Back to basics

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When you are in a funk, it´s good to turn to comfort food, and to me, comfort food usually equals Mediterranean food. But I didn´t want to do the same old stuff, since I have a blog to update after all, so I turned to The Cook´s Book and started making a list of all the basic and not-so-basic recipes I want to try.

This tomato tapenade basically screamed at me. As you probably know, the typical tapenade is mainly made out of olives and capers. But this one also has sundried tomatoes, garlic, lemon and many other appetizing additions.

One of the beauties of this recipe, besides the fact that it packs a punch in terms of flavor, is that it´s incredibly versatile. The typical use would be spread over bread, and it´s delicious like that, but I also tried it with chickpeas and it´s amazing, and it made a last minute meal of plain spaghetti almost sing. Other uses I´ve thought of is to mix it with ricotta and use it as a ravioli filling, or add it to dough for pizza or bread.

I think you get the point by now, you need to make it! You can adjust the quantities in the recipe to suit your taste, as did I, or add some other herbs you think would work well here. Bon appetitt!

Tomato tapenade (adapted from a recipe by Paul Gayler found in The Cook´s Book)

Makes 1 cup

3 1/2 oz (100g) oiled-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and rougly chopped (I used around 15 regular sun-dried tomatoes, not preserved in oil)

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 1/2 tsp capers, rinsed and drained (the original called for the same amount of tablespoons, but I thought it was too much for my taste)

3 tbsp pitted green olives

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp chopped rosemary

1 tsp lemon juice

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor. Using the on-off pulse button, process to a coarse purée, but not until smooth.

2. Season the tapenade with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature (but you can keep it in the fridge for at least a few days and I´m fairly sure it freezes well too.)

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Filed under food, savory, vegetables