Ingredients

• 20 black Kalamata olives
• stones removed
• 400g/14¼oz heritage tomatoes
• cores removed
• roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• finely sliced
• 2-3 fresh basil leaves
• finely sliced
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 2 pinches sea salt
• 1 small pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh basil
• 15g/½oz pine nuts
• toasted
• 30g/1oz parmesan cheese
• 1 garlic clove
• 100-125ml olive oil
• 50g/2oz black olive tapenade
• 320g/11oz buffalo mozzarella
• roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
• 8 small croutons
• 1 red onion
• halved and finely sliced
• 4 tbsp fresh micro herbs

Directions

• For the dried olives
• preheat the oven to 100C/210F or to its lowest possible setting. Place the olives on a baking tray and leave in the oven for 1-1½ hours
• or until the olives are completely dried. Allow to cool
• then finely chop and set aside.
• For the tomatoes
• mix together all of the tomato ingredients in a bowl and set aside for one hour.
• For the pesto
• bring a medium pan of water to the boil
• add the basil and blanch for 30 seconds. Drain and plunge the basil into iced water to stop the cooking process.
• Drain the basil well
• squeezing out any excess water
• and place in a food blender with the remaining pesto ingredients. Blend to a fine purée
• then taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
• To serve
• brush the black olive tapenade across the centre of a rectangular plate. Arrange the tomatoes across the tapenade strip
• alternating with pieces of mozzarella and dried olives. Dot the plate with pesto and aged balsamic vinegar
• then scatter over the croutons
• slices of red onion and the micro herbs.