Olive Tapenade

I love olive tapenade. If you like olives then you might as well chop them up into little pieces and make a great Mediterranean dip to serve at parties. It’s wildly simple and has a great salty flavor profile. It can be served with pita chips, bread, naan. I've put it on wraps with hummus and grilled zucchini. I have mixed it in with tabouli and made it part of an elaborate hummus plate. Its ridiculously easy, versatile and I haven't heard one complaint yet.

This recipe yields approximately 4-5 cups.

Ingredients:

12 oz of regular black olives (2 6 oz cans)

9 oz of kalamata olives ( 2 4.5 oz jars)

5.75 oz jar manzanilla olives

2 lemons

1/4 cup diced walnuts

4 garlic cloves

2 sprigs rosemary (about 2 tbsp chopped)

1 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

1. Empty the olive jars/cans one by one and dice up the olives fairly small. You can use the picture for reference. They shouldn't be mush; but should be small enough to stay on a pita chip or something.

2. Add the olives (cut up) into a medium mixing bowl.

3. Juice two lemons into the bowl.

4. Add 1/4 cup diced walnuts to the mixture.

5. Mince and add 4 garlic cloves. (You will want to mice these up pretty small since its raw garlic. Nobody wants to bit into a big chunk of raw garlic.)

6. Cut up 5 sprigs of rosemary. This was about 2 tbsp of finely minced rosemary leaves.

7. Add 1 tsp black pepper. (There is no need to add salt since the salt content in olives is so high. Trust me, you won’t miss it.)

8. Stir it all together, plate and serve. I had pita chips, French bread slices and crustinis with mine. But you can go ahead and be as creative or boring as you want.

Enjoy!