Planning an olive menu? Read on. Olives come in two varieties, green and black. Not many people are aware that green olives are simply the unripe kind and the fully ripened ones are black. A fun way to use a lot of olives in dishes is to give the menu a Mediterranean theme. This way people can expect a lot of olives in the various dishes churned out. Here are some of the favorites, not too hard to make and at the same time, bursting with flavor.

Ideas for an Olive Menu

Olive Pasta

Pair healthy sardines with piquant olives and pasta and you get a lip-smacking, quick dinner dish. Use black olives for this dish as it goes better with the sardines and pasta and of course, olive oil. You can make the dish more flavorful by adding capers and veggies as well.

Olive Cavatelli

Yummy green olive cavatelli along with peeled baby tomatoes, tangy leaves of arugula, and Pecorino cheese sprinkled liberally across the dish. Not only is it great to taste, it’s also very pleasing to the eye.

Olive Salad

Tomato, mozzarella and olives make for a great Italian salad. It takes about 15 minutes of prep time. The only thing you need for the dressing is garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and pepper. It’s that simple and out of this world delicious.

Egg, Tuna and Olive Sandwich

An old fashioned recipe that just requires some buttered bread, hard boiled eggs, tuna and olives. Getting a mix of green and black olives will be better for this dish as it adds to the taste of the sandwich. A quick recipe, extremely hassle free.

Olives Appetizers

As an appetizer, serving olives, especially the pimento olives on toothpicks is so great. They are a great snack, will cater to vegetarians and vegans as well and go really well with drinks as well.  Now days gourmet olives come in a wide variety of flavors.

Olive Martinis

A classic martini will always call for the olive. Make sure you have the pitted variety that you can string along on a toothpick.

Pizzas

If you do decide to make them at home, do a topping of various olives. The kalamatas and the sun dried olives are ideal for this dish. Throw in some feta cheese as well and you have a scrumptious pizza in the works.

Once you have picked the perfect olive menu, make sure to serve some olive oil with balsamic vinegar with freshly baked bread to make the meal complete.

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