I have saved this recipe to CMT. I'm keeping a list of ideas for replacing some of the olives. I think a bit of crumbled sausage would work. Hmm, maybe some anchovy (would add a lot of salt).
It doesn't have to get complicated. I can just set some sausage crumbles aside when I'm frying up bulk sausage for something else.Nice one taxy! Yes, I can see adding sausage, but then it is starting to get complicated. If I'm going to go to that trouble of frying up sausage then I'll do a full sausage stuffing with ricotta.
One of the wonderful aspects of this appetizer is the ease of making. Biggest effort is to shred the cheese, even then you could possibly buy a pre-shredded package. No meat to cook, no pan to wash, etc. Even, should you buy sliced olives, they only require a very quick rough chop.