forcing it.

5. 5

   Hold and drain

   Drop each prepared olive directly into the lightly salted water and keep every piece submerged. Cover and refrigerate if the olives will wait longer than the immediate preparation time. Drain them thoroughly and blot away excess water before adding them to a sauce, arranging them as a garnish, or serving them at the table. The saline is a short hold, not shelf-stable preservation, so use the olives within two days.

Chef Tips

• •Choose firm brine-cured olives with their stones intact. Green olives are usually easiest to turn because their flesh holds together; wrinkled oil-cured olives are too soft and dry for a clean spiral.
• •The knife should follow the stone so closely that very little flesh remains behind. Don't chase absolute perfection at the cost of your fingers. A broken spiral tastes exactly like an unbroken one.
• •If presentation doesn't require the olive to appear whole, the paring-knife method is often calmer than a poorly fitted pitter. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.
• •Lightly salted water protects the exposed flesh for short service, but a long soak begins to wash away the olive's character. Same-day use gives the best flavor and texture.

Advance Preparation

• •The olives can be turned or stoned earlier the same day, covered with the lightly salted water, and refrigerated until needed.
• •For overnight preparation, keep every olive submerged in a covered container. Drain and blot them before use, and finish the batch within two days because this light saline does not preserve them indefinitely.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 20g)