Olive Tapenade

Yes, it's that olive-paste we've all seen and sometimes liked.  I always considered it Italian fare, but it was a surprise hit for us on our 2009 ski Christmas in Chamonix, France, dipped with those thin, hard bread sticks and a Kir as an apertif.

Ingredients

• • Kalamata olives - 20 pitted or 6 tablespoons of chunks

  • Capers - 1 tablespoon, drained

  • Lemon juice - 1 teaspoon

  • Olive Oil - 2 teaspoons

  • Garlic - 1 clove, crushed

  • Fresh cracked black pepper - 1/4 teaspoon

  • Optional extras

    • 1/2 tsp anchovy paste or little splash of Thai fish sauce

    • Parsley - 1 small bunch fresh or 1 teaspoon dry

Process

Not much to this one.  If you have a food processor or a stick blender, dump it all in a bowl and hit it till a slightly lumpy paste.  Alternately, you can chop everything up small by hand (good luck with those capers!) and mix.  It's definitely better if you let the flavours develop in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour.

Hints

The amounts for this are really flexible.  You could probably pad it out with twice as many olives if you like.  It's bit hard to say was the basis of the recipe is, the Italian ones are built around the olive-caper-lemon trio, while the French version calls for only olives, garlic and anchovies.

We really like this served with goat's cheese and slices of French bread or crackers.  The cool, smooth cheese and salty, chunky strong tapenade really seem to riff off each other well.