Olive Tapenade with Goat Cheese Crostini

I am a sucker when it comes to olives. Simply put, I like them a lot. Olives have that perfect salty and briney flavor that goes perfect with certain dishes. I typically only have olives around the holidays for some odd reason, or used in a Greek salad, and with that said, I love kalamata olives. Kalamata olives have that perfect olive flavor and when the pits are removed, can be made into what is called a tapenade. So there is your fancy word of the day, tapenade. Tapenade is that lovely French based word that basically means finely chopped olives that are mixed with a few simple ingredients, and typically served as an appetizer on crackers or bread.

As my wife is not a big fan of olives, I do my best to try and create something that I hope, just hope, that she might try, and really become to love the flavor of olives that I so much enjoy. So this new recipe is one that I decided to serve on a garlic crostini (yes, another new word for some) along with goat cheese that just had awesomeness written all over it. Lets get started.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of kalamata olives, pits removed
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 anchovy fillet
• 1/4 cup of flat leaf parsley
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

Ingredients for the Crostini:

• 1 loaf of rustic French bread, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 cup of goat cheese, room temperature

Start by soaking the olives in cold water for about five minutes, then drain them.

Take all of your olive tapenade ingredients and add them to a blender or food processor and pulse them down until everything is finely chopped. Scrape out the tapenade and place into a small serving bowl.

Next, preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Brush the olive oil onto each bread round. Place the bread onto a baking sheet and cook in the preheat oven until each round is a nice golden brown. Remove them from the oven. Rub the garlic clove gently onto each round.

To finish this off, smear a bit of the goat cheese onto the crostini and top with a bit of the olive tapenade. Repeat.

Take a bite. You should now find yourself in a place called “Flavortown”. The nice crunch of the crostini paired with the creaminess of the goat cheese and saltiness of the olive tapenade really just sets this one up for a success. Well, a success in my book, but my wife…. I still did not get her to try the olive tapenade. I had my second resort which was a pickled tomato, or just a simple crostini with a goat cheese smear. However you spread it, it is simple, and delicious. I hope you enjoy.