Tapenade

Olives pounded to a coarse paste rather than blitzed smooth, with the capers that give it its name kept in.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 250 g black olives, stoned
• 3 tablespoons capers, rinsed
• 6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• juice of half a lemon
• 80 ml olive oil
• 1 tablespoon brandy, optional
• black pepper

Method

1. THE OLIVES ARE POUNDED, NOT BLITZED SMOOTH. A mortar, or a food processor in short pulses with the bowl scraped down. What you want is a coarse paste with pieces still in it. Run smooth it becomes a uniform grey-brown puree that tastes flat, because you are no longer biting olive, caper and anchovy separately -- and a smooth one also emulsifies the oil in and goes claggy.
2. THE CAPERS ARE NOT OPTIONAL AND GO IN WHOLE-ISH. They are the sharp note the olives have none of, and the word tapenade is built on the Provencal word for caper, so a version without them is something else wearing the name.
3. THE ANCHOVY IS KEPT, AND THIS PAGE SAYS SO AS A CHOICE. It disappears completely into the salt and depth and nobody tastes fish. Leave it out and the paste needs more salt and still tastes thinner. Without it this is vegetarian; with it, it is not, and that is worth being plain about rather than quiet.
4. NO SALT IS ADDED. Olives, capers and anchovies are all cured. Taste at the end and you will find it does not need any.
5. STONED OLIVES, NEVER THE PRE-PITTED ONES IN BRINE if you can help it -- they are watery and the paste will not hold. Stone them yourself by pressing with the flat of a knife.
6. Garlic pounded first with a pinch of nothing but itself, to a paste.
7. Anchovies added and worked in.
8. Capers added and bruised rather than crushed.
9. Olives added in two or three lots and pounded to a coarse paste, or pulsed 5 or 6 times.
10. Mustard and lemon juice worked in.
11. The oil poured in a thin stream while pounding or stirring -- by hand, not with the motor running, which would emulsify it.
12. Brandy stirred in if using. Pepper. Tasted, and almost certainly left alone.
13. Into a jar with a film of oil on top. Keeps two weeks in the fridge and improves after a day.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes