Niçoise
Olea europaea 'Cailletier' · Fruit
Top 10 pairings
The Niçoise is the small, dark Provençal table olive of the Cailletier cultivar, grown in the hills behind Nice and across the Alpes-Maritimes and Italian Riviera. Tree-ripened to a mottled brown-black, brine-cured with the stalk often left on, it is tiny and meaty around a slender pit, with rich, nutty, faintly herbal flesh and a mellow, winey, slightly bitter savour — the defining olive of salade niçoise, pissaladière and tapenade.
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