Sandwiches are the ideal casual handheld meal. They require no plate and fill you up, making them perfect for a picnic at the beach or park. Well, except for all of the components that get weird in the hot sun, like meat, poultry, fish, and dairy. Instead of skulking away to the beach with a sad sack of pretzels, make a sandwich packed with the queen of salty, acidic, and meaty flavors–Her Royal Majesty, the Olive.
Olives are dear to me. I chop them up to impart their perky flavor into various dishes, or snack on them whole with boiled eggs. Their briny vigor can bring balance to heavy gravies, or brighten up fatty cheeses. There are a wide variety of olive plants that produce fruit ranging from meaty and sturdy, to delicate and earthy. These fruits are treated with a brine bath, or dry-cured with an oil-based preservation process, producing vastly different results in flavor and texture. All this is to say there’s an olive out there for everyone, and they don’t get weird in the sun.
It might not seem like enough to fill out a whole sandwich, but olives are powerful, and their shape and texture give them a bulkiness that feels meaty and satisfying. To make your own olive sandwich, toast a couple slices of chewy bread. I used ciabatta, but a baguette or sourdough both sound great. Once you’re satisfied with the level of toastiness, grab a handful of your favorite olives and load it up.
I did a little combination, because I always need to make simple things less simple. I used mostly Castelvetrano olives because I love how buttery they taste, while still being tangy and salty. I pressed the whole olives into the bread and crushed them, releasing brine into the bread and cracking open the olives so they could sit more securely (and so I can fit another handful on top). Food 52 recommends oil-cured black olives which, alone, are completely overwhelming to my palate, so I broke up two of them into small pieces and scattered them on my sandwich bread, along with the green Castelvetranos. This gave me a few bites of their concentrated woodsy, caramel notes, but not so much that it dragged down the whole sandwich.
From here, you’re pretty much done. The olives are already flavorful and oily, so you don’t particularly need any extra olive oil or dressing. If you want a punch of acidity, drop on some pepperoncini pieces or pickled banana peppers. Top the sandwich with the other slice of bread, pack it up, and jump in the car. Actually, make two in case you get stuck on the road. You’ll need a traffic snack.
