When I visited A Bolota, a lovely restaurant perched on the sweeping plains of the eastern Alentejo, this dip, called patê de azeitonas verdes, was brought to our table. As I nattered away with friends, I dipped, spread, and nibbled, until I realized I alone had eaten all of it. Later, when I became friendly with the cook, Ilda Vinagre, I watched her make it and was flummoxed when she whipped up its silky base: milk “mayonnaise”—whole milk whirred into a smooth consistency with the addition of vegetable oil. I serve this as a dip with a platter of crudités, alongside crackers or bread, or, sometimes, as a topping for grilled fish.–David Leite
Atenção [Editor’s Note: That means “attention”)
Don’t make this in a food processor. The bowls of most processors are too large to allow the scant amount of ingredients to whip up to the right consistency. A small narrow blender or a mini chop or handheld blender works best.
Portuguese Green Olive Dip
Equipment
- A small mini chop or hand blender
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup whole milk, plus more if needed
- 6 oil-packed anchovy filets
- 1 small garlic clove
- Leaves and tender stems of 6 cilantro sprigs
- Pinch of freshly ground white pepper
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup pitted green olives such as Manzanilla, rinsed quickly if particularly salty, roughly chopped
Instructions
- In a blender, pulse to combine the 1/3 cup milk, anchovies, garlic, 2/3 of the cilantro, and the pepper.
- With the motor running, pour the oil in what the Portuguese call a fio, or fine thread. Keep whirring until the oil is incorporated and the mixture thickens, 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes, depending on your equipment.
- Scrape the dip into a bowl and stir in the olives. Mince the remaining cilantro, sprinkle on top, and serve. If the dip thickens, you can always simply stir in a tablespoon or two of milk.
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Sorry, but this didn’t work for me or my dinner guests. I loved the mixing process (emulsions are magical, aren’t they?) but the flavors left us all cold. The anchovies were too prominent, and they essentially shouted down my lovely olives and cilantro. The milk flavor wasn’t right either, for some reason. (The milk is fresh, so it isn’t a spoilage question).
It may be that my oil-packed anchovies simply aren’t good ones despite their supposed high quality, but I don’t think I’ll try this again.
Nancy, I’m so sorry this didn’t work for you and your guests. I’m pretty sure the culprit was the anchovies.
This recipe was developed and tested with the small, thin, inexpensive oil-packed anchovies you find in any grocery store. The kind that are about 3 inches long and almost translucently thin. Six of those lay down a quiet umami backbone that lets the olives take center stage. They whisper.
If you used premium anchovies—those gorgeous fat Cantabrian fillets that are two to three times the size of a standard grocery-store anchovy—you got two to three times the anchovy. They don’t whisper. They shout.
One more thing worth knowing: unlike my pasta dishes, where anchovies dissolve into hot oil and mellow out, this recipe blends them raw into the milk base. There’s nowhere to hide. Every bit of that assertiveness goes straight into the dip.
As for the milk tasting off, I’m flummoxed. I wonder if the anchovy imbalance threw off the entire flavor, making even the milk taste wrong by comparison.
If you’re willing to give it another go (and I hope you will), grab the cheap grocery-store anchovies. I know that sounds counterintuitive. But this is one of those cases where the workhorse anchovy is the right tool for the job. And start with just three, adding more to taste. Those glorious premium anchovies deserve to be draped over toast and eaten on their own as the star.
Let me know if you try it again!
We’re attending a dinner focused on Portuguese dishes…We were assigned a Portuguese green olive dip. I searched online and found yours… but i don’t see any indication regarding advance preparation. Can it be made 2-3 days in advance?
Milly, I’d suggest making it the day before. If on the day you serve it, it has thickened too much, a small splash of milk will loosen it up.