Most people buy a jar of olive tapenade, spread it on a cracker and stop there. But tapenade — a blend of crushed olives, capers, olive oil and herbs — is one of the most versatile ingredients in a kitchen. It is a pasta sauce, a pizza base, a marinade, a sandwich upgrade and a breakfast game changer. Here are seven ways to use tapenade that go far beyond the cheese board.
1. Toss It Through Hot Pasta
This is the ten-minute weeknight dinner that nobody expects from a jar of tapenade. Cook spaghetti or penne until al dente. Reserve half a cup of pasta water before draining. Toss the hot pasta with two to three tablespoons of tapenade, a splash of the starchy pasta water and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. The heat melts the tapenade into a silky, savoury coating. Add halved cherry tomatoes, a squeeze of lemon and a handful of fresh parsley. Finish with Parmesan.
The salty, briny depth of the tapenade replaces the need for a long-simmered sauce. It clings to long noodles better than short pasta, making spaghetti the ideal choice.
2. Use It as a Pizza Base
Spread a thin layer of tapenade directly onto pizza dough in place of tomato sauce. The salty, umami-rich base pairs naturally with fresh mozzarella, roasted red onion, mushrooms and crumbled feta. Top with fresh basil after baking. For a quicker version, use flatbreads or naan — spread with tapenade, top and grill for five minutes.
Black olive tapenade gives a deeper, earthier flavour. Green olive tapenade is brighter and more peppery. Both work, but black is the more traditional pizza choice.
3. Stuff It Under Chicken Skin
Cut a pocket into a chicken breast and spoon in a tablespoon of tapenade with a crumble of feta. Press the pocket closed, season the outside with salt and pepper, and sear in a hot pan with olive oil before finishing in a 190-degree oven for twenty minutes. The tapenade melts into the meat during cooking, basting the chicken from the inside out.
This works equally well with chicken thighs — push tapenade under the skin before roasting. The result is intensely flavoured, juicy chicken with almost no effort.
4. Transform Your Morning Eggs
Spoon a tablespoon of tapenade over a fried egg on sourdough toast. The runny yolk mixes with the briny olive paste to create something far more interesting than butter or avocado alone. For scrambled eggs, fold tapenade through at the last moment so it warms without cooking out.
A more composed version: toast ciabatta, spread with tapenade, top with a poached egg and finish with microgreens and a drizzle of olive oil. This is a five-minute breakfast that looks and tastes like a restaurant plate.
5. Replace Mayo in Sandwiches
Tapenade delivers salt, fat, acid and umami in a single spread — the same four flavour elements that mayo provides, but with far more character. Spread it on ciabatta or sourdough as the base for any sandwich. It pairs particularly well with roasted vegetables and goat cheese, or with Italian meats like salami and prosciutto with provolone.
The practical advantage: tapenade holds up better than mayo in a packed lunch or picnic. It does not spoil as quickly and improves as the flavours meld into the bread.
6. Use It as a Braai Marinade
Thin two tablespoons of tapenade with a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil and the juice of half a lemon. This instantly becomes a marinade for lamb chops, chicken thighs, salmon or halloumi. The olives, capers and herbs in the tapenade are already the building blocks of a good marinade — the oil and acid simply loosen them.
For vegetables, coat baby marrow, brinjal and red onion in the tapenade marinade and grill over medium coals. The sugars in the tapenade will caramelise on the surface, adding smoky depth.
7. Build a Grazing Board Around It
Place a jar of tapenade at the centre of a board and surround it with crostini, sliced baguette, cucumber rounds, halved mini peppers, fresh figs, grapes, walnuts and a wedge of baked brie. Guests build their own combinations. The tapenade becomes the anchor that ties the board together.
For a more structured appetiser, fill halved mini sweet peppers with tapenade and crumble feta on top — two-bite starters that can be assembled in minutes. Cucumber rounds with a teaspoon of tapenade offer a low-carb alternative to bread.
O for Olive produces both black and green olive tapenades at Swartrivier Farm in Prince Albert, in 140-gram jars for the kitchen and 400-gram jars for entertaining. Every jar starts with olives grown and brined on the farm — the same olives you can taste if you visit the farm.
Find a stockist near you or visit the farm to try them yourself.
