All posts filed under: olives

Manchego Cheese and Olive Crackers with Creamy Radicchio Spread

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The second recipe that I tested for the Food52 website this week is this delicious little bite of some unexpected ingredients.  The original recipe is here.  This recipe took a little more effort than the kalamata olive tapenade crostinis, but I was excited to learn something new:  making homemade cheese crackers!  I had no idea that making homemade crackers would be so easy–it’s basically the same process as making a pastry crust–and it can easily be made in a food processor.  The cracker is then topped with a mixture of radicchio and cream cheese. Radicchio is a very assertive (ok, bitter) lettuce, but it becomes wonderfully mellow when mixed with the cream cheese.  What I also loved about this recipe is that it uses castelvetrano olives!  I may have mentioned my love for these olives before–bright green and buttery, they were a perfect compliment both inside the cheese cracker and in the garnish. Do yourself a favor and buy the olives already pitted–it will make the process that much easier.  I found an enormous jar …

Crostinis with Olive Tapenade and Burrata Cheese

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The holidays are upon us already!  Where has this month gone?  Heck, where has this year gone?  Even though I love the holiday season, it is really easy to become overwhelmed with all of the things that need to be done–the decorating, the shopping.  But, what I really love, is the partying!  I feel like I haven’t done much cooking since Thanksgiving, so in order to get myself back into the swing of things, I volunteered to test a couple of recipes for the website Food52.  Both recipes I tested were not only flavorful and inventive, but were very easy to put together and perfect to make or take to a holiday party.  The first one is a crostini topped with creamy burrata cheese and an olive tapenade.  The original recipe is here and since I was testing the recipe I made it exactly as written and didn’t make any changes.  I think it turned out perfectly and I really loved how well the briny tapenade paired with the creaminess of the cheese.  If you’ve never had …

Marinated Olives and White Bean Hummus

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While on vacation in Portland, The Man and I took a Spanish Tapas cooking class at Hip Cooks.  Besides having a lot of fun and learning some new techniques, we came home with some new recipes and fresh inspiration for a few dishes that we were already familiar with. It’s funny, but I can remember a time when I didn’t like olives at all.  They just weren’t part of our family’s diet and the only time I was ever exposed to them was when they ended up on a pizza (by mistake, I’m sure).  When I was eighteen years old, I decided that being olive-averse was unacceptable and determined once and for all I was going to learn to like them. So, from that point on, every time I had the opportunity to eat an olive, I did.  And little by little, I learned to love them.  Now I can’t imagine life without them! My favorite olives are Castelvetrano olives. I love them as much for their neon green color as for their buttery flavor! These …