Tapenade
The name comes not from olives but from tapena — the Provençal word for capers, and that is a clue to how to think about this paste. The olives provide bulk and fat, but the flavour comes from the capers and anchovies. Without them you have ground olive and nothing else. The third element is texture: tapenade should be coarsely pounded, not blitzed smooth.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Preparation 10 min
- Pounding 10 min
Step by step
0 / 5 donePit the olives with the flat of a knife
Crush the olives under the flat of a broad knife — the stone pops out on its own. Buy them unpitted: they usually have a fuller flavour and firmer flesh than pitted ones, and this paste rests entirely on their flavour.
Ingredients: 250 g black olives · 3 tbsp capers · 6 pcs anchovies · 1 clove garlic
The flat of a knife — the stone comes out by itself.Pound the garlic to a paste first
Crush the garlic with a few of the capers in the mortar until smooth, before anything else goes in. Added to the rest, it stays in pieces and every other mouthful carries a sharp, unpleasant note.
Ingredients: 250 g black olives · 3 tbsp capers · 6 pcs anchovies · 1 clove garlic
Pound the olives with capers and anchovies
Add the olives in batches and pound them with the rest of the capers and the anchovies for about 10 minutes, to a coarse, uneven paste. The anchovies dissolve completely and will not read as fish — they leave only salinity and depth.
Ingredients: 250 g black olives · 3 tbsp capers · 6 pcs anchovies · 1 clove garlic
Coarse and uneven — do not work it smooth.Add the oil in a thin stream
Pour in the oil slowly while pounding. The paste darkens and turns glossy. Add the mustard, thyme, pepper and lemon juice — the acid is needed here to balance the salt and the fat.
Ingredients: 80 ml olive oil · ½ pcs lemon · 1 tsp thyme · 1 tsp Dijon mustard · ½ tsp pepper
The paste darkens and takes on a sheen.Check the salt last
Taste and almost certainly add no salt at all. Olives, capers and anchovies are three very salty ingredients — in tapenade salt usually has to be deliberately withheld rather than added. Spoon into small jars, cover with a thin layer of olive oil and keep in the fridge for up to a week: raw garlic in oil must not be stored out of the fridge.
Ingredients: 80 ml olive oil · ½ pcs lemon · 1 tsp thyme · 1 tsp Dijon mustard · ½ tsp pepper
Before you start
The green version
Green olives give a paler, sharper, more herbal paste — add a handful of basil and almonds with them. It suits fish better than the black version does.
Without anchovies
For a vegetarian version raise the capers to five tablespoons and add a teaspoon of miso paste. You need something bringing umami — without it the paste tastes merely salty, with no depth.
Beyond toast
A spoonful stirred through pasta, under the skin of a roast chicken, into a salad dressing, or as a layer beneath baked fish. It is a concentrated seasoning, not only an appetiser.