Marinated Olives

I’ve seen marinated olives at the grocery store’s deli counter, I even saw an olive bar once with so many different kinds of olive combinations I was overwhelmed. This past Thanksgiving we hosted dinner and I thought I would try to make marinated olives to serve to our guests. They almost did not make it out to the table because I ate so many of them while I was cooking! 

Here are the ingredients I used:

• Olives (I used black and green)
• Olive oil 
• fresh rosemary 
• garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• lemon zest 
• crushed red pepper flakes
• salt 

There are no measurements for this recipe because it would really depend on how many olives you use. I used about a 1/2 can of black olives and about 1/3 of a jar of green olives, placed them in a shallow bowl and poured some olive oil over. I didn’t cover them completely, maybe about 1/2 the way. Then I rough chopped the rosemary, thinly sliced 3 garlic cloves (I looooove garlic, so this might be too much for some), and sprinkled the lemon zest and salt. I only added a tiny tiny tiny pinch of red pepper flakes, make 4-5 pieces. I covered the olive and let them sit overnight on the counter – this is important! I tried a few olives about an hour after mixing them and then again the next morning. It was a completely different dish the next morning, so much flavor! You can serve these olives with your appetizers, or on a charcuterie platter with meats, cheeses, and fruit. Enjoy!