Gordal olives
Spain’s “fat one” — the big, meaty green olive of Seville, born to be stuffed.
Gordal means “the fat one” in Spanish, and the name is the whole review. Grown around Seville in Andalusia, the Gordal (or Gordal Sevillana) is one of the largest table olives in the world, with firm, meaty flesh and a clean, briny snap. If you have ever eaten a giant green olive stuffed with pepper, anchovy, or almond from a Spanish jar, it was almost certainly a Gordal.
- Origin
- Seville, Andalusia · Spain
- Also called
- Gordal Sevillana, Queen
- Type
- Table olive
- Size
- Very large
- Colour
- Green
- Flavour
- Mild, meaty, briny
- Best for
- Stuffing, tapas, martinis
The olive built for stuffing
The Gordal’s size and firm flesh make it the natural home for a filling: pimiento, anchovy, blue cheese, garlic, almond. It is a poor oil olive — it is all about the table — and a staple of the Spanish aperitivo, where a small dish of fat green Gordals arrives beside a cold beer or a fino sherry. Mild and salty rather than complex, it is an easy, generous olive.
“Queen” olives in American jars are usually Gordals — the name is marketing for the size. And a great many pitted, stuffed green olives are Gordals that were firmed up in brine and lye; perfectly fine, but if they squeak like rubber and taste mostly of salt, you are paying for size, not flavour. A good Gordal still tastes of olive.