One variety, nearly a whole country — and the savoury heart of Moroccan cooking.
Morocco is a major olive nation whose groves are covered, to a remarkable degree, by a single variety: the Picholine Marocaine. Despite the French-sounding name it is a distinct Moroccan olive, and it does nearly every job — the firm green Moroccan table olive, the wrinkled dry-salt-cured black Beldi, and a robust, fruity oil — all from the one tree.
Olives are inseparable from Moroccan food: in tagines with preserved lemon, cracked and dressed with bread and oil, scattered through salads. Moroccan oil, long exported in bulk, is increasingly bottled under its own name and well worth trying. The Moroccan olives we’ve covered so far are below.