Citrus Marinated Olives

These olives are among the best things I keep in my fridge—I love them for snacking, to nibble on with cocktails, or as the basis for a real, not-cocktail-snack meal (see the note below for a few ideas).

Makes 1 cup of delicious cocktail snacks

1 lemon

1 orange

1 cup olives (I like Castelvetrano and Cerignola olives, but pick your favorites)

1/2 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp chili flakes

Remove the zest from the lemon and orange in large strips using a peeler. Combine the oil, garlic, lemon and orange zest and chile flakes in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until fragrant.

While the oil is heating up, use the flat of your knife, palm of your hand, or bottom of a small skillet to gently (very gently!) smash the olives, until they are just cracked open, not completely smashed. Transfer olives to a bowl or jar.

Pour the warm oil mixture over the olives, making sure the scrape all the garlic and chile flakes out of the pan. Juice the lemon and orange and pour the juice over the olives to cover them completely. Let the olives cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until needed, up to two weeks.

 Note: Make sure you save the leftover marinade when you are finished the olives; it’s basically a vinaigrette you can use for salad dressing. Even better, pour it over grilled fish, meat or even a chunk of feta for round two of great snacking.