Ascolana Tenera Olives
The big, tender green olive of Ascoli Piceno: the olive the Marche stuffs, breads and fries.
The Ascolana Tenera — “the tender olive of Ascoli” — is a large, mild, fleshy green olive from Ascoli Piceno in the Marche, on Italy’s Adriatic side. It is the star of one of Italy’s great street foods: olive all’ascolana, the olives pitted, stuffed with a seasoned meat filling, breaded and deep-fried. The genuine article carries a protected designation.
- Origin
- Ascoli Piceno, Marche · Italy
- Type
- Table olive
- Colour
- Green
- Size
- Large
- Texture
- Tender, fleshy
- Famous for
- Olive all’ascolana (fried, stuffed)
- Best for
- Stuffing and frying
Built to be stuffed
Most table olives are too small or too firm to stuff comfortably. The Ascolana Tenera is neither: it is big, soft and meaty, with a mild, sweet flesh that comes cleanly off the stone — perfect for spiralling out the pit and packing in a filling of pork, beef, chicken, parmesan and nutmeg. Breaded and fried, they are crisp outside and molten within, a fixture of Marche feast days.
Most “ascolana-style” fried olives sold frozen or in bars are not made with the real Ascolana Tenera DOP — they use cheaper large green olives. There is nothing wrong with that as a snack, but the genuine protected olive, freshly stuffed, is a different and far better thing. As ever, the honest seller names the real variety.