Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Tapenade

Tapenade is a Provençal dish consisting of pureed or finely chopped olives, capers and olive oil. Its name comes from the Provençal word for capers, tapéno. It is a popular food in the south of France, where it is generally eaten as an hors d’œuvre, spread on gourmet breads such as baguette or ciabatta. Sometimes it is also used to stuff fillets for a main course.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michael, is there an email address at which I could contact you? I have a question about your blog but don't want to leave it in the public comments space.

Michael Walsh said...

I added my e-mail address to my profile as a long term solution. My e-mail is mikey031@cox.net

Anonymous said...

thanks. I emailed you but since it's from a yahoo account, it sometimes gets flagged as spam, so check your spam folder.

michelle v said...

do you have a favorite recipe you can share? I love tapenade, but have never tried to make it - although I've heard it's pretty easy.

Anonymous said...

I'd love to know how to make it less salty. I make it at home quite often with mixed, mediterranean olives that I get from the west side market (or, in a pinch, from the olive bar at giant eagle) but it's WAY salty. I've tried leaving out the capers but it's still so strong that I can only use a teeny bit to flavor things instead of, say, slathering it on bread.

cuisinier said...

one thing you can do to cut down on some of the saltiness, is to soak the olives prior to making it. However, this does take a away a bit of wonderful nature and charachteristic of the tapenade. Another thing is to perhaps check the olives first. We use a variety of olives, mostly Nicoise style, which are not quite as salty. Kalamatas are crazy salty. SOme green varieties also make unique and very tasty condiments. Good luck.