Warm Marinated Olives

These warm marinated olives are cooked with lemon zest, garlic, herbs, chili flakes and sun-dried tomatoes, and are the perfect fancy-feeling snack that’s so easy to make at home.

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Whenever my fiancé Gabe and go out to dinner, there’s one dish that we almost always order if we see it on the menu: marinated olives. We’re both olive lovers, and they’re the perfect little snack to munch on with cocktails while we’re waiting for the rest of our meal to come out (they pretty much always come out first). I’ve thought about doing it every time we’ve ordered them, but a recent meal at Hotel Kinsley in Kingston, NY (where the olives were especially delicious) finally convinced me to attempt making them these warm marinated olives at home. And so a few weeks ago I did just that, warming through some Castelvetrano olives (our favorite) with tons of aromatics to make the perfect snack that’s easy, tasty, and feels just a little bit fancy.

MARINATING OLIVES

There are basically two different ways to marinate olives (or infuse flavor in general): using heat, or using time. Of course I used heat to infuse the flavors for these warm marinated olives, by sauteing lemon zest, garlic, herbs and sun-dried tomatoes for about five minutes, and then adding the olives to warm them through. I happen to think that warmed olives feel really fancy (maybe because I’ve had them at restaurants so often), and also I didn’t feel like waiting a week for my olives to marinate (because I was really craving them). But instead of cooking your ingredients together, you could just as easily add them all together and let them marinate in the fridge for about an hour.

Or, you could do both. I made a huge batch of these olives because I knew they would be the perfect snack. So while I went to town on them the day I made them, I stored whatever I didn’t eat in the fridge. And after a few days, the flavors had infused even more and they tasted even better.

A CUSTOMIZABLE SNACK

Once of my favorite things about these warm marinated olives is that you can completely customize them to your tastes, the ingredients you have on hand, and the amount of time you have. You really only need about fifteen minutes to make them start-to-finish, but as I mentioned above, the longer you let them sit, the better they’ll taste. Use whatever olives are your favorite, or even and combination of olives, and marinate them with whatever aromatics you like best. I went for a few classics: rosemary, thyme, whole peels of lemon zest, chili flakes and garlic. I also threw some sun-dried tomatoes in with them, mostly because I happen to have them in the fridge, but they ended up adding a nice bit of sweetness that I think this dish needs for balance.

You could try using orange zest instead of lemon for that hint of sweetness, or use whatever herbs are your favorite (fresh oregano sounds especially good to me). Throw in some capers for some extra brininess, or even some dried cherries for a boost of sweet-sourness. Whatever flavors you decide to use, if you’re looking for a quick snack that’s also impressive and perfect to pair with cocktails or a glass of wine, these warm marinated olives are for you.