Recently, we hosted an event thanking friends who had given to a great project, the Astoria Park Shore Fest. It was a really fun time, and part of the fun was preparing the food – I love making food for parties. I used to spend at least a few days preparing the food for my grad school recital receptions, and the food would be gone in about 15 minutes. It was very satistfying.
One thing I learned to make in those years was tapenade. Tapenade is an olive spread – here’s more of a description from Wikipedia:
Tapenade is a Provençal dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the provençal word for capers, tapenas (Occitan pronunciation: [ta?pen?]). It is a popular food in the south of France, where it is generally eaten as an hors d’œuvre, spread on bread. Sometimes it is also used to stuff fillets for a main course.
The recipe I use doesn’t have anchovies, but I can see how they would be a wonderful addition to this spread. This recipe I use is from a terrific vegetarian cookbook by Deborah Madison’s called Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Deborah Madison cooked at Chez Panisse and was the founding chef at Greens restaurant, two of my favorite Bay Area restaurants.
This tapenade is spicy and lemony and uses an unusual ingredient – green peppercorns. These are tiny little things that are preserved in a salt water brine, and they add a wonderful salty peppery flavor to the tapenade. I’ve never seen them in another recipe; I love their flavor.
I enjoy this savory spread immensely. It’s especially good with chevre on bread or crackers.
Slightly adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
This tapenade is best prepared by hand – the texture is much more satisfying made with a knife than a food processor. I also prefer to use Kalamata olives to any others – I think they are the tastiest olives for this tapenade.
1/2 lb Kalamata olives
1/4 cup capers, preferably salt packed (brine packed work, too)
2 -3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon chopped green peppercorn, drained
1 grated large lemon, juice and zest (preferably organic)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Rinse and soak the capers in a bowl of water. Chop the olives as finely as possible with a knife.
Drain the capers. Add them, the green peppercorns and garlic cloves to the olives and continue to chop the entire mixture until everything is fully incorporated.
Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil to the olive mixture. Mix together until fully combined. Add the red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp first, taste, then add more if you desire more heat. I personally like it with the whole teaspoon of spice, but you may prefer it less spicy.
This tapenade is delicious right after it’s made, but also very good after it rests for a few hours.
Yield 2 cups.
