Olivada, Patè di Olive and the Spread Family

Olivada is olives and olive oil and very little else, which is exactly what separates it from tapenade: tapenade is named after capers and must contain them, while olivada is named after the olive and is allowed to taste of nothing but. Both end up in a small jar, both get spread on bread, and in English-speaking shops both are usually labelled tapenade regardless of what is inside. The distinction is worth keeping, because the two behave differently in cooking.

The olive spread family is larger than most people realise. Liguria, Catalonia, Provence, Puglia, Greece and the Levant all arrived at the same idea independently, which is what happens when a region has a glut of small olives that are fiddly to eat whole and a stone mill already standing in the yard.

Olivada: the Ligurian and Catalan version

In Liguria, olivada is made from Taggiasca olives, the small brown-purple fruit of the Ponente coast, pitted and blended with the local extra virgin oil into a loose, glossy paste. Nothing else is required. A Ligurian producer might add a scrap of garlic or a pinch of oregano, but a jar sold as pure olivada taggiasca should list two ingredients. The flavour is mild, sweet and almost buttery, because the Taggiasca is a low-bitterness olive with a high oil content of around 25 per cent. Its character is set out in the Taggiasca profile.

In Catalonia and the Balearics, olivada is a firmer, saltier thing, usually built on Arbequina or Empeltre olives and often sharpened with a little thyme, garlic or black pepper. It goes onto pa amb tomàquet, into a coca, or under a slice of anchovy. Some Catalan versions do include anchovy, at which point the line with tapenade blurs, but the defining ingredient is still the olive rather than the caper.

How the family compares

The useful question is not which is best but which one you want in the jar for a given job. A caper-and-anchovy tapenade is a seasoning. An olivada is closer to an ingredient.

The word tapenade gives the game away. It comes from tapeno, the Provençal for caper, and the recipe as it was written down in Marseille in the 1880s was a caper paste to which olives and anchovies were added. Calling a plain olive purée a tapenade is therefore a mild historical mistake, though a universal one. The three classic versions are laid out in tapenade three ways.

The proportions that matter

Olivada is not really a recipe so much as a ratio, and the ratio is what nobody writes down. Too little oil and it seizes into a dark putty. Too much and it separates into an oily slick over sludge.

• Oil to olives: about 20 per cent by weight. That is roughly 60 to 80 ml of oil for 400 g of pitted olives, added slowly.
• Salt: usually none. Cured olives carry 4 to 6 per cent salt already. Taste before reaching for the tin.
• Acid: 1 teaspoon of lemon juice per 400 g lifts a flat batch, but it also shortens the keeping time.
• Texture: stop early. Twenty seconds in a processor gives a coarse paste. A full minute gives an emulsified purée that reads as shop-bought.

Ingredients

• 400 g Taggiasca or other small black olives in oil or brine, drained and pitted, giving about 300 g of flesh
• 70 ml extra virgin olive oil, Ligurian if you have it
• 1 small garlic clove, optional
• 2 g fresh thyme or oregano leaves, optional
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice, optional
• Black pepper

Method

1. Drain the olives and pit them. A cherry stoner handles small fruit faster than a knife, and 400 g takes about 10 minutes by hand.
2. Spread the pitted flesh on a cloth for 5 minutes to shed surface brine, which otherwise makes the finished paste weep in the jar.
3. Put the olives, the garlic and the herbs in a food processor and pulse in 2 second bursts, about 10 pulses, until the flesh is chopped but still visibly textured.
4. With the motor running slowly, pour in the oil in a thin stream over about 30 seconds. Stop as soon as it comes together. Do not let it run to a smooth cream.
5. Taste, then add the lemon juice and pepper if it needs lifting. Salt is rarely needed.
6. Pack into a clean jar, level the surface and pour a 5 mm layer of oil on top to seal it from the air. Refrigerate.

Kept under oil in the fridge at 4 degrees C it holds for about 2 weeks, and the oil cap needs topping up each time you dig into it. It freezes well for 3 months in ice cube trays, which is the sensible thing to do with a large batch. A jar with garlic in it keeps less well than one without, since raw garlic in oil is the part that turns first.

What to do with a jar of it

Because olivada is mild, it can carry a dish rather than just season one. That is the practical difference from tapenade, which will dominate anything it touches.

1. Through hot pasta. Two tablespoons per portion, loosened with a splash of pasta water, off the heat. Heating it directly dulls the oil.
2. Under the skin of a chicken before roasting at 200 degrees C, so it bastes the breast from the inside.
3. Spread on a focaccia base before the tomatoes go on, or swirled into the dough itself.
4. Folded into soft cheese, roughly 1 part olivada to 3 parts ricotta, for a filling or a dip.
5. Whisked into a dressing with red wine vinegar and more oil, for warm potatoes or green beans.

Tapenade, by contrast, works best where you want a salty punctuation mark: on a hard boiled egg, alongside lamb, or in tiny amounts under a piece of fish. There are more ideas in tapenade beyond toast.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between olivada and tapenade?

Tapenade contains capers and anchovies by definition, along with olives and olive oil, and its name comes from the Provençal word for caper. Olivada is olives and olive oil, sometimes with garlic or a herb, and no capers or fish. In practice this makes tapenade saltier and more assertive, while olivada tastes primarily of the olive variety it was made from.

Is patè di olive the same thing as olivada?

They overlap almost completely. Patè di olive is the common Italian shop label for an olive paste, and in Liguria the same product may be sold under either name. A patè is often slightly coarser and more likely to include oregano, chilli or a little almond, while olivada tends to mean the plain version. Read the ingredients rather than the name on the front.

Can you make olivada with green olives?

Yes, and it is a different thing rather than a lesser one. Green olives give a firmer, brighter, more bitter paste that suits fish, chicken and fresh cheese, while black olives give a softer, sweeter, earthier result that suits lamb, beef and tomato. Green versions usually need a touch more oil, closer to 25 per cent by weight, because the flesh is drier. The comparison is drawn out in black olive paste versus green.

Why does my homemade olive paste taste bitter or metallic?

Three usual causes. Blending too long heats the mixture and drives the oil into a bitter emulsion, so pulse rather than run. A blade left in contact with a very salty paste in a reactive bowl can add a metallic note, so use a glass or plastic bowl. And an olive that was bitter whole will be bitter as a paste, since blending concentrates rather than softens the oleuropein that was never fully cured out.

How long does olive spread keep once opened?

A homemade jar kept at 4 degrees C under a 5 mm layer of olive oil lasts about 2 weeks, or 3 months frozen. A commercial jar that has been pasteurised keeps unopened for a year or more, and typically 2 to 3 weeks in the fridge once opened, though versions containing anchovy or fresh garlic move faster. Always spoon it out with a clean spoon, since crumbs and moisture are what start the spoilage.