Thursday, April 12, 2007

Tapenade

We are back from Canada, where the weather was a balmy 17 degrees a couple of days. It made the days when it was 30 degrees seem warm!

On the plane, I read again some of my Peter Mayle books, Toujours Provence and French Lessons. I have four of them, but need to get the rest. It is armchair gourmet reading at it's best.
http://french.about.com/cs/culture/tp/petermayle.htm

In one of the books, a Frenchwoman remarks that if you eat tapenade every day, you will be healthy, so of course that got me craving tapenade. Salty heaven! Since we have olives in the fridge (kalamata, not nicoise, but it should be OK). I bought some capers and anchovy paste and that might work.

This was interesting from Wikipedia:
"Its name comes from the Provençal word for capers, tapéno". Who knew?

Here is the first recipe I will try from www.homecooking.about.com

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives
1 Tbsp rinsed, drained capers
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp anchovy paste (the original recipe said optional, but how can you have tapenade without anchovies? Like having Caesar salad without anchovy paste in the dressing, the salty tang will not be there)
Fresh cracked black pepper

PREPARATION:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor
. Mix well. Refrigerate and use within two weeks. Use as a spread or as a condiment. Yield: about 1 cup

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