Tapenade

Not to be confused with tamponade.

Tapenade

Origin
Place of origin	France
Region or state	Provence
Details
Course served	Hors d'œuvre
Type	Spread
Main ingredient(s)	Olives, capers, anchovies, olive oil

Tapenade (French pronunciation: ​[tapəˈnad], Occitan: tapenada [tapeˈnadɔ]) is a Provençal dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the Provençal word for capers, tapenas (pronounced [taˈpenɔs]). It is a popular food in the south of France, where it is generally eaten as an hors d'œuvre, spread on bread. Sometimes it is also used to stuff poultry for a main course.

History

Tapenade in a mortar

Olive-based tapenades with anchovies and/or vinegar are ubiquitous in Italian cuisine and are documented in ancient Roman cookbooks dating back thousands of years before the appearance of the French word tapenade, or indeed the French language itself. One of the earliest known tapenade recipe, Olivarum conditurae, appears in Columella's De re Rustica, written in the first century AD. . Cato the Elder ( 234-149 B.C.E.) includes a recipe for Epityrum, an olive spread very like a tapenade, in chapter 119 of his "On Agriculture."

Tapenade is sometimes confused with New Orleans olive salad, a critical component in the New Orleans sandwich the muffaletta. New Orleans olive salad is more properly called a giardiniera; it does not contain capers and does contain cauliflower, carrots and celery.

Preparation

Tapenade's base ingredient is olive. The olives (most commonly black olive) and capers are finely chopped, crushed or blended. Olive oil is then added until the mixture becomes a paste. Tapenade is often flavoured differently in varying regions with other ingredients such as garlic, herbs, anchovies, lemon juice or brandy.

Serving

Tapenade can be used as part of an appetizer served as a topping on crackers, crusty bread or crudités. It can also be used as a condiment. Tapenade is also used in preparing fish dishes.

See also

• Relish