Sun-dried Tomato and Green Olive Tapenade

This is not really a tapenade.

A tapenade would have capers. Looks like a pesto,but a pesto would have nuts and parmesan cheese.

Am I still in your circle of trust?

I guess I could call this a spread, but seeing that word as a headline makes me feel a little generic, somehow kinda cheap.

Great, now I’m shallow.

All of a sudden this whatever-it-is, is totally ruining my credibility.

Let me call it a tapenade, ok?

How about a *tapenade?

*Tapenade – a caper -less Provencal dish consisting of pureed green olives, sun-dries tomatoes, and basil. It is a popular dish in Nichole’s kitchen where it is generally eaten as a sauce for pasta, spread on sandwiches, scrambled in eggs, or by the spoon full over the sink.

Why you should eat this? 

Let’s talk about good fats. The fats in the extra virgin olive oil and the green olives in this *tapenade have incredible health benefits. Anti- inflammatory, heart healthy, improves brain function, protects blood vessels, improves digestion, and the polyphenols found in olive oil are natural for helping us lower our risk of certain cancer types.

Why are we not doing shots of this right now?

If you are on a low-fat diet, it is still really important to consume healthy fats such as extra-virgin olive oil. Fats are what make us feel full at meal times and if you are not consuming enough, you’ll be a walking around a hungry zombie of a dieter.

Sun Dried Tomato and Green Olive *Tapenade  (Servings: 8)

• 1 cup chopped or julienned sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
• 1 cup  medium green olives, pitted
• 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves of garlic
• ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Zest and juice of 1 large lemon
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Optional – 3/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese
• Optional – 1 lb Linguine (or your favorite pasta, I used soba noodles)

In a food processor, combine the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, basil, garlic, oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Puree, make sure that the garlic gets chopped up properly. Run a rubber spatula around to make sure that there are no chunks of it left.

Pulse until blended but still chunky (no big garlic chunks, though). Season with salt and pepper, to taste

SO EASY.

This can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks in a well sealed container.

If you are adding this to pasta, cook pasta according to directions and then throw a few heaping spoonfuls into the warm pasta. Keep adding the *tapenade until it suits your taste. This is where you can add parmesan cheese. Lots of it.

I like to throw a few spoonfuls of this into a quick egg scramble too. Super quick, really easy. Eggs full of flavor.

This is so good.

Trust me,

Nichole