Olive butter

This olive butter is very good and always a good savoury standby for breakfast toast if you are so inclined.

The addition of the extra virgin oil in this recipe gives, like the smoked garlic butter, a good soft consistency even when stored in the fridge.  Very useful if you are adding either, with some plain flour, to thicken a sauce or soup.

This is also a good butter to add an undertone of slight bitterness (depending, obviously, on the olives that used) to roasted vegetables which can be sweet, and this in itself, provides balance.

• 100 grams of green and black olives
• 50 grams of chopped flat leaf parsley
• 25 mls of good extra virgin olive oil
• 100 grams of softened salted butter

Whizz these through in a food processor and this will store quite nicely for a couple of weeks at the top of your fridge. 

Adding vinegar, anchovy and/or capers to this recipe will technically make it a form of tapenard.  Tapenard is also good to cook with, especially as a roasting base for asparagus and French beans, try it spread on toast too as with this olive butter.