I was walking through whole foods the other day, passing some unwanted time and ended up in the olive section. One of the olives they had for sample, I knew they were for sample because all the employees were helping themselves as they walked by the bowl, was a green olive marinated with olive oil, preserved lemon and garlic. I tried one. Man were they tasty. I now realized why those working at Whole Foods needed to make important trips to oversee the olive section. I glanced to my right and saw some membrillo for sale and I immediately thought back to our tomolive-membrillo sauce. I thought about making it with these lemon-garlic marinated green olives. Then I remembered I had some preserved yuzu at home. That would work better with the green olives. I ended up buying some membrillo as well, though its use was yet to be determined.
So, I left the inspiration for others to try and just bought some green olives in their brine. I returned home and placed the olives, the yuzu, the brine, some sugar and water into the pressure cooker and let it go. Actually I only cooked everything for five minutes. When the pressure cooker relaxed, I opened the lid and smiled. While the escaping steam perfumed the house with the yuzu-olive aroma, upon opening the lid I was greeted with a harmonious whole. I placed the whole mixture into the blender and pureed until I had a silky homogeneous puree. The resulting puree combines the citrus and pine notes of the yuzu with the green grassy qualities of the olive. While the color of the puree is nothing to write home about, the taste surely is.
With the base puree in hand, my mind began to wander. Its first stop was cavatelli dough. Aki adapted her recipe to integrate the olive puree. The result is a pasta which captures and presents the essence of green olive balanced with yuzu in a tender and toothsome pasta.
Now that we have the pasta made, we are working on ideas in which to serve it. That is our next hurdle.
