There are three olive vendors at our Tuesday morning market and my favorite offers three kinds of tapenade: green olive tapenade, black olive tapenade, and sun-dried tomato and olive tapenade. All three are uniquely delicious.

Tapenade is a rich and gutsy olive, caper and anchovy purée that is most often spread on bread and served as an appetizer, but it has endless uses and variations. The most basic, black olive tapenade is very easy to make and keeps well in the refrigerator for one month. It can be used to make tarts, spread on crackers and topped with goat cheese, gently spread under the skin of chicken before it's roasted, tossed with steamed new potatoes, dabbed onto pizza or added to vinaigrette for extra zing.

Tapenade

makes about 1 1/3 cup

3 cups pitted Greek or French black olives
2 garlic cloves, peeled
6 oil cured anchovy fillets, drained*
1 tablespoon capers, drained
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Place all the ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor and process into a thick purée. With the machine running, add the olive oil and process until smooth. Taste for seasoning and enjoy!

*note: to remove extra saltiness, the anchovies can be soaked in 1/8 cup milk for 15 minutes then rinsed under running water and patted dry before adding to the food processor