Tapenesto

Tapenesto

Tapenesto is one of those recipes we keep coming back to because it's just so stupidly good for how little effort it takes. It's basically a love child of tapenade and pesto, deeply savoury from the olives, nutty from the pine nuts, and with that gorgeous umami kick from the nooch. The basil keeps it fresh and bright, and the whole thing comes together in minutes. Make this tonight and you'll be spooning it onto everything in sight.

Cook: 20 min
Serves 2

Before You Start

  • Food processor
  • Large pot for pasta
  • Frying pan
  • Sieve

Ingredients

  • 200g quality pitted green olives
  • 60g fresh basil
  • 50ml quality olive oil
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • 100g pine nuts
  • 20g Nooch
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 250g spaghetti
  • handful of crushed nuts to garnish

Method

1

Prepare the ingredients

  • Open the olives, tip into a sieve and rinse under cold water.
  • Tear the basil leaves from the stems (save a few small, pretty leaves for garnish).
  • Peel the garlic.
  • Add the pine nuts to the pan and lightly toast over a high heat until golden in colour (approx 2 minutes).
2

Make the Tapenesto

  • Add the olives, basil (include some stems if you like), olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and nooch to the food processor and blitz into a pesto.
  • Taste and season to taste with salt and pepper. 
3

Prepare the pasta

  • Add the pasta to a large pot of boiling salted water and cook according to pack instructions (approx 9 mins).
4

Finish and serve

  • When the pasta has 2 minutes left to cook, put the frying pan on the stove over medium heat, add a ladleful of pasta water and bring to a simmer.
  • Add the Tapenesto to the pan, stir to combine and bring to a gentle simmer.
  • Drain the pasta, add to the pan, fold to coat, transfer to serving bowls, garnish with the reserved basil leaves and crushed nuts if using, and serve immediately.

Tips & Variations

  • Toast carefully: Keep an eye on those pine nuts. They go from golden to burnt really fast over a high heat, so don't walk away from the pan.
  • Adjust the texture: We like ours with a bit of texture still in there, so we pulse rather than blitz. If you want it smoother, just keep the processor going a little longer.
  • Save those basil stems: Don't throw them away. They've got loads of flavour and work brilliantly blended into the tapenesto, so bung them in with the leaves.

Why This Works

The trick here is toasting the pine nuts before they go into the food processor. It only takes a couple of minutes but it adds this deep, buttery nuttiness that makes the whole thing taste way more complex. The nooch is also doing serious heavy lifting, giving it that cheesy, savoury depth you'd expect from a classic pesto but completely plant-based.