Salads
Tomato and tarragon salad with tapenade toast
Tapenade is a French olive paste and can be eaten as a dip or spread. This recipe is great for sharing as a starter or light lunch. It will make more tapenade than you'll need for one meal, but it's not worth making less, and it keeps well for a few days in the fridge. You could use shop-bought tapenade if you prefer, although making your own is easy and satisfying.
Ingredients
- For the tapenade toast
- 200g pitted black olives
- 2 tbsp capers (if in brine, soak in water for 20 minutes then drain)
- 3 preserved anchovies
- 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
- leaves from 3 thyme sprigs
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley leaves, plus a little extra for garnishing
- juice of ½ lemon, more to taste
- about 5 tbsp olive oil
- slices of ciabatta or sourdough, griddled or toasted
- For the tomato salad
- 8 large tomatoes (a few more if smaller)
- 2 pinches of caster sugar
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- juice from ¼ of a lemon, more to taste
- 1 good tsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp tarragon leaves, roughly chopped
- salt and black pepper
Method
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Step 1
Make the tapenade by blitzing the olives, capers, anchovies, garlic and thyme in a food processor, then adding the parsley, lemon juice and just enough oil to make a rough paste. (If you don't have a food processor, pound the ingredients in a pestle and mortar, then stir in the lemon juice and oil.)
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Step 2
Season to taste: you'll need little or no salt, as the mixture is already salty from the anchovies. Thinly slice the tomatoes and arrange on a platter. Sprinkle with the sugar. Whisk the remaining olive oil, lemon juice and mustard together. Taste and add more lemon juice or oil if needed.
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Step 3
Pour over the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and scatter over the tarragon. Spread the tapenade on to the ciabatta and sprinkle over a little extra parsley. Serve with the tomato salad.