As we grow old, our tastes change or develop. When I was younger, I went through a brisket and barley phase. That was all I ate. My parents pushed other foods, particularly eggs, but I refused anything else. Eventually, I allowed more flavors into my taste-testing vocabulary, but I spent much of my childhood and adolescence as an extremely picky eater.
I remember the first time I tried an olive. "This tastes like a band-aid," I said. I didn't understand the red piece that hid like a tongue inside of it. I later learned this to be the pimento. I am not sure when I finally decided to try again with this fruit, but when I allowed it entrance in my mouth something happened. An explosion of flavors--oily and salty with an infusion of vinegar. The band-aid flavor no longer existed. I was in love. I began to frequent olive bars in grocery stores and high-end markets. I tried olives stuffed with cheese, garlic and nuts. Black, green, purple. I ordered them on my pizza and began drinking martinis, just for the skewer of olives swimming inside the alcohol.
I welcome you into the wonderful world of olives, if you have yet to visit. To celebrate, let's make some tapenade.
Ingredients:
1 cup kalamata olives
¼ cup green olives
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 ½ tbsp of capers
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 garlic cloves chopped (may use one, if not a huge fan of garlic or you are serving this on a date and prefer a make-out session in the end)
Ground pepper to taste
Place all ingredients in a food processor. Process until coarse and a textured paste forms. Serve at room temperature with pita bread, crackers, sliced vegetables.
by Aimee Herman