Black Olive Tapenade & Crudités

📝 Ingredients

• 200 g pitted black olives (drained weight)
• 2 tbsp capers (about 20 g drained)
• 4 anchovy fillets in oil (about 16 g)
• 1 garlic clove
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• ¼ lemon (juice, about 1 tbsp)
• 1 red pepper (about 180 g)
• 1 cucumber (about 300 g)
• 250 g cherry tomatoes
• Black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Food processor (mini chopper)
• Colander
• Chopping board
• Knife
• Teaspoon
• Serving bowl

📖 Steps

1. Drain the olives and capers in a sieve, then rinse the capers under cold water to remove excess salt. Squeeze each olive between two fingers to check there are no stones left: just one is enough to damage the blade. Pat the anchovies dry on kitchen paper.
2. Peel the garlic clove, halve it and remove the green germ if there is one: that's what gives raw garlic its acrid taste. Squeeze the lemon quarter to get about 1 tbsp juice.
3. Put the olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, thyme and lemon juice in the food processor. Blitz in 5 or 6 short one-second pulses, scraping down the sides in between: you want a coarse paste with small visible pieces, not a smooth purée.
4. Add the olive oil and pulse 2 or 3 more times, just to bind: the tapenade should be glossy and hold on a spoon. Season with pepper and taste, without adding salt: the olives, capers and anchovies are already plenty salty.
5. Transfer the tapenade to a bowl, cover and leave to rest in the fridge while you prepare the crudités: the flavours meld and the garlic mellows.
6. Wash the pepper, halve it, remove the seeds and white membranes, then cut into 1 cm sticks. Cut the cucumber into 8 cm lengths, then each length into quarters lengthways; scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon for crunchier sticks.
7. Rinse the cherry tomatoes and leave them whole. Place the bowl of tapenade in the centre of a platter and arrange the pepper and cucumber sticks and the tomatoes all around. Serve well chilled.