Gaeta
Olea europaea 'Itrana' · Fruit
Top 10 pairings
The Gaeta is a small, dark Italian table olive of the Itrana cultivar, named for the seaside town of Gaeta in southern Lazio. Harvested ripe to a deep wine-purple or purple-brown and cured either by dry salt (which leaves it wrinkled) or in brine (which keeps it plump), it has tender, oil-rich flesh and a soft, winey, faintly bitter savour — a mainstay of Roman and southern-Italian cooking, from pasta puttanesca to baked fish.
Picking a good onedrag
Firm and glossy under a bright brineSlack and dull, the brine turned
SettledEveryday bestIt has dulled but stays dense. Use it in tapenade, pizza, roast chicken or braises.
The olivesA shade duller, skin still whole
Brine, jar or open tinSediment below, fruit still under
Squeeze one, once openGives a little, flesh still dense
Smell the open packSalty and sharp, a little vinegary
These cues are Olive's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
100%
Edible part
2.7 g drained · USDA records no refuse
2.7 g
Weight each
each one