Last Updated on March 2, 2023 by Sabrina Currie

Warm marinated olives are a truly spectacular appetizer despite their seeming simplicity. If you like olives, you will love these. Gentle heat makes the olives intoxicatingly fragrant with the scent of spices and herbs and citrus peel adds bright, fresh notes to really elevate them.

Warm marinated olives is a fragrant recipe with herbs, spices and citrus

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Canadian Made Mediterranean Food
Make Ahead Appetizer
Trending: Grazing Boards
Warm Marinated Olive Variations
Quick Tips
Related Recipes
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Canadian Made Mediterranean Food

I've partnered up with Canadian Sardo Foods once again to give you some awesome and easy holiday dishes.

I truly love Sardo's olives and antipasti because they process their Mediterranean style products here in Canada. They are awesome, high quality pantry staples that last a long time in cupboard or fridge making it quick and easy to throw dinner together.

For more Italian favorites, check out my Ooni Pizza Dough Recipe, Sorrel Pesto, and Chicken and Sundried Tomato pasta. For some Mediteranean seafood dishes, try Pasta Alla Salmone, Salmon Crudo and Easy Seafood Alfredo- all quick and easy recipes that make a special dinner.

Make Ahead Appetizer

I first tried warm olives in a lovely little Italian deli style restaurant and I was hooked. I was so surprised how something so simple could taste so complex and exciting. Even more exciting is that these are really easy and fast to prep ahead of time and simply warm for a few minutes right before serving.

Citrus anise and chili flavour these Italian style warm marinated olives

Warm olives are a simple but sophisticated hors d'oeuvres. These can stand alone with an apertif or bubbly or you can make them part of something bigger. A little crusty bread, a little feta cheese or charcuterie and you have a snacking platter worthy of hosting anyone. Go even bigger and you have a grazing board.

(Looking for more Mediterranean appetizer ideas? Check out 75 Easy + Delicious Appetizers For Pizza Night.)

Grazing board with warm marinated olives and spicy Sardo shrimp

Grazing boards are so popular now and for obvious reasons. They are simply charcuterie and/or cheese plates on steroids. Add in fruit, crackers, jam, mustard, nuts...but these olives will be the star of the show! Or why not try a middle Eastern inspired olive and hummus grazing board. Check out this round up of creative hummus recipes.

Warm Marinated Olive Variations

I've used my favourite Italian influenced flavours but there are so many ways you can change this up. In addition to whole olives, you can add cocktail onions, capers, caper berries, or Marcona almonds. Try different spices and herbs too, like cumin, herbs de Provence blend, warming Mexican or African spices and of course any fresh herbs go well. Think of lemon and dill or sage with toasted garlic or parsley with mint.

Quick Tips

Use good quality, whole olives for this recipe. I used Sardo's party mix olives because I like the different flavours and textures but their Kalamata, Calabrese or Sicilian olives all work well too.

To keep the olives warm, I suggest pre warming a stoneware bowl or other heavy serving bowl that will hold the heat for awhile.

If you have any questions or comments, you can find me on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. I try to answer any recipe related questions quickly as I know you might be in the middle of making it.

Also check out my FREE PRINTABLE meal planner to make menu planning and grocery shopping a breeze and my shopping guide. And if you like this recipe, I would love it if you give it a star rating in the recipe card.

Cheers and happy cooking, Friends! Sabrina

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