Tapenade (olive pate)- vegan, gluten free

Couldn't resist adding it to some pink stripey beetroot pasta salad for the colour contrast!

Tapenade is a pate from Provence, France, which traditionally contains anchovies and capers (spicy little berries) as well as olives. ("Tapenade" comes from the Provencal word for capers.) In fact, it dates back to Roman times! Of course I wasn't going to put anchovies in, but I didn't feel like going out and buying capers either so I made this plainer version. It was great mixed in with salads and it was also a bit of a lunchbox star in sandwiches with slices of avocado. I added plenty of black pepper, but I'd love to try it with capers too, for that extra bit of va-va-voom, so that's what I'm going to do next time.

Makes a jar:

300g (drained weight) pitted black olives

a pinch of seasalt

1/3-1/2 tsp coarse black pepper

12 tsp compound hing

50ml extra virgin olive oil

1 tab lemon juice

• Blend all the ingredients together (I put the olives in first.)
• It will keep for at least two days in the fridge.

I love how quick and easy spreads and dips are, don't you? What's your favourite?

A more conventional use for tapenade, on crackers.