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Overloading the Machine
Olivada
Makes 2 cups.
Based on Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, by The Moosewood Collective
- 2 1/2 cups drained pitted black olives (two 6-ounce cans)
- 1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarsely chop half the olives and set them aside. In a food processor or blender, whirl the remaining olives with the garlic, pine nuts, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil until the mixture is somewhat smooth (it's okay if some of the pine nuts remain whole). If the mixture is too stiff, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Stir in the chopped olives.
Covered and refrigerated, Olivada will keep for about a week. It is best served at room temperature.
Spread on crisp toasted bread with tomato slices, or use it as a pasta topping, stuffed vegetable filling, dip for chips, or topping on baked potatoes.
Note: I've made this a lot. Of course it is better if you use nicer Greek or Italian olives, which you might have to pit by hand, but I still like it with the canned California olives too.
You see, I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty
attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool
takes in all the lumber of every sort he comes across, so that the knowledge
which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with
a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hands upon it.
Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his
brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing
his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect
order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and
can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every
addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of
the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out
the useful ones.
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Study in Scarlet"
This page was last modified on 2011 December 20.