Olive paste – TMAD
Carrazeda de Ansiães
Reduce the olives, preferably black and pitted ones, to a puree or a coarse paste, and mix them with lemon juice, thyme, and olive oil laden with ripe fruit flavours, thickening the mix with fresh breadcrumbs. Formerly made almost always from old, soft olives, with a slight taste of leather, it was consumed in breadcrumbs and, rarely, as a seasoning in stews or roasted turkey, lamb, and roasted piglets. This paste was used, essentially, by mowers who were away from home for more or less long periods, and by cattle drovers in their pastures along their journey from the Terras Quentes (Warm Lands) to the Terras Frias (Cold Lands) of Trás-os-Montes, and when the new olives were not yet ready to be consumed. When the cook wanted to transform this paste, or pasta, into a dish of substance, for one of the meals of the day, she would add canned tuna and, sometimes, a little sun-dried tomato.
