Fried Sausage Stuffed Olives – Delicious And Crispy

good and crispy sausage stuffed olives, deep fried and served with a squeeze of lemon juice and simple sour cream dip. These stuffed olives make a great appetizer or snack that are suited to weekend nibbles with drinks or to serve up at your next party.

These little beauties are pretty addictive…

Deep fried stuffed olives are SO popular in Italy. They are served as an aperitif or aperitivo with drinks in many restaurants and bars and let us tell you they are so good and highly addictive!

They are so popular here that you can buy them frozen in most supermarket so all you need to do is deep fry them as you need them. Although that's convenient and all that, we're not a fan of frozen anything (with the exception of some veggies).

We also doubt they are easy to find outside of Italy so buying them pre-made could be difficult. Not to worry, we have the easiest stuffed olives recipe for you here and you can love it PLUS they taste 100% better homemade.

Tip: Make a big batch and freeze them for a quick and easy last-minute snack.

What Stuffing To Use?

You can stuff your olives with many different ingredients. We went for Italian sausages which have spices and herbs such as fennel seeds and oregano and garlic. They have so much flavour and are great for this recipe. See more ideas below.

• Any good quality sausage
• Mozzarella or any good melting cheese (for firm cheese don't cut the olives in half, instead cut small cubes of cheese and insert into the pitted olives)
• Ricotta or cream cheese
• Sun-dried tomato pesto
• Basil pesto

How To Make Sausage Stuffed Olives – Step By Step

Place the breadcrumbs, flour and beaten egg in separate plates/bowls and set aside. Add the sausage to a bowl with lemon zest and oregano and mix together (photo 1).

Drain the pitted olives, rinse and pat dry with kitchen paper. Cut one olive in half and stuff with a small amount of sausage then close the olive back up by pressing the sides together. Repeat with all the olives (photo 2).

Roll and toss the olives in the flour until coated well. Dip them in egg and then roll in breadcrumbs until completely coated (do this in batches) (photos 3-8).

Tip: Cup the olives in your hands after dusting in flour and lightly shake to remove excess flour before dipping in the egg.

Tip: Roll the crumbed olives gently in the palm of your hands to create a rounder, more uniformed shape.

Deep fry the olives in sunflower oil until crispy and golden brown, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper (photo 9).

To make the garlic sour cream dip, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Serve the olives with the dip and wedges of lemon.

Fried stuffed olives are not usually (or ever) served with a dip or lemon wedges in Italy but we think it goes well especially at parties. Everyone loves a dip, right?

Other Easy Appetizer Recipes To Try

• Easy marinated olives
• Stacchino and sausage crostini
• Bruschetta al pomodoro – tomato bruschetta
• Cecina Toscana – Tuscan chickpea flatbread
• Ricotta stuffed zucchini flowers

Ingredients

Makes 8 people

For the stuffed olives

• 1 1/2 cups (340g) pitted olives
• zest of half a lemon
• 3.5 oz (100g) Italian sausage
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 cup (70g) plain flour
• 1 cup (100g) fine breadcrumbs
• 1 egg (, beaten)
• salt and pepper
• 3.5 cups (1 ltr) sunflower oil (, for frying)
• lemon wedges (optional) (, for serving)

For the dip

• 1 small bunch parsley (, finely chopped plus extra for garnish)
• soured cream
• 1 pinch salt and pepper

Method

1. Add the sausage to a bowl with the lemon zest and oregano, mash with a fork to mix together.

2. Rinse the olives in cold water then dry with a paper towel. Cut the olives in half and stuff with a small amount of sausage meat (around 1/2 tsp) then close the olives back up by pressing the sides together, repeat with all the olives.

3. Place the flour and breadcrumbs in separate plates and a beaten egg in a bowl, season each of them with a tiny pinch of salt and pepper. In batches, toss the stuffed olives in the flour then dip in the beaten egg and then roll them in breadcrumbs, repeat until all the olives are crumbed.

4. Add the sunflower oil in a large pot, test with a small piece of bread to see if the oil is hot enough. When the bread sizzles on the surface and turns golden it's ready. Fry the olives in batches until golden and crispy, remove with a slotted spoon, drain on kitchen paper. Scatter over some chopped parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

5. To make the sour cream dip simply combine all ingredients in a bowl and serve.

Kitchen notes

Tips

1. Make in large batches and freeze for a quick and easy snack
2. Cup the olives in your hands after dusting in flour and lightly shake to remove excess flour before dipping in the egg.
3. Roll the crumbed olives gently in the palm of your hands to create a rounder, more uniformed shape.

What Stuffing To Use? You can stuff your olives with many different ingredients. We went for Italian sausages which have spices and herbs such as fennel seeds and oregano and garlic. They have so much flavour and are great for this recipe. See more ideas below.

• Any good quality sausage (we would avoid spicy/hot sausages as they could be too overpowering)
• Mozzarella or any good melting cheese (for firm cheese don't cut the olives in half, instead cut small cubes of cheese and insert into the pitted olives)
• Spinach and ricotta
• Sun-dried tomato pesto