gaeta olives

[shelora]

I had gaeta olives last night for the very first time. They provided a lovely salt component to a dish of seared tuna, alongside shaved fennel salad with truffle cream and roasted beet carpaccio.

Where are these lovely little morsels from? What are your culinary experiences with them?

[Kevin72]

They're from a region I believe that's even called Gaeta, in between Rome and Naples. I hear wonderful things about them but when I've bought them in the U.S. they've not been very good; very soft. I cooked with them recently and they dissolved into the dish and turned it a repulsive purplish-black color.

Not to cast aspersions on the real deal; every time I've had olives in Italy they're a far cry from the usual suspects I get here. I guess it's just a long winded way of saying to test them before you buy them.

[divina]

They are a style of olive.. from Gaeta, a town between NAples and Rome.

I love them.. but have not liked the ones I had in the states.

I wonder if people are making FAKE Gaeta olives!

or selling old ones?

[shelora]

The ones I had yesterday were fairly firm, served slightly warm and quite salty. The size and shape was like a small plum.

I guess the best thing would be to buy some and post a photo for your opinions.

Give me a couple of days.

s

[albiston]

The ones I had yesterday were fairly firm, served slightly warm and quite salty. The size and shape was like a small plum.

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Reading your post and Kevin's I have the suspicion there's a lot of stuff on sale under the name Gaeta olives which is not the real McCoy. The size you mention in particular is pretty suspicious to me.

I've been eating these olives almost all my life, and it's one of the ingredients I miss the most now that I moved from Naples to Germany. For reference, here is a (bad) picture of Gaeta olives, right, plus a few other ingredients often used to flavor Neapolitan vegetable dishes:

As you can see, the olives have a very characteristic purplish color, and are quite small, about the size of a medium grape berry or an elongated cherry. The flavor is very particular, slightly bitter without being too salty and with a very intense aroma. To me there's no olive like it .

They are indeed slightly soft, but they definitely keep intact during cooking. Kevin, I suspect you got stuff way past its sell-by date.

[Kevin72]

And, mine were even smaller than you described: about the size of your thumbnail. But they did look like that.

[Hector]

Better image...

The Gaeta olives are great! The other culinary features of the area around Gaeta (in between Naples and Rome)is great too, with the other produces being fresh mozzarella from the Buffalo farms, smoked caciocavallo, ripe San Marzanos, dried mushrooms from the mountains, and loads of fish of course.

Edited February 17, 2006 by Hector (log)

[Pizza Napoletana]

My family onw a land planted with olive trees near Gaeta above the town of Formia. We have been producing our own Brine olives and olive oil for the last 20 years...

Gaeta olive cannot be missing in my fridge, and always come back from Italy with a bout 1kg of those.

[shelora]

Hello again,

It's never as easy as you think. I went to my local purveyor of gaeta olives. The only place - apparently - that carry them. They've never heard of them. What they did sell that looked very similar and which I purchased were olives called Super Colossal Black or Royal Black.

Looking at both of the photos upthread, my purchase looks more like the first image - the same eggplant colour but not quite as round. They are almost an inch and quarter in length. Very meaty.

So panel, what do you think I have? Gaetas? Or a reasonable facsimile?

[shelora]

Will the real gaeta olive please stand up.

More research and speaking to the chef who cooked the meal that started this all off, the olives he and I purchased are not gaeta but Alphonso olives from Chile.

In the link below you can see the suggested substitutions are gaeta.

I had no idea that olive identification could be so confusing.

ALPHONSO

The chef in question has tracked down another local supplier who claims to have a source for the real gaeta olives. Time will tell.

[SushiCat]

Shelora, I have definately purchased Gaeta olives here in Vancouver. I'll look around next time I shop, I think it was from the Mediterrean market on Commercial. Le Amis probably has them too - they have a lot of olives, but no display space for them so I always forget to get them there!

Olives here in N. America are just not the same! It is sad, but I eat few olives here because they are just not as good as the ones you can purchase anywhere in Europe or other lands ... in fact I never liked olives until I travelled to the middle east!

Alphonso is a far cry from Gaeta - so the dish would be completely different ... in my opinion.

[shelora]

Shelora, I have definately purchased Gaeta olives here in Vancouver.  I'll look around next time I shop, I think it was from the Mediterrean market on Commercial.  Le Amis probably has them too - they have a lot of olives, but no display space for them so I always forget to get them there!

Olives here in N. America are just not the same!  It is sad, but I eat few olives here because they are just not as good as the ones you can purchase anywhere in Europe or other lands ... in fact I never liked olives until I travelled to the middle east!

Alphonso is a far cry from Gaeta - so the dish would be completely different ... in my opinion.

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Thanks sushicat. Could I get your confirmation on what they looked like? Like any of the three photos posted or totally different?

I'll contact Allison at Les Amis.

Thanks again,

Shelora