Looking for a quick and fancy appetizer to serve your guest? Try my easy recipe for homemade olive tapenade. This recipe takes 5 minutes to make, and even better you can make it ahead of time and pull it out of the refrigerator once guest arrive.
What makes this olive tapenade so delicious are the two different type of Mezzetta olives in the recipe. I used mix of Mezzetta Sliced Greek Kalamata Olives and Mezzetta Italian Castelveterano Whole Green Olives. And let me tell you about my secrete ingredient. Only true food connoisseurs know this secret. Ready for it… anchovy paste! Some recipes call for whole anchovies, which you can do; however, I like to have the paste on hand because then it’s always on hand and I can use it for various recipes and not feel obligated to have to use the entire can of anchovy filets.
My family loves olives, and we always have a few jars of Mezzetta Olives in our refrigerator at all time. I’m always asked to bring a cheese, meat, and olive plate to family gatherings or my olive tapenade. Most of the time it’s the tapenade. We all like it with a bit more texture and not smoothed down to mush–but the consistency is totally up to you! I love sharing Mezzetta Olives in my home. Mezzetta is actually family owned since 1935, the fourth generation of Mezzetta family is continuing the commitment to bring our customers the highest quality foods available. We source the finest fresh produce from the sun-drenched soils of California, Italy, Spain, France, and Greece and prepare them according to our Italian family recipes at our state-of-the-art production facility in the Napa Valley.
Make sure you enter into the Mezzetta Holiday Memories Sweepstakes! They have one grand prize and 10 runner up prizes to be sent out!
- 1 Grand Prize – Instant Print Digital Camera plus a Ultimate Olive Lover’s Gift Basket including Mezzetta Olives, Olive Spoon, Cutting Board, Olive Bowl, Cocktail Napkins and Recipe Card.
- 10 Runner Up Prizes – Ultimate Olive Lover’s Gift Basket including Mezzetta Olives, Olive Spoon, Cutting Board, Olive Bowl, Cocktail Napkins and Recipe Card.
*The sweepstakes ends December 31, 2015. Winners chosen at random, and will be notified and will receive prize within 2 weeks! ENTER HERE NOW!
Olive Tapenade
Ingredients
- ½ cup Mezzetta Italian Castelveterano Whole Green Olives pitted
- ½ cups Mezzetta Sliced Greek Kalamata Olives
- 1 tablespoon anchovy paste
- 1 small clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Using an olive pitter, pit the ½ cup of Mezzetta Italian Castelveterano Whole Green Olives.
- Place the pitted olives, Kalamata olives, anchovy paste, garlic clove, capers, fresh parsley, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil in a blender. Begin to blend until almost smooth (about 30 seconds). Add in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil while blending.
- Place in a dish and serve immediately or refrigerate (covered) until ready to serve to guest.
anchovies! i’ve never thought to put it in my tapenade. love it! 😀
Yes–it’s a perfect binder plus it gives an extra depth of flavor! And the paste makes it a little less scary to work with!