Olive Tapenade & Bruschetta
The best-loved spread of the Mediterranean: a tapenade of black olives, capers and anchovy, met with grilled bread.
- Time
- 15 minutes
- Serves
- 6
- Level
- Easy
- Cuisine
- Italian
Tapenade takes its name not from olives but from capers: in Provençal, the caper is tapenas. This classic French spread is named after its smallest ingredient. Olives may dominate by weight, but what defines the recipe is the salt-and-acid sharpness of the caper; a mixture made without capers is not tapenade, it is olive spread.
The anchovy does the same kind of work. It does not make the spread taste of fish — it adds umami. That is why, although it looks optional, adding it explains why tapenade tastes as satisfying as it does.
Directions
- Put the olives, capers, anchovy and garlic into a food processor.
- Add the olive oil and lemon juice and blend to a paste that is smooth but still slightly coarse.
- Fold in the thyme. Taste before salting — capers and anchovy are already salty, so use little.
- Toast the baguette slices on a griddle or in a toaster.
- Spread the tapenade on the bread, finish with a drop of olive oil and serve.
Tips & storage
Rinse the capers. If yours are salt-packed, soak them for ten minutes; vinegar-packed ones need only draining. Unrinsed capers leave the tapenade salty in a way you cannot correct.
Salt last, and sparingly. Olives, capers, anchovies — all three are salty. This is one of those recipes where salt is usually never added at all.
Aim for a crumbly texture. A perfectly smooth tapenade sits on bread like a grease. Pulse the processor and leave it slightly grainy.
Don't spread it on hot bread. Let the toast cool to warm; on hot bread the olive oil is absorbed at once and the tapenade dries out.
Garlic before spreading. Classic bruschetta has raw garlic rubbed over the toast. There is already garlic in the tapenade, so if you want to rub some as well, use very little.
Storage. The spread keeps ten days in a jar in the fridge under a film of oil. The bruschetta, though, is assembled at the moment of serving — bread spread in advance goes soft.
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