Welcoming Autumn with Messina style stuffed olives

The first rain has come to Sicily and Autumn is in the air. We know far to well that summer might be back for another couple of weeks between the end of September and October, but the overall atmosphere has begun to change. This is harvest time for wineries, wonderful grapes, mushrooms, wild fennel and the first pumpkins come to our table.
I already tasted the first chestnuts from Mount Etna, a full concentrate of taste, and look forward to the Ottobrata days in Zafferana Etnea.

Later, in October we harvest olives, get fantastic fruit like kaki, pommy-granites, prickly pears and our caciocavallo Ragusano is at its best aging stage.
The excitement about the change of season and its produce is for me much stronger than the common melancholic feelings for the end of summer. I cannot wait for "new" ingredients on my kitchen counter!

I thought I would welcome Autumn here with a special recipe from the Messina area: Olive alla Messinese. A great rustic antipasto or a meal on its own.

300 gr green olives
60 gr bread crumbs
1 tbsp grated Sicilian pecorino cheese
1 tbsp Pantelleria Capers
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 salted anchovy, clean and chopped
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1tsp dry chilly flakes

Clean the olives, cut them into two halves like a book, not cutting all the way through, and get rid of the stone.
Then start preparing the filling mixing the "muddica", bread crumbs, with all the other ingredients, and try to balance both taste and consistency starting with 1 tbsp vinegar and adding more if necessary. Stuff the olives with the mixture and serve.

These olives can be a nice starter for a rustic meal or served with dry sausage, cheese and home-made bread they could be a dinner.