Olive Tapenade Recipe
Versatile and full of flavor, Olive Tapenade is a simple, elegant addition to your appetizer list. This tasty spread comes together fast and requires no cooking, making it a great choice for warm summer days.
How to Make the Best Olive Tapenade
Olive tapenade is one of those effortlessly elegant appetizers that looks impressive but takes just minutes to prepare. Originating from the Provence region of France, this savory spread combines briny olives, pungent garlic, and fragrant fresh herbs into a bold, Mediterranean-inspired dip that’s perfect for entertaining.
The beauty of this recipe lies in its simplicity and versatility. With no cooking required, you can whip up a batch in your food processor in under ten minutes. The key is to pulse rather than puree—you want a chunky, rustic texture that showcases the individual flavors of the olives and capers rather than a smooth paste.
Serve your olive tapenade with slices of crusty baguette, crisp crackers, or fresh vegetables for dipping. It also makes an excellent topping for grilled proteins like chicken or fish, or try stirring it into pasta for a quick and flavorful weeknight dinner.
Olive Tapenade
Versatile and full of flavor, Olive Tapenade is a simple, elegant addition to your appetizer list. This tasty spread comes together fast and requires no cooking, making it a great choice for warm summer days.
Ingredients
Tapenade
Instructions
Making the Tapenade
- Add garlic, lemon zest, parsley, rosemary and olive oil to a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped.
- Add about half of the olives and pulse just a bit to incorporate. Add remaining olives, capers, chili flakes, black pepper, and red wine vinegar. Pulse gently, leaving some larger chunks. Be cautious of over blending—we're going for a textured consistency, not pasty.
Notes
- Use a mix of olive varieties for the best flavor—kalamata and castelvetrano together work beautifully.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
- Serve with crusty bread, crackers, or as a topping for grilled fish or chicken.
