Black Olive Paste Recipes

BLACK OLIVE SPREAD

Steps:

• Place olives, Parmesan cheese, and garlic (if using) in a food processor. Add olive oil slowly while running. Process until smooth.

BLACK OLIVE TAPENADE

Steps:

• Blitz all the ingredients except the thyme in a small food processor. Season with black pepper then transfer to a jar or serving dish and scatter over the thyme leaves if using. Keeps in the fridge for 3 days.

BLACK OLIVE PASTE

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the ingredients and blend with a fork. If using a food processor, be very careful not to over-process; a chunky texture is better. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for up to one month.
• To use the olive paste as a marinade, slather chicken, fish, beef or veal well and marinate for up to 6 hours before cooking. The mixture can also be used as a sauce by spooning over meat, poultry or fish in the last five minutes of cooking.

BLACK OLIVE PASTE

Steps:

• To pit the olives, you can use a cherry/olive pitter, but I've found that the olives frequently slip through the holes instead of just the pits.
• Another way to pit olives is to put them inside a folded kitchen towel and then bang on them with a mallet, cutting board, small frying pan, or whatever suits your fancy.
• Sure the olives get bruised, but what do you think is going to happen in the food processor?.
• Mixing raw garlic and olive oil provides an ideal breeding ground for the anaerobic bacteria which cause botulism.
• If I'm going to keep the paste around for a number of days, which I usually do, I'll mince the garlic, add it to the oil and then heat both in the microwave.
• I try not to cook the garlic too much in this manner- you just need to heat the oil and garlic up to 140 or 150 degrees for a while.
• Mix all of the ingredients in food processor.

BLACK OLIVE PASTE

Steps:

• In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, blend the olives, anchovy fillets, garlic, rosemary, and pepper to a smooth paste. With the processor on, slowly add the olive oil until combined, about 2 minutes. Transfer the olive paste to a small bowl, and set aside.

BLACK OLIVE PATE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Spread the olives out on several thickness of paper toweling, top with several more thicknesses of paper toweling, then roll up tight, and set aside (this is to rid the olives of as much moisture as possible so that the pate won't be soupy).
• Slice off the top part of the head of garlic, exposing the cloves. Drizzle the head with olive oil. Wrap the whole head of garlic in a double thickness of aluminum foil, and then twist each loose end into a gooseneck sealing in the garlic. Place in the oven and roast until the garlic is very tender, about 1 hour; remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. Take out all cloves of garlic and put into a blender or food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade; add the olives and pepper, and puree by buzzing 15 seconds nonstop. Scrape down the sides of the blender or work bowl with a rubber spatula, buzz for another 15 seconds, then scoop all into a small bowl, and cover tightly. Store in a refrigerator until about 30 minutes before serving.
• Mound into a small decorative bowl and serve as a cocktail spread on crisp crackers.

BLACK OLIVES WITH HARISSA

Steps:

• In a colander rinse olives under cold water 1 minute and in a large bowl cover with cold water. Soak olives 4 hours to remove excess salt and drain well. To make the harissa: In a mortar with a pestle, an electric spice grinder, or a cleaned coffee grinder, grind seeds fine. If using mortar and pestle, add chiles, garlic, and salt and pound, to taste. If using a spice or coffee grinder, transfer seeds to a small food processor and add chiles, garlic, and salt. Grind mixture to a paste. Add pepper and oil and pound or puree to a coarse paste. In a large bowl stir together the harissa and olives and marinate, covered and chilled, at least 6 hours or overnight. Olives may be prepared 1 week ahead and kept chilled, covered. Serve olives at room temperature.
• Roasted Peppers: Using a long-handled fork, char peppers over an open flame or on a rack set over an electric burner, turning, until skins are blackened, 4 to 6 minutes. (Or to broil peppers on rack of a broiler pan under a preheated broiler about 2 inches from heat, turning every 5 minutes, 15 to 20 minutes, or until skins are blistered and charred.) Transfer peppers to a bowl and let stand, covered, until cool enough to handle. Keeping peppers whole, peel them, starting at blossom end. Cut off pepper tops and discard seeds and ribs.

OLIVE PASTE

Steps:

• In a food processor, pulse to make a smooth paste of the olives, capers, garlic, and thyme(if using dried).
• Add the olive oil while the food processor is running.
• Season with black pepper and add the lemon juice(and thyme if using fresh).
• Enjoy!