Olive Tapenade

I have been staring at this giant bottle of olives in the back of my fridge for a few months now. Never tell your husband to pick up olives when he is on his way to Costco when you only need 1/4 cup...sigh!

Olives are one of those things I don't like unless they are in something or on top of something like a Greek salad. These were close to getting tossed this week, however I know they were expensive and I remembered we just had a tapenade at restaurant and I thought maybe this idea could use them up...finally!

• 1-1.25 cups pitted Kalamata olives, can be a mix
  
• 2 TBLS Capers
• 2 TBLS garlic, or 2-3 cloves
• Generous shakes of dried Parsley
• 2 TBLS Lemon juice
• 2 TBLS Olive oil

Rinse and drain olives and capers place in food processor with rest of the above ingredients, blend to a consistency for spreading or dipping.

Chill for a few hours or overnight, great on crackers served with cream cheese or goat cheese. You can salt and pepper to taste but I would hold off on the salt until the flavors have time to blend. I found the brine from the olives and capers made this salty enough. With my olives it was a bit on the bitter side, you can cut this by using different olives like green.


I actually made a double batch for snacking on the weekend, this would be a wonderful appetizer as it is easy to serve. BTW, I still have enough olives to make at least one maybe two more batches, I really think it is the never ending bottle of olives.