Ascoli olives are a typical dish from the Marche region, originally from the city of Ascoli Piceno. They are composed of pickled green olives, stuffed inside with a tender meat-based compound. This dish dates back to the year 1800. The cooks who served the families of the local nobility, invented the stuffing of the olives to consume the considerable quantities and varieties of meats they had available, due to the increase in the gifts that weighed on the farmers towards the their masters.
The green olives used for the preparation of the Ascoli olives belong to the “Ascolana Tenera” variety of the genus Olea europaea sativa, also known in Roman times, also called Liva da Concia, Liva Ascolana or Liva di San Francesco. The olives, after being harvested from the plant before they have reached full ripeness, are immersed in a bath of potassium solution which extracts the bitter taste. After the necessary time, they are subjected to some washes with water only and then put in brine, a preservation solution to which also small quantities of wild fennel are added.
The Latins called them colymbades, deriving their name from the Greek verb, κολυμβάω (colymbáo, “to swim”), precisely in reference to the method of conservation. The Censor, Varro, Martial and Petronius Arbiter wrote about their quality in the Satyricon, which tells how they were always present on the Trimalcione table. Sixtus V mentions them in a thank you letter addressed to the Elders of Ascoli.
Great admirers of the specialty were also Gioachino Rossini and Giacomo Puccini. Giuseppe Garibaldi was able to taste them, both in brine and stuffed, on January 25, 1849, during his short stay in Ascoli. The general was impressed and tried to cultivate the seedlings he had from his faithful friend Candido Augusto Vecchi in Caprera, but he did not succeed in his intent.
The production of pickled Ascoli olives remained a family or artisan preparation until the second half of the nineteenth century. Around 1875, Mariano Mazzocchi, an engineer from Ascoli, started an industrial activity for the production and marketing of the product.
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