Tapenade

Provençal black olive and caper paste with anchovies, thyme and a measure of good cognac

Origin: Provence, France

From the journey of Olive.

Tapenade arrived in Provence with the Phocaean Greeks, who founded Massalia, modern Marseille, around 600 BCE, bringing with them the olive tree, the grape vine, and the practice of pressing both into oil and wine that would reshape southern France. The word tapenade comes not from olives but from tapèno, the Provençal word for capers, which tells you something about the history of the dish: the caper bush is even older in this landscape than the olive, growing wild in the limestone walls and cliff faces of the Var and the Bouches-du-Rhône, its flowers unmistakable. For centuries, Provençal cooks made rough pastes of olives and capers in a marble mortar, adding anchovies from the fishing boats of Marseille, aromatic herbs from the garrigue, thyme, rosemary, savory, and a small measure of brandy or cognac to smooth and preserve. The recipe was codified in 1880 by chef Meynier at La Maison Dorée in Marseille, who named and standardised it, but the paste itself is immeasurably older. In Provence, tapenade is spread thick on toasted bread rubbed with raw garlic, served alongside aperitifs with raw vegetables, or worked under the skin of a leg of lamb before roasting. It is an intensely flavoured thing, salty, briny, herbal, and deeply savoury, and it concentrates everything that the Provençal landscape tastes of: salt, stone, sun, and the essential bitterness of the olive.

Ingredients

Paste

  • 250 g good black olives, pitted (Niçoise, Taggiasca, or Kalamata)
  • 3 tbsp capers in brine, drained and rinsed
  • 4 anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained (omit for vegetarian)
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
  • ½ tsp Dijon mustard
  • 2 tbsp cognac or good brandy
  • 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil, Provençal or Ligurian if possible

Seasoning

  • freshly ground black pepper

To Serve

  • toasted baguette slices or raw vegetable crudités, to serve

Method

  1. Combine the pitted olives, capers, anchovy fillets, garlic, thyme, and Dijon mustard in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 6–8 times until the mixture is roughly chopped; the texture should be coarse, not smooth.
  2. With the processor running, pour in the cognac, then the olive oil in a thin stream. Process until the paste comes together into a spreadable consistency with some texture remaining; about 30 seconds. Do not over-process to a smooth paste; tapenade should have character.
  3. Taste and adjust: the tapenade will almost certainly not need salt (the olives, capers, and anchovies provide more than enough), but it may benefit from more black pepper or a touch more thyme. Transfer to a jar.
  4. Serve spread generously on toasted baguette slices that have been rubbed while hot with a cut clove of raw garlic. Tapenade also works as a condiment with roasted lamb, stirred into pasta with a little pasta water, or as a dipping sauce for raw vegetables.

Notes

The choice of olive matters enormously. Niçoise olives (small, brownish-black, intensely flavoured) are traditional and produce the most authentic result. Taggiasca olives from Liguria are also excellent. Kalamata olives produce a bolder, slightly more assertive paste. Avoid generic 'black' olives from a can; these are green olives dyed black and have no flavour worth speaking of. For a vegetarian tapenade, omit the anchovies and increase the capers to 4 tablespoons.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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