Olive-basil tapenade
With the holiday season in full swing, easy-to-make snacks are in demand. This variation on the tapenade is fast, and the tapenade itself is tasty baked or “raw”.
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 lemon’s juice
- 15 leaves basil
- 5.75 oz can pitted black olives (about 27 olives)
- 1/2 tblsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp coarse sea salt
- 12-15 slices french bread
- 5 oz goat cheese
- olive oil for pan
Steps
- Preheat the oven and a large, heavy pan to 325F.
- Reserve 3 of the black olives if you wish for presentation.
- Chop the basil, with the lemon juice, in a food processor.
- Add the olives and chop until coarse.
- Add the sea salt and olive oil and mix in.
- Spread the olive mix onto the french bread slices.
- Slice the goat cheese into thin slices and place on top of each bread slice.
- Remove the heavy pan from the oven and spread just enough olive oil to evenly cover the pan.
- Put the slices into the pan and bake for 10 minutes, until crispy on bottom and the cheese has just a touch of brown.
This snack eschews the anchovies and capers that are required for a true tapenade. In their place it uses lemon juice and basil.
I use Trader Joe’s seeded baguette for the french bread. If you have any tapenade mix left over after spreading it on the bread, save it for adding to the serving plate. I also like to reserve three olives for placing on the serving plate as well.
The tapenade mix is great on its own as a dip or salsa for toast, bread, or chips.
- Tapenade (Wikipedia)
- “Tapenade is Provençal dish consisting of black olives, capers, anchovies, and olive oil. Its name comes from the Provençal word for capers, tapéno.”
More salsa
- Yogurt-Eggplant salsa
- This baba ghanouj-style salsa adds yogurt and citrus for an even more exotic flavor, and is very easy to make.
- Eggplant hummus
- The smooth, smoky flavor of roasted eggplant mixed with the nutty flavor of chickpeas, it combines baba ghanouj with hummus.
- Chili Yogurt
- I lucked into this salsa recipe because I ran out of thyme. I decided to try something completely different, some spice that I rarely use. So I went to the spice rack and pulled down some ajwain. The subtle interplay of flavors in this yogurt salsa has quickly made it one of my favorites.
- Tzatsiki and other yogurt salsas
- Tzatziki is just one form of yogurt salsa that makes for a great change of pace on tortillas and other spicy foods. Yogurt is a very versatile ingredient to have on hand.
- Avocado and mint salsa
- You can also use avocados rather than tomatoes for a great creamy salsa, and it goes great with mint or basil.
- Six more pages with the topic salsa, and other related pages