A good olive tapenade recipe is great ammunition to have in your culinary cannon, especially during the holidays.  Not only is tapenade a crowd-pleaser, it looks great and is super easy to make, especially if you have a food processor.  It is also easy to make ahead of time as it will keep in the fridge for up to a week, but it will impress your friends when you tell them it is homemade.   It also makes a great sauce for chicken, pork, or fish!  One of my favorite sandwiches pairs tapenade with tuna salad on a crusty baguette.  Perfecto!

This recipe is easy and only has a handful of ingredients, but the flavor was awesome!  It is so much better when you make it yourself, I promise.  Olives and capers are pretty standard ingredients, but the remaining ingredients all play a critical role.  The fresh garlic gives it a nice zing (make sure your prospective make out buddy has some too!), and the anchovies add a nice nuttiness without tasting fishy.  The lemon and fresh herbs add freshness and acidity to cut the saltiness.  Just right!

This year, I put together a few extra batches and jarred them up as gifts.  The leftovers are going with me to my sister-in-law’s house as a contribution to our Christmas Eve meal.  And there is a huge financial incentive to making this yourself:  the last time I checked at the grocery store, a small container of tapenade was $5.99.  Yikes!  I need to get into that business!  For that amount  you could make three full jars on your own!  The recipe below makes about two cups.

Ingredients

• 1 cup pitted kalamata olives
• 1 cup pitted green olives
• 1/4 cup of capers
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
• 1/4 cup of roughly chopped parley

• 1 teaspoon of chopped thyme
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest
• 3-4 anchovy fillets
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• Crushed red pepper to taste (I used 1/2 teaspoon)

Double check to make sure the olives are pitted; they could seriously damage your blade.  Put all of the ingredients above in a food processor (I guess you could use a blender, too!).   Pulse the ingredients until they are still chunky but well incorporated.  Serve with sliced fresh baguette or crackers. You’re all done!