Today I gift you with the ultimate French summer staple: a great pissaladière recipe.
Pissaladière is the renowned southern French melted onion pizza that is served through Provence and the French Riviera throughout summer appetizer parties. Cut into little squares, it is divine served at room temperature, with a frosty glass of rose in hotter weather. You could also just have it with a green side salad for a delightful lunch. Its name comes from the word “pissalat” which is a salty fish condiment that is traditionally used to make it. These days, rare are the ones who actually use pissalat in their recipe, but you do see people throw in some anchovies on top. What we like to do is to melt anchovies into the onion mixture while it cooks softly. It gives it a delicious – not fishy – taste to it.
My mother-in-law – known for her mastery of classic Provencal recipes – makes a great one which is often requested by my eldest when he visits…or when she comes to Dubai. In fact, she made one just the other week while she was here, before the worldwide border lockdown. It’s not hard to pull off, but a great pissaladière must be made with love, time and patience. And a few handkerchiefs because thinly slicing a kilo of onion will make a crying mess out of you. Unless you have a teenager who can do some of the grunt work…
In any case, now is a perfect time to be spending hours in the kitchen, waiting for dough to rise and doing things mindfully, so please do try it out. Yes, there is gluten in it, but unless you are completely allergic, a few bites of this delicious pizza will do more good than harm I think. Also, a note on the dough: it is amazing, feel free to use the dough recipe for making focaccia.
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 3/4 cup of flour + a few teaspoons for dusting
- 2 packets of instant dry yeast
- 1 1/4 cup warm water (I microwave it for 30 seconds)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar (or coconut sugar)
The rest
- 1 kg of white onions (you could add an extra onion, but don’t use less), very thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dried thyme or herbes de Provence
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 salted anchovies fillets, chopped
- 1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
- pepper to taste
- 12 little black olives
Instructions
The dough
- In a large bowl, mix the warm water and yeast with a whisk. Let stand 5 minutes.
- Mix in a cup of flour. Let stand for another 5-10 minutes.
- Mix in the rest of the flour, salt, sugar and olive oil. Knead for 5 minutes. You could also use a food processor’s kneading attachment for a couple of minutes. The dough will be super sticky but smooth. Add a few teaspoons of flour and let it rest, covered, in an oiled bowl in a warm place (I usually put it on top of the fridge – so the dog doesn’t get to it) for two hours so it doubles in size.
- Punch down the dough and stretch out onto a 13×9 inch cookie sheet that you oil slightly before hand. This dough will be thick like for a focacia – if you prefer a thinner dough, just spread it out a little more.
The rest
- In a large pan, using low to medium heat, gently saute the onions with the olive oil, salt, thyme, anchovies and sugar. Mix regularly MAKING SURE YOU DO NOT BROWN THE ONIONS. This is important – you often see brown looking pissaladieres, but really, they should be golden and melted – like in the picture – not caramelized. This should last around 15-20 minutes. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 200 C
- When the dough is ready on the cookie sheet, evenly spread the onion mixture onto the dough, leaving a centimeter or two empty all around the border. Decorate with the black olives. It is a this point that anchovy-lovers will add extra anchovies on top. My kids aren’t huge fans, so I don’t.
- Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until cooked but not brown
- Take out of the oven and let cool for 30 minutes or so before serving
