Ingredients
- 175 grams drained, about 1 cup black olives (unpitted)
- 2 anchovy fillets
- 2 tbsp capers
- 1/2 garlic clove
- 1 sprig fresh oregano
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Remove the pits from the olives. The easiest way we found to do this is to press them on a wooden board with another board or baking dish or large tray (anything with a large surface).
- To a pestle and mortar, add the capers, anchovies, garlic, and oregano, and crush them until you have a chunky paste. Pro tip: If you don’t have a pestle and mortar, you can also make the tapenade in a food processor or simply by finely dicing the ingredients.
- Add the olives and pound them with the pestle.
- Add the lemon juice and the olive oil, and mix well until blended.
- Serve the tapenade with your favorite bread. We prefer to grill the bread slices with a drizzle of olive oil before serving the tapenade on them.
Recipe Notes
- Black Olives – As mentioned above in “Variations,” try to use some flavorful black olives such as Niçoise olives. Other options could include Kalamata, Gaeta, and Ligurian. Just don’t use the canned, pitted, plain (flavorless) black olives.
- Pitted or Unpitted Olives – We used unpitted olives in the recipe as we think they taste better and have more flavor than pitted olives. Obviously, this means you have to go through the step of removing the pits first (which is easier than you may think). If you’re in a hurry, you can use already pitted olives, but you’ll just be losing a bit of the flavor.
- Oregano - you can use 1 teaspoon of dried oregano instead of fresh oregano in this recipe if you don't have access to fresh oregano. Other fresh herbs that pair well with tapenade are thyme and flat-leaf parsley.
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