Occasionally I have been tempted to buy a rather expensive but very delicious organic black olive pate from the herboristeria.
As I was ladling it out – or rather teaspooning it out sparingly – I looked at the jar. There was very little in it apart from olives. I wondered idly how difficult it was to make.
When I made mushroom pate, I thought about it again, as the addition of some olives to the mushrooms struck me as a possibly interesting improvement.
The next time I thought about making the mushroom pate, I remembered the idea of the olive pate and forgot about mushrooms altogether. I hot fingered it onto the net to look for olive pate recipes.
There wasn’t much to choose between them. They all had olives, olive oil, and garlic. About the only difference seemed to be whether you cooked the garlic first or used it raw.
In the end I roasted it, but it was probably too subtle for our taste, so next time I will use it raw.
I think one recipe added a leek and a carrot? – uh???? Seemed like trying to make a good simple recipe more complicated than necessary.
But, and this is a big BUT, I did find one interesting variation. Add a slice or two of lemon, including skin and pith, to the pate mix. An excellent idea. I douse all my pates with lemon juice anyway, but actually adding it to the pate gave it a wonderful lift.
So here you go:
Ingredients
One tin black olives (cost 67p compared with one small jar of pate at 3.60€)
Some olive oil
Some cloves of garlic
A slice or two of lemon
Whizz up in batadora until desired consistency
Chill in fridge
Olives, oil, garlic, and lemon in the batadora waiting to be zzzzzzed
Seriously easy, fast, cheap, and delicious. That tin of olives made enough for two greedy people to have two very large helpings for two separate salad meals.
Pate served with what looks like potato salad, roasted pimientos, and tofu and rice
If you wanted to entertain, then it would serve four or more for a starter, or a million people (maybe slightly less) for some tapas.
Pate on toast. Perfect.
Excellent.
