Breaded Stuffed Olives or Olive all’Ascolana are crunchy, briny and flavorful bites from the Marche region of Italy.  This version has been sped up a bit to get these flavorful olive bites into your mouth that much faster! Triple the batch, form an assembly line and make a ton of these as they go fast!

Stuffing
¼ lb Italian sausage meat, about 2 links
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp Milanese Gremolata-infused olive oil
24 Gavius Gordal pitted olives*
Coating and Frying
2 eggs
2 Tbsp Milanese Gremolata
½ cup flour
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp pepper
1 cup panko-style breadcrumbs
Stable fresh EVOO for shallow frying.
Remove the sausage from its casings if it’s in links. Place a small frying pan over medium-high heat and add the sausage. Break it up as it cooks to make a fine mince. Remove from heat when no pink remains. Set aside to cool.
Add the parmesan cheese and Milanese Gremolata olive oil to the sausage and mix to combine and break up any larger chunks.  Remove the olives from the jar and pat them dry with a paper towel. Place in a large bowl.  Prepare three dishes for the dredging and coating process. In one dish, place beaten eggs and the Milanese Gremolata Infused Olive Oil. In a second add flour, paprika, salt and pepper, mixing to combine. In the third add the Panko breadcrumbs.  Stuff the olives with about 1 teaspoon of the sausage mixture. If little fits inside, form it around the outside of the olive. Repeat the stuffing process with all the olives.  Dredge the stuffed olives in the flour mixture, then in the egg mixture, then panko. Set all breaded olives aside.
In a small saucepan or frying pan, heat the olive oil (enough to ¾ submerge breaded olives) over medium heat. Fry each olive in oil for 3-4 minutes, until lightly golden, then drain on paper towels.  Serve warm with a light marinara or aioli for dipping if desired or just as they are.
*For a non-traditional version. Use garlic stuffed or lemon stuffed olive. Dip the olive in flour and then wrap the olive in the sausage mixture, then dredge and fry as directed above. Simply delicious!