Olive Tapenade

Hi there!  Welcome to "The Illusion of Sophistication," the blog about food that tastes like it was harder to make than it really was.

Today, I've made an olive tapenade.  Here's what I started with:

That's green olives, calamata olives, capers, extra virgin olive oil, a clove of garlic, and my pepper mill. Aging Cuisinart food processor in the background is ready for work.

I bought the jar of olives for convenience, but I really don't want pimentos in my tapenade, so I squished them out, just like, well, stuff you squished when you were a teenager.  You know, like the little mushy thing at the end of a banana.  Eight to ten green olives, adds a little bit of color and saltiness to the finished product.

You'll want to carefully measure the capers.  I've used a precision measuring device to add about a tablespoon and a half.

I'm going to add olive oil once I get the food processor running.  I want to see a pebbly texture that blends smoothly.  I added between two and four tablespoons of olive oil, watching until the blend pattern went from bouncing in the bowl to holding a steady vortex.

Plated with diagonally-cut whole-grain french baguette.