Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade

Homemade Tomato Tapenade is bursting with flavor. Sun-dried tomatoes, olives, rosemary, and garlic make for the most delicious dip or sauce.

Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade is a dip or spread that can also be used as a sauce. It only takes 10 minutes to make and uses pantry staples like sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and garlic. Grab your blender and get ready for amazing flavor! Scroll down to read more about tapenade and tips for making it, or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.

What Is Tapenade?

Tapenade is a Provencal spread, traditionally made from minced olives, capers, and anchovies. I like to think of it as a salty, briny French cousin of Italian pesto. This version leaves out the anchovies, making it vegan-friendly. And there are sun-dried tomatoes added for a lot of rich, sunny flavor.

What Kind Of Tomatoes To Use

You’ll find a variety of sun-dried tomatoes in the produce aisle at your grocery store, or sometimes in the tomato sauce aisle. Look for the jarred variety, packed in oil. Unlike the dried, bagged versions, sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil won’t need to be softened or reconstituted and are ready to use as soon as you open the jar.

What Kind Of Olives To Use

My usual tapenade recipe uses kalamata olives. And you know I’m all about adding lots of flavor to olives by marinating them myself. However, for this tomato tapenade, I wanted the tomato flavor to be the most prominent. I therefore recommend using a mild-flavored olive. Look for standard, pitted black olives, and avoid kalamata and any fancy marinated olives from the olive bar, which will be too potent.

How To Make The Tomato Tapenade

Allow any excess oil from the tomatoes to fall back into the jar as you measure them out for the recipe. This will be replaced with fresh olive oil, which you’ll add along with the olives, garlic, fresh rosemary, and salt into a blender or food processor. Blend on high speed until all of the ingredients are finely minced and almost smooth, and the sauce is ready.

How To Use This Tapenade

The sun-dried tomato tapenade can be used immediately, and served either warm or at room temperature. It freezes well, too, for up to three months, and will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for a week. Here are some great ways to use it:

• It’s a great dip for crusty bread and for mozzarella sticks.
• It makes a perfect pasta sauce. See it used here on this this Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta.
• It’s one of my all-time favorite bruschetta toppings.
• It’s also great as a pizza sauce (try it on this Air Fryer Pizza) and stirred into hummus (like this version of hummus made without chickpeas but with white beans instead).
• I like to add it as a topping to this Whipped Feta Board. And it’s amazing added to the herbs when making these Italian Chicken Breasts.
• Finally, it’s the perfect spread to add to a Charcuterie Board.

More Tomato Recipes

However you decide to use this tapenade, I know you’re going to love it! I also think you’ll love the other tomato recipes that I’ve linked to below.

• Homemade Tomato Sauce
• Traditional Southern Tomato Gravy
• Baked Chicken With Tomatoes, Basil, and Chilies
• Pesto Chicken
• Italian Eggs
• Tomato Potato Soup

Enjoy! -Christine xo

Podcast Episode About Making Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade

Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this tapenade, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:

Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.

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Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 1 review

• Author: Christine Pittman
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 0 minutes
• Total Time: 10 minutes
• Yield: About 3/4 cup 1x
• Category: Sauce
• Method: No-Cook
• Cuisine: American

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DESCRIPTION

Homemade Tomato Tapenade is bursting with flavor. Sun-dried tomatoes, olives, rosemary, and garlic make for the most delicious dip or sauce.

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Ingredients

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• 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, lightly drained
• 1 (6 oz.) can pitted black olives, well drained
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 Tbsp. fresh rosemary leaves*
• 1/2 tsp. salt

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Instructions

1. To a small food processor or blender add sun-dried tomatoes, olives, olive oil, garlic cloves, rosemary, and salt. Blend on high until almost smooth.
2. Serve immediately or refrigerate, covered, up to 7 days. Freeze up to 3 months.

Notes

*I don’t recommend using dried rosemary here. Those dry pointy sticks of herb won’t soften well in this mixture. Instead, if you don’t have fresh rosemary, you can use a different fresh herb like basil, oregano, or thyme. Or, you can use 1 tablespoon of a softer dried herb, like dried basil, dried oregano, or dried thyme.