I’ve only ever been to Italy once; back when I was younger and thinner. I spent a whirlwind of a weekend on the island of Sardinia at an all expenses paid car launch (I didn’t even have a driving license back then!). There was a red carpet laid out upon our arrival on a private jet from London, strawberries stacked in a tower of ice, freely flowing champagne, a belly dancer, beautiful Sardinian waiters and so much delicious food! The sky rained droplets of mud made from sand blown up from the Sahara.
There I fell in love with the humble olive.
Until then olives were something I actively avoided. I don’t know why – had I even tried them to make an informed decision? When I was living in Halifax, Nova Scotia I used to buy Greek pasta salad for lunch from this lovely delicatessen down the road from where I worked. I’d ask them to pick the olives out for me. How I was missing out!
While in Sardinia I was treated to the most amazing food: cheeses, pasta, olives, wine; exotic flavours I’d never had before growing up in rural Canada.
I’m sure I’ve eaten several kilograms of olives since. Imagine my delight when I was contacted by Dorset based Olives Et Al asking me if I’d like to try some of their products! Yes please!
I was sent three types of olives: pitted Kalamata in olive oil, as my younger children love olives but they don’t like the stones, Moorish cumin & coriander Kalamata olives in olive oil as I love those spices (I have a recipe idea for those olives, so I’ll leave them out of this post for now) and a world first from Olives Et al: olive fruit preserved in alcohol. My parcel contained Neat & Dirty Nocellara olives steeped in lemon infused vodka. I’m still brainstorming what to do with these olives short of popping them in the freezer and eating them straight from the jar! I’ve got quite an alcohol induced cheek glow just now from sampling two of these olives after photographing them this afternoon! I’ll just pop the rest in the freezer for now…
At £4 a jar these olives are competitively priced (£10 for the boozy ones) and I like that the herb infused oil can be used for salad dressings, etc.
The pitted Kalamata olives were prepared into this simple summer salad. We’ve had a few days of Shetland summer sun lately so we’ve been eating al fresco. Lots of fresh vibrant vegetables, salads and grilled meats. It’s been lovely!
This salad was served with tagliatelle al tartufo (pasta with truffles) by the Italian company Terra Nostra and some grilled steak. I was sent two types of pasta by this company, the truffle pasta and a sun-dried tomato one (which will be reviewed in a separate post with a recipe). Of the two I preferred this truffle pasta with it’s lovely earthy flavour. The pasta comes in a kit which includes 10 ml of truffle infused oil to serve. This I would buy as the occasional treat if it was available locally. Delicious but the €6-90 (£5-60) price tag is somewhat prohibitive.
Tuscan White Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 250 grams cannellini beans cooked and cooled (canned is fine!)
- 70 grams black olives chopped
- 100 grams fresh ripe tomatoes chopped
- 3 tbsp Tuscan olive oil
- handful fresh parsley finely chopped
- squeeze fresh lemon juice
- Shetland sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
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Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Allow to sit for half an hour for the flavours to develop. Serve at room temperature.
Notes
I’m linking this recipe up with a couple of blogging challenges: No Croutons Required by Jacqueline over at Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa at Lisa’s Kitchen; Tried & Tested by We’re Going on an Adventure and Family Fever; Tasty Tuesdays by Honest Mum, Cook, Blog, Share by Lucy over at Supergoldenbakes and My Legume Love Affair by Lisa’s Kitchen and The Well-Seasoned Cook.
Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary was sent a selection of olives by Olives Et Al and Italian pasta by Terra Nostra for review. All opinions expressed are our own. This is not a paid post.
Mayan Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream
This will be great in the summer alongside some crispy bread and chilled white wine.
Looks delicious. I’m looking to start eating more beans and pulses, this looks ideal.
Sounds lovely!
You can just tell that your salad dazzles the tastebuds!
Thanks for showcasing those olives. I love them out of the jar, too. I’m especially intrigued with the cumin and coriander ones.
Thanks for your MLLA recipe.
(And that a lovely photograph of you, Elizabeth.)
Nice salad Elizabeth and I bet it tastes rather special with that dressing too. Thanks for submitting it, the No Croutons Required roundup is now up x
I’m a huge fan of Olives et al ♥ I’m totally addicted to their Dukkah Spice Mix at the moment… I’ve been sprinkling it on pretty much everything lol! Their olives are incredible too, aren’t they? I agree that they’re a good price for such a quality item. Your Tuscan bean salad looks wonderful! Super fresh, packed with goodness, and perfect for this season 🙂 xx
Looks yummy! x
This sounds amazing – I too used to avoid olives, then I moved to the French Riviera and became addicted to them. Yum!
#TastyTuesdays
I haven’t had a nice bean salad in ages, that one looks particularly good, must have this for lunch soon.
I so love olives and they are perfect with beans and pulses. Your salad looks beautifully vibrant and perfect for summer. Definitely my sort of salad!
This is one of my favourite salads to make as it is so quick and easy 🙂
I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to try it! 🙂
Utterly delicious and fab pictures too, I eat this often and love to open some tuna with it drizzled in olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Ooh the tuna sounds like a great idea! I’ll have to try that soon.
I don’t like eating whole olives, but tried them in a recipe at a friend’s house last week and was pleasantly surprised #TriedTested
So glad you liked them when you tried them. I was apprehensive when I first tried a whole olive, but I’m so glad I did!
Oh i really wished I liked Olives. This has made me want to try them again to see if my tastebuds have developed! thanks for sharing #TriedTested
Oh you must try them again and see 🙂 Our tastes are supposed to develop as we age, so perhaps you might fall in love with them too! 🙂
Do you know, I am not sure I have ever tried an olive – I always think it is one of those things I won’t like. I need to rectify this! Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested
Oh you must try them! You’re missing out, I promise! 🙂
Your salad is making me hungry and it is 5pm. Mind you all I have eaten today is brownies. Yup my diet is a marvel. I love bean salads. In fact I am going to rummage the cupboards and see if I can’t make this now! Thanks for linking to #CookBlogShare
I like the sound of a brownie diet 🙂 You could be on to something there! haha! Glad you like the sound of the recipe. I tried to keep it simple as I read online that Tuscan food usually is in order to allow the flavours of the food itself to shine through – not like our food coated in sauces and spices to make it palatable!