The weekend is over and we had a super fun one with our guests.  We hosted two private Cooking Parties at The Lark Inn on Friday and Saturday night.  Friday, we named “Appetizers to Die For”.  The entire class was just easy to make appetizers.  Saturday was an Italian Celebration . . . a complete meal from appetizers to decadent dessert.  In my next several postings, I will share several of these recipes with you.

I always like to have an appetizer ready for my guests when they arrive and my roasted olives are a great one for many reasons: first, they are easy and don’t take very long, second, with the herbs and spices in them when you roast them you can’t help but make everything smell wonderful.  Also, their presentation is really great with all the different colors . . . . it plates very nicely and the most important . . . people LOVE them!

So let’s go!

ROASTED OLIVES

PREP: 10 MINUTES

ROASTING TIME:  15-20 MINUTES

RESTING TIME: 10 MINUTES

OVEN TEMP: 425 DEGREES

SERVES: 15 PEOPLE

INGREDIENTS :

1   pint (2 cups) grape or cherry tomatoes

1        cup Ripe Pitted Olives

1   cup Greek Kalamata Pitted Olives

1   cup Garlic Stuffed Spanish Olives

1   tablespoon herbs de Provence blend or a mix of dried rosemary and thyme

8  whole garlic cloves, peeled

¼  cup olive oil

¼  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 425 degrees
2. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients; mix well.
3. Transfer mixture to a 15 X 10 inch jelly roll pan.
4. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until the tomatoes have shriveled and browned lightly.
5. Cool on the Pan
6. Transfer to a shallow bowl.
7. Serve at room temperature with a toasted baguette slices or crackers

Lark Inn Tip:

If you can find them, fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme or basil look great as a garnish.  If you have trouble finding the specified olives, feel free to use any combination that appeals to you.

Roasting olives is a fun and simple technique that gives them a slightly chewy outside and a dense flesh transforming them into a truly unique bite.  The addition of tomatoes, whole garlic and herbs de Provence adds color, texture and added flavor to a mixture of glossy black ripe olives, brightly flavored Kalamatas and briny green olives stuffed with garlic.  We like to serve this starter with toasted baguette slices, crackers, pita bread or just by themselves with skewers to make it easy to pick them up and pop them into your mouth.  Note:  herbs de Provence is a dried herbal blend of rosemary, basil, sag, thyme, summer savory and lavender.  It can be found at larger grocery stores or online.  If you have trouble finding it, just make your own mix of a few of the designated dried herbs that you have on your panty shelf.  It will be delicious!

I hope you and your guests will enjoy these roasted olives as much as we have!

Thank you for reading!

Kris Larkin

To learn more about my scheduled cooking classes or to create a custom cooking class of your own visit our website.