What We Ate Wednesday--Olive and Walnut Tapenade

Hello lovelies! Lately it's been all about filling the freezer with jars for quick meals. I've got pesto. I've got hummus (more on that next week) and now I've got black olive tapenade.

I got a craving for this recently, so we bought a huge jar of whole, pitted black olives for £2 at Tesco and I proceeded to make the most delicious black olive spread. It will be great as a stir in for pasta or on a pizza.

Now, I did it with walnuts just because I think they give it added body and flavour. But you can totally leave them out. I also did not add capers as I am not a fan and they are expensive but obviously add them in in you are one of those tapenade purists who says "Well....it's just tapenade without capers." Apparently, anchovies are also a standard ingredient, but of course I left them out because fish are friends not food. 

If you are also one of those people who like or can afford kalmalata olives, then go for it. I just used cheap black ones and it was gorgeous.

I don't care how you do it, just do it. This recipe made about 1.5 cups of black olive yumminess, so I divided it into a one cup (stir in to pasta) portion and a half cup (use on a pizza portion) and popped them both in the freezer. I did a double batch so have enough for several meals in there.

Olive and Walnut Tapenade

1.5 cups pitted black olives, lightly rinsed to wash away some of the brine
1/4 cup of broken walnuts
juice of half a lemon
4-5 cloves of chopped garlic
2 TB olive oil
lots and lots and lots of black pepper (or to taste)
Maybe a psst of salt at the end, but the olives are quite salty so probably not

Bung everything but the olive oil in the food processor and pulse til chunky. Add in the oil and pulse til smoother, but still chunky. Store in the fridge to be eaten within 24 hours or in the freezer and then just defrost in the fridge overnight.

I also added some tapenade to the hummus I made for the week (see next week's post for hummus ideas) and it was gorgeous.