This recipe is one of my "party pieces" and I make it regularly when I have people to supper as it's easy and incredibly good. I serve it with toasted pitta bread or the mini herbed muffins.
I highly recommend you make this as it's so versatile and everyone will love it (unless they hate olives!). You can serve it with pre-dinner drinks or even with a main course (grilled chicken or fish). I keep it in the fridge for a week or more and it improves with age!
Ingredients
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove peeled and finely chopped (I use 2 cloves!)
1/2 fresh red chilli sliced (use more if you don't mind a kick!)
3 tbsp capers
1 x 50g anchovy fillets drained, reserving the oil
250g pitted black olives (I use Kalamata or Spanish Aragon)
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon or to taste
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
In a pan heat the olive oil over a medium heat and fry the garlic and chilli until the garlic is a nice light golden colour. Leave to cool then tip into a food processor.
Process the garlic and chilli with the remaining ingredients to your preferred texxture, gradually adding the oil from the anchovies and lemon juice to taste. Add a grinding of pepper but be careful with the salt as the anchovies and the capers are quite salty already.
Serve as a dip or on thin toast.