Moroccan Tapenade ... With A Kick

Another recipe I found for the tapas night was this amazing tapenade!  I love tapenade anyway, but this one has a spicy little kick that is so great. 

The only thing I really changed about this is the amount of olive oil I used and the method ... and I doubled their original recipe to make two cups.

400 g Kalamata olives, pitted
3 big cloves of garlic
2 tablespoon harissa (definitely adjust to taste!)
2 tablespoon lemon juice
a handful of chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup olive oil

Throw everything into a food processor and process until desired consistency is reached. 

I served with a thick crunchy crouton type cracker.  You could serve with any cracker or bread!

Hors D'Ouvers

Lunch at our place today.

Yeah, you get more than one ...

I'll bring you a whole post on this lunch later in the week.

And tomorrow ... I'll be back with Menu Plan Monday after two weeks AWOL.

One week I had no plan.

Last week I had a plan but forgot to post it.

This week, no plan yet but I will make it tomorrow !!!

Tapenade

Years ago, my friend Dawn gave me these two delicious tapenade recipes. I've been making them ever since. I like the olive one best but I'll give you both recipes ...

The one I made tonight isn't either. That's one thing I love about these recipes ... they are so flexible and taste good pretty much regardless of measurements or forgetting to put things in or not having the right ingredients ... my sister in law Gina's kind of recipe !! :)

Last night at dinner, my brother in law Steve mentioned that he'd like this recipe. I don't know why I don't have it on the blog yet but I don't so I had intended doing it soon to put it up.

Tonight, I was trying to figure out what on earth to feed the kids for dinner since tomorrow is shopping day and the fridge is close to empty !! Rory and I are having aliolio later, after he gets home from church ... but it's not really good leftover so I didn't want to cook that for them and .... oh, never mind !! Boring details !!

I had some leftover plain pasta in the fridge. I had some olives and sun dried tomatoes and so I whipped up some tapenade, mixed it through the pasta and topped with a bit of Parmesan cheese.

Here's how you do it.

Sun dried Tomato Tapenade

Sun dried tomatoes in oil ( large jar )
1/2 bulb fresh garlic ... crushed
2 TBLS pitted black olives
1 tsp salt
Blend in food processor until smooth

Olive Tapenade

Black Pitted Olives (large jar or can)
1/2 bulb fresh garlic ... crushed
2 TBLS capers
Sun dried tomatoes in oil (small jar)
1 tsp salt

Use some of the vinegar from the olives and some of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes, blend all ingredients in food processor til smooth.

The Tapenade I Made Tonight

Black Pitted Olives 1/2 jar
Kalamata Olives 1/2 jar
2 TBLS capers
Sun dried tomatoes in oil 1/2 jar

I forgot to put in garlic and salt. I'd normally do the garlic but not the salt. I think the olives make it salty enough !!

Use some of the vinegar from the olives and some of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes, blend all ingredients in food processor til smooth.

Delicious !

I have packed all of our lunches for tomorrow with some tapenade and crackers ... and I even had a snack since I am waiting for Rory to get home before we eat.

Did the kids like the pasta ?

I'll let the empty bowls speak for themselves ...