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For a 10-minute appetizer dip, sandwich spread, or pizza “sauce,” try this easy homemade Olive Tapenade. Customize this Mediterranean spread with any variety of briny olives.
If you love olives, you’ll love the salty, briny flavor of this tapenade spread. I love to eat it on fresh bread or toasted baguette slices, something with a neutral flavor profile that doesn’t compete with tapenade.
It’s delicious on a Mezze platter too (an appetizer board of Mediterranean fare). Pile fresh vegetables, olives, nuts, and pita chips, then add bowls of hummus or roasted eggplant dip to complete your Med Feast.
Table of Contents
Olive Tapenade Ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
- Olives: Seek out mild olives that have been cured in brine. I love Kalamata and Lucques olives but picholines, Castelvetrano olives, Niçoise olives from France, black olives, and green olives are also great choices. Use one kind or a combination of a few of your favorites.
- Anchovies: These add a fantastic savory, umami flavor to dishes. However, if you don’t want to buy and handle anchovies, you can use anchovy paste. Enjoy the flavor and get used to the mental aspect of them without having to touch them. (Just like tomato paste in a tube, it keeps indefinitely in the refrigerator.)
- Capers: Buy them brine-packed or salt-packed. The salt-packed ones have a more mild (and I think preferable) flavor although I like both. If you forget to rinse them, however, the flavor can be overpowering at times.
- Garlic: Roasting garlic is optional. To roast the garlic, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the top off a bulb of garlic so the cloves are exposed. Set the bulb on a piece of foil large enough to wrap the bulb. Top the exposed cloves with olive oil and wrap the bulb tightly in foil. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until a knife slides easily into the middle of the bulb.
How to Make Olive Tapenade
- In a food processor, combine olives, anchovies, capers, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Pulse 2 to 3 times until coarsely chopped.
- Drizzle in olive oil and pulse a few more times until a chunky paste forms, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve at room temperature.
What is the best food processor?
For making smaller portions of Olive Tapenade, I like using my Cuisinart Mini Prep Food Processor, which is my favorite mini food processor. It’s small, powerful, and perfect for making dips and sauces. You can get it for $39.17 at Amazon, and I think it’s a great addition to any kitchen.
Olive Tapenade Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes about 3 cups tapenade total, enough for 6 (1/2-cup servings).
- Storage: Store leftovers in airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Olive tapenade is freezer friendly! Transfer to glass jars, leave ½ inch head space, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- More flavors: Switch up your fresh herbs to include fresh basil, fresh thyme, fresh parsley, Herbs de Provence, or sun-dried tomatoes.
- Serving suggestion: Serve tapenade with pita chips, crostini, crackers, or chunks of sturdy bread. This olive spread is also delicious on top of deviled eggs; just add small dollops and watch them disappear. It’s also perfect served with goat cheese.
- Kalamata aioli: In a food processor, add 1 cup pitted and drained Kalamata olives, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 clove garlic, 5 large basil leaves (or 10 small), and 1 cup mayonnaise. Process until well combined. Serve with bread chunks. Yields about 2 cups.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tapenade is made with olives and capers, then flavored with other herbs and spices. The dish is finished with plenty of olive oil to give it the desired consistency.
Olive tapenade has a briny, salty flavor from the olives. This version also contains anchovies which lend a strong umami (meaty/savory) flavor.
To put this homemade Olive Tapenade to terrific use, spread it on toasted baguette, enjoy with fresh vegetables, toss with pasta, stuff it inside roasted mushrooms, use it instead of your usual pizza sauce, share as part of a charcuterie board, add a scoop to a buddha bowl or salad, or slather it on a sandwich.
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Olive Tapenade Recipe
Equipment
- Food processor (I have this one from Breville and it's amazing!)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups pitted, brine-cured olives drained (see note 1)
- 1 teaspoon anchovy paste or 2 anchovy filets, minced (see note 2)
- 3 tablespoons capers rinsed (see note 3)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons parsley coarsely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic roasted if desired (see note 4)
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
- In a food processor, combine olives, anchovies, capers, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Pulse 2 to 3 times until coarsely chopped.
- Drizzle in olive oil and pulse a few more times until a chunky paste forms, scraping down the sides as needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve at room temperature.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Olives: Seek out mild olives that have been cured in brine. I love Kalamata and Lucques olives but picholines and Niçoise olives are also great choices. Use one kind or a combination of a few of your favorites.
