Raise your hand if you’re olive obsessed like us! This Green Olive Tapenade checks all the boxes: great texture, amazing flavor, and that can be made in 5 minutes flat.
We’re mixing salty, briny green olives with capers and anchovies (don’t worry, it’s not too much!), then brightening the dip up by adding fresh herbs like basil and parsley, as well as fresh lemon zest. Garlic adds a subtle kick, while pine nuts give the tapenade a butteriness that we just love!
Spread green olive tapenade on toasted baguette or serve with crackers and crudité! This is the most perfect start to any meal, and we highly doubt you’ll be able to stop after one bite!
For more easy appetizers, be sure to try our Eggplant Caponata and Whipped Feta Dip!
Ingredients For Green Olive Tapenade
The best part about making olive tapenade at home is how quick it comes together. Once you’ve grabbed all ingredients, you simply process it until finely chopped, then pulse with extra virgin olive oil. Doesn’t get easier than that!
- Pitted green olives: Look for Castelvetrano olives (Cerignola or Mazanilla are good choice too)
- Pine nuts: Buttery and nutty, these add a great texture and flavor.
- Anchovies: For a salty, umami bite!
- Capers: A salty, briny caper adds tons of great flavor.
- Garlic: For a little heat.
- Basil: To balance out the olives, anchovies, and capers with a bright, lemony flavor.
- Parsley: Fresh parsley adds another lemon flavor.
- Lemon zest: To help lighten and round out the flavors.
- Kosher salt: To season everything.
- Extra virgin olive oil: EVOO will give the green olive tapenade a smoother consistency when blending.
How To Make Green Olive Tapenade
- Pulse ingredients. Combine green olives, pine nuts, anchovies, capers, garlic, basil, parsley, and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor fitted with blade attachment. Pulse until coarsely chopped.
- Blend with olive oil. Add olive oil and Kosher salt, then blend until a smooth paste-like consistency forms.
- Adjust seasoning. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt as needed.
- Serve immediately. Use immediately or store in an airtight container in a refrigerator until needed, allowing to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil and pine nuts, if desired.
Can be made 1 week in advance. Store in an airtight container in a refrigerator, then allow to come to room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
Best Olives For Tapenade
While you can absolutely make tapenade from any variety of olive (black olive tapenade is also a favorite around here!), we’re sticking with green olives in this recipe. We recommend Castelvetrano, Cerignola, or Mazanilla olives!
Castelvetrano olives: from Sicily, these olives are bright green, sweet, and have a mild, buttery flavor. Side note, they pair beautifully with white wine!
Cerignola olives: from Puglia, these olives are buttery, large (great for making stuffed olives!), and work particularly well with capers and anchovies.
Mazanilla olives: from Spain, these olives pair well with almonds and garlic.
Expert Tips
- Serve at room temperature! If you make green olive tapenade ahead of time and refrigerate it, make sure to leave enough time for it to come to room temperature before serving.
- An extra drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt just before serving takes this olive tapenade recipe over the top!
- Use any mix of the recommended green olives listed above.
- While you can substitute pine nuts with other nuts, we love the buttery flavor they add, without being too crunchy (like almonds). Pine nuts are a much more tender nut. Walnuts or pistachios would also work well!
- Serve on toasted baguette or with crackers — these Firehook rosemary crackers are our family’s favorite!
This is seriously heaven. For anyone out there who loves salty, briny olives, this is the perfect appetizer! It’s got an amazing texture — a bit creamy, but still with enough chunks of olives and capers that it’s not baby food — and has amazing vibrancy from fresh basil, parsley, and lemon zest. Oh, and the anchovies? Salty, umami deliciousness!
We’re just going to say it: this is the best olive tapenade you will make, hands down, and we wouldn’t change one thing about it!
If you make our Green Olive Tapenade recipe, please let us know by leaving a review and rating below!
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More Appetizers To Try!
Fried Goat Cheese Balls Marinated Feta Antipasto Skewers Homemade Ricotta Israeli Cheese Bourekas
Green Olive Tapenade Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups green olives pitted, such as Castelvetrano, Cerignola, or Manzanilla
- 5-6 anchovy fillets
- ½ cup pine nuts
- ½ cup fresh basil plus more for serving
- ½ cup fresh parsley
- ¼ cup capers drained
- 1 medium clove garlic
- 1 lemon zested
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Flaky sea salt for serving
Instructions
- Pulse ingredients. Combine green olives, anchovies, pine nuts, basil, parsley, capers, garlic, and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor fitted with blade attachment. Pulse until coarsely chopped.
- Blend with olive oil. Add olive oil and Kosher salt, then blend until a smooth paste-like consistency forms.
- Adjust seasoning. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt as needed.
- Serve immediately. Use immediately or store in an airtight container in a refrigerator until needed, allowing to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil and pine nuts, if desired.
Notes
- Nutrition facts include only the olive tapenade, not baguette or crackers.
- Can be made 1 week in advance. Store in an airtight container in a refrigerator, then allow to come to room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
Let me tell y’all…I LOVE green tapenade, and this is one of the best I’ve ever had! Awesome recipe, thank you Ari.
Juliane, I am SO GLAD you agree! I am majorly obsessed with this recipe and can’t wait to make more later today! xo, Ari
This is the best tapenade recipe I’ve ever made. It was easy and paired so well with my glass (**cough** bottle) of white wine. Ten out of ten and I’ll definitely be making again. Thanks for the AH-mazing recipe!!
Hah! It is the perfect accompaniment for a glass *wink*wink* of vino! We adore this tapenade — one of my fav ways to enjoy is on crusty baguette with burrata and mortadella, ugh it is divine!! xo, Ari
Are pine nuts essential or can they be substituted with another nut? I have cashews and almonds on hand.
You can absolutely substitute them!! I think cashews will break down more easily than the almonds, so that’d be my vote. If you ever have other nuts lying around, this would be great with walnuts, pecans, or even pistachios! Enjoy and let me know what you think. xo, Ari
Great recipe, so tasty. Thank you!
So happy you enjoyed this, Jodi! It’s my favorite! xo, Ari
Recipe sounds great. But I want to save it and there is no way to do that without a lot of irrelevant ads, etc.
Alright, I take back my comment. I finally found a print tab, hidden in very fine print.
Hi Barbara — Glad you were able to figure it out! As a note, there are also ‘JUMP TO RECIPE’ and ‘PRINT RECIPE’ buttons at the very top of every single recipe post. So if you’d rather not scroll through and read the tips + tricks, you can always quickly get to the recipe card or print without having to do so. Best, Ari
Easy and sooo tasty. Yum yum. Ive made it twice in a week. Definitely a recipe to keep. In my Love it file now.
I feel the same way! I could eat the whole bowl myself, it’s so good. Thanks, Carol! xo, Ari
I made this with Cerignola olives (I pitted myself lol) but had to leave out the anchovies as I keep kosher and would be serving this dip with a meat meal and we don’t mix fish and meat. A different discussion! Anyway for me maybe because of that, it lacks a certain something. I will drizzle it with my Graza olive oil and the flaky salt you suggested and won’t leave out the wine everyone is referring to! I would totally make it again with the anchovies for a meal I know will be strictly fish and dairy. Bring on the sourdough!
Thanks for the feedback, Ruthy! Please report back when you try it with anchovies (and if you can find them, Castelvetrano olives)! xo, Ari