How to Make Real Olive Tapenade
Tapenade is Provence in a bowl: olives, capers, anchovy and oil, pounded into a dark, salty, savoury paste. It takes five minutes and keeps for a week. Here is the real thing.
The name comes from tapena, the Provençal word for caper — a clue that, classically, tapenade is as much about capers and anchovy as olives. It is a paste, not a dip, and it should taste intense.
What you need
200 g good olives, pitted — black Kalamata or Nyons for a classic dark tapenade, or green for a brighter one; 2 tbsp capers; 3–4 anchovy fillets; 1 small garlic clove; a squeeze of lemon; good olive oil; optionally a splash of brandy and a little thyme.
Method
Pound or pulse the olives, capers, anchovy and garlic to a coarse paste — not a smooth purée, you want texture. Loosen with olive oil and sharpen with lemon. Taste before adding any salt: the olives, capers and anchovy bring plenty.
First, keep it coarse — a rubble, not a smoothie. Second, do not skip the anchovy even if you think you dislike it: it melts in and brings savoury depth, not fishiness (leave it out only for a vegetarian version). Spread on toast, stir through pasta, stuff under chicken skin, or dollop beside roast lamb.