Olive tapenade is an easy-to-make tasty jack-of-all-trades

Oh, olive tapenade - how do I love thee?

Hmmm, I love you on crackers, pita chips and especially slices of toasted French bread.

I love you on pasta with a little extra olive oil.

With a little mayo, I love you on my sandwiches - especially tuna salad.

I mix you in my hummus and love you even more.

Or I can stuff portobello mushrooms with you.

I love to dollop you on my pizza.

I even top my “sweet potato toast” with you.*

OK, OK. I could go on and on. I used to save tapenade for special occasion appetizers. I would whip it up and serve it on bread - bruschetta style.

Since “special occasions” - formerly known as parties - are few and far between these days, I decided to rekindle my love affair with this very simple topping.

For olive lovers, it's one of the easiest, tastiest, most versatile things you can make with minimal ingredients. Basically, you need olives, lemons, garlic, parsley and olive oil - ingredients I always try to have on hand.

You can get fancy by adding sun-dried tomatoes, capers, anchovies or even tuna.

All you have to do is toss the ingredients in the food processor, and this formerly fancy dish can become a recipe workhorse.

And what's not to love about that?

Olive Tapenade

1 10-ounce jar of pitted green olives, drained

1 10-ounce jar pitted kalamata olives, drained

¼ cup chopped parsley

2 tablespoons capers

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves minced

Add all ingredients to a food processor (or high-powered blender). Process until blended.

Serves 2 (unless you are me)

*For sweet potato toast, just cut a medium sweet potato lengthwise into ¼-inch slices and pop them into a toaster oven (or even the toaster) until they are cooked through - about 10 minutes.