Kalamata Olive Tapenade

Today while making a shared plate of cheese, grilled turkish bread and mixed dips I went back to this recipe. Olive tapenade.  It is so good on so many things.  I could go on forever with the ways I would eat this stuff but for now, I'll just say... make it and let it steer you in the right direction.  Today I ate it on toasted gourmet breads but tomorrow I will no doubt spread over a lamb rack before rolling it in a herb and proscuitto crust.  This is a Jamie Oliver recipe from one of his earliest books "Return of the Naked Chef" and I never change a thing.  

Ingredients:
250g or 90z kalamata olives, deseeded

1 clove garlic

6 anchovy fillets in oil

good extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and cracked pepper

juice of half a lemon 

Method:

• Crush the olives using the side of the knife, pushing down to squash the olive against the seed allowing you to peel open the olive and remove the seed.  Do yourself a favor and buy the olives with seeds, and deseed them yourself.  Even with doing this job yourself, you can still have this tapenade made in less than 5 minutes.  These olives have such a different flavor to deseeded olives.  I wouldn't waste your time doing it with those, it'll taste so average you'll be disappointed you bothered. 
• Using a mini processor, throw the halved olives into the processor, add all the other ingredients and process.  Add the oil gradually and continue to taste until it reaches your preferred consistency and flavor.  I used about half a lemon and probably about 3 tblpsn of oil but I like it quite thick.  Ensure you add a little salt, even though the olives themselves and anchovy are already salty, it adds something else to balance the lemon.  
• Keep it in an air tight container for up to 10days in the fridge or make a double batch and use preserve jars and process for longer storage.

From left to right, whole olives; smashed olive;

halved with seed removed; the seed