This quick and easy Cavolo Nero Tapenade brings together the tapenade of France and the dinosaur kale of Italy all into one wee jar that adds pizazz to soups, pasta and sandwiches.
Like so many others I love France and French food, the way they use everything available, waste nothing and can bring out the very best in the humblest of ingredients.
While some think of French food as a complicated, cheffy, over styled cuisine, for me it is the rustic, rural dishes that grab my interest and tickle my taste buds the most.
Tapenade
Tapenade originally hails from the Provence region of France where olives feature as the main ingredient. While I love making tapenade with olives I also like to mix things up a bit and try different veggies to get different flavours and textures into this simple paste like sauce/dip.
This is my Cavolo Nero Tapenade made with the richly robust cabbage (Italian kale) from Italy.
A little bit of a Mediterranean flavour fusion.
Cavolo Nero (Italian Kale)
I always think that the leaves of this tasty cabbage look almost prehistoric and dinosaur like with their deep green colouring and bubbled up lumpy texture like some huge reptilian skin.
Luckily my Jurassic fantasies end there and once I’ve patted the leaves a few times while rinsing them I get over myself and can make this quick, easy and oh so simple sauce.
Cavolo Nero has thick leaves so you will want to steam these first for just five minutes before making the tapenade to soften them up a little and also ramp up the flavour.
Cavolo Nero Tapenade
I use traditional capers, lemon juice and zest, anchovies, olive oil and black pepper as well as the cabbage for my tapenade.
Really it is just a case of whazzing them all together in your food processor until you get the consistency you prefer.
Don’t season with salt as the anchovies are salty enough.
How to serve this tapenade
You can serve your tapenade on slices of baguette in the traditional French style.
As a dip or as I have here, simply stirred into a bowl of steaming pasta with a spoonful of cottage cheese and then a few shavings of parmesan on top.
Just a few ingredients, very simple preparation and a super tasty result, now that’s what I call kitchen crafting!
Looking for more quick and easy sauces to try? Then check these out before you go;
Homemade Aioli (garlic mayonnaise)
Scottish highlander mustard with whisky
Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.
PS Check out my 50 Homemade Pantry Basics post for some great ideas for store cupboard basics.
Cavolo Nero Tapenade
Ingredients
- 8 leaves cavolo nero Italian kale/dinosaur kale
- 6 anchovies from jar or tin and drained
- 1 tbsp capers drained
- 1/2 lemon juice and zest
- black pepper
- olive oil
Instructions
- Steam the cavolo nero leaves for 5 minutes to soften.
- Whazz everything in a food processor and drizzle in the olive oil until you get the consistancy you prefer.
- Store in a lidden jar in the fridge and use within 4 days.
This looks delicious! I love tapenade and didn’t know that it could be made with anything other than olives. We call your cabbage “Dinosaur Kale” here in the US. I have some in my fridge now. I may need to make this dish with it. Thanks for sharing! I enjoy your recipes.
Hi Pam,
Love the name Dinosaur Kale, hope you make this tapenade and enjoy it.
K x
I was also going to remark on it being called “dino kale” here, which cracks me up. Like, RAAAHR! KALE! Also, I would classify this more as a pesto than a tapenade, but that’s splitting hairs.
Thanks Sean, I’m going for tapenade as pesto for me has a herb, nuts, possibly cheese and olive oil, whilst a traditional tapenade has no nuts or cheese but does boast anchovies and capers. A hair well split!
K x
Hi Karon,
It’s preserving season here now so thank you for this recipe. I have heaps of kale in the back yard and will use your recipe to jar up some, alongside with dehydrated kale chips. The kids just love them and now that we can call it Dinasour Kale, they will love it even more! Thanks for the idea 😀
Also would you mind telling me where you got the square hermetic jars from?
Cheers,
A
Hi Ayben,
Go for it, dinosaur crisps with dinosaur dip, what could be better! I got that square jar in my local branch of T K Maxx, I get loads of jars there.
K x
Thank you so much! I’m in Australia so might not be able to find it here but it is a good starting point for my search 🙂
A xo
This is a really tasty fusion dish whether you call it pesto or tapenade.
Made as shown in recipe except that I added 3 cloves of garlic & steamed them (to take out the harsh bite) for 5 minutes with the kale.
Made it with corned beef, asst. vegetables, and bread. Tasted good with all three.
Wife says she is waiting for me to make some pasta for it to be partnered with.
Remember, if you only have half the kale, you can mix with spinach, basil, parsley, cilantro, or any other green you enjoy the taste of.
Don’t forget the anchovies – DO NOT leave them out. The neighbor lady that I made diner for said she loved it but would NOT have eaten it if I had told her first that it had anchovies in it. Lesson learned.
Also, after you make this, let it rest in the fridge for 4 or 8 hours to permit flavors to mingle.
Remember also, not to add salt as the cheese, anchovies, and capers have lots of salt for dish.
Made it in a mini food processor – it fit fine and less of a washing cleanup job.
Thanks so much to Karon for posting this wonderful recipe. I will make it again many times.
Thanks James for all the info. So glad you like my recipes.
K x
I’ve just made this and it’s delicious! We are going to stir it into pasta later and grate Parmesan on top. I used a preserved lemon because that’s what I had. Would be lovely as a dip. Great way of using cabbage in hot weather, thank you for sharing you recipe.
Hi Louise
So glad that you made the tapenade. I’m making it out of kale just now as we have so much of the stuff in the veg patch. Hope you make your own preserved lemons. Have two recipes for those on here.
K