Kalamata Olive-Basil Pesto

One of my husband's co-worker suggested that I combined olives and basil together. What a brilliant idea. Because I love olives, I love basil, and I love pesto!

The word pesto originated from Italy and it means "to pound, or crush". So any herbs with garlic, pounded in a mortar with a pestle...are called PESTO. Simple eh?

I have lots of sweet basil growing in containers out in my back patio.

Everyday I sit next to one of them and run my fingers through them.

The aromas they release, just by touching them, are absolutely heavenly.

This is a very interesting basil. It's called "Aristotle Basil".

They have small buds but are very strong in fragrance.

I usually use them as garnishing or to flavor cheese.

For the ingredients I have:

A hand full of sweet basil

1/2 Cup of olives

4 garlic cloves (I love pesto with a kick)

A slice of lemon ~1TBS lemon juice

1/4 Cup feta cheese

1TBS olive oil

I'm using a hand blender :-) But again if you want you could use a mortar and pestle.

Make it into a smooth paste and garnish with Aristotle Basil.

This is EXTREMELY delicious! Please try it out!

Tapenade

Tapenade, doesn't it sound like a sophisticated food? But what is it? Here's Wiki's definition:

"Tapenade (pronounced tap-en-AAD) is a Provençal dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the provençal word for capers, tapenas (Occitan pronunciation: [taˈpenɔ]). It is a popular food in the south of France, where it is generally eaten as an hors d’œuvre, spread on bread. Sometimes it is also used to stuff fillets for a main course." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapenade

I normally don't measure. This is about...

1 cup pitted Kalamata olive

3 Tablespoon capers

1 garlic clove

Olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl or large measuring cup.

Add 1-2 Tablespoon of Olive oil.

The more oil the smoother it will be, I used 2 TBS.

I used a hand blender because it's easy, but for the adventurous you could use a mortar and pestel.

Mix until smooth like this. I did not add extra salt because the olives are already salty.

Serve chilled is the best!

Tapenade on sprouted bread. Add as a side dish to your Greek salad...Yummm.