- Anchovies: These add a fantastic savory, umami flavor to dishes. However, if you don’t want to buy and handle anchovies, you can use anchovy paste. Enjoy the flavor and get used to the mental aspect of them without having to touch them.
- Capers: Buy them brine-packed or salt-packed. The salt-packed ones have a more mild (and I think preferable) flavor although I like both. If you forget to rinse them, however, the flavor can be overpowering at times.
- Garlic: Roasting garlic is optional. To roast the garlic, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the top off a bulb of garlic so the cloves are exposed. Set the bulb on a piece of foil large enough to wrap the bulb. Top the exposed cloves with olive oil and wrap the bulb tightly in foil. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until a knife slides easily in to the middle of the bulb.
- Yield: This recipe makes about 3 cups tapenade total, enough for 6 (1/2-cup servings).
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
I love tapenade but never made it before! Your recipe is not only delicious and easy, but it is the best tapenade I have ever eaten! I . I used kalamata’s and regular Spanish (Manzanilla) olives with pimento. I made no changes except to cut recipe by 1/3. I wish I hadn’t; should have made double! I cut and toasted some pita bread. Wonderful!
Thank you Charlene! So glad you enjoyed. – Meggan
You Have very good and simple recipes. I enjoy them a lot.
Hi, Meggan,
Great to have found your site – your advice and descriptions are clear and easy to follow, thank you!
My olive tree never bore fruit this past season so I bought a 5kg bucket from a farm where the only available option was pitted – sadly when I simply wanted to drain, then bottle in olive oil with crushed garlic and rosemary and, into a few, add a bayleaf. However, the upside is that the damaged olives (and there were a lot) can now be used for tapenade. I have discovered that tapenade lasts a long while in the fridge so between now and Christmas whenever I am invited out to a meal I will take a freshly decanted ramekin along for the host!
I do have one question – have you ever frozen tapenade? I’m about to experiment but thought I’d ask your advice.
Thank you – and a Happy Festive Season as we head into December, a hot one for us in the Southern Hemisphere!
Hi Garth, so glad you can repurpose those olives. I have never frozen this recipe myself but I don’t see why you can’t. I would suggest storing and freezing in an airtight container. Hope this helps! Happy holidays. – Meggan
So simple and oh so good.
I only needed a small amount since there is only two of us and I wanted to spread it on homemade Italian subs so I cut the recipe back to 1/3 scale. I didn’t have a whole head of garlic to roast so I just used a teaspoon of jarred, minced garlic and it was just fine.
I did drain off a little of the oil after I made it since I was also going to use a vinegar and oil blend on the sandwiches. But, the oil didn’t go to waste. I was also making a small side of pasta salad and just incorporated the olivey-delicious oil into the salad. This will be my go-to olive spread recipe.
Looking for some tasty food options, love olives and garlic, no tomatoes if poss or just a dash of it. Thankyou.
Hi Val, this recipe is a great place to start! You may also like our antipasto salad or this Spaghetti alla Puttanesca! Hope this helps! – Meggan
Both linked here: https://cash-surge.live/spaghetti-alla-puttanesca/%3C/a%3E https://cash-surge.live/italian-antipasto-salad-with-red-wine-vinaigrette/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Do you have any recommendations on which store-bought pitted, brine-cured olives, anchovy paste/anchovy filets, and capers to get?
Hi Amy! I typically buy whatever my grocery store has and I’ve never had any problems. Capers in particular seem exactly the same no matter which ones I buy. I do love any products from Mezzetta though, so their capers are a safe bet. Anchovy paste, Amore brand is the only one I’ve ever found locally and tried. It’s great! And for brine-cured olives, most Kalamata olives are brine-cured and they all taste very similar. Mezzetta is a good brand again. I hope this is helpful! Sorry for the delay in my reply. I had to go see what was at the store to know what I usually buy. 🙂 Thanks again and take care! -Meggan
Hello. I randomly came across this and I immediately started drooling. Very much appreciate the detail in the steps.
Hi Brandon, thanks! Hope you enjoy! – Meggan
This is a wonderful recipe, I didn’t roast my garlic and actually added a few more cloves. I wonder if I should have added the juice from the jar of olives. I used what I had already on hand which was Kalamata Olives. This was just delicious!
This is a wonderful recipe! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Maureen! Glad you enjoyed! -Meggan
I made this. I pulsed with a stick blender not a food processor and left it chunky and rustic. Needed no salt or pepper but I had used a mix of green and black olives from the deli in a light oil. Probably seasoned enough I am guessing. This recipe is perfect. Highly recommended fir sure.