Veggie Wednesday: Pissaladièra

Pissaladièra

Pissaladière (pissaladiera in Provençal) is a beautiful onion tart from Nice that is typically made with sautéed onions on a 'pizza' crust and crisscrossed with anchovies and dotted with black olives before being baked. As fond as I am of anchovies, I don't like their tiny little bones and so, I make my pissaladière with a puree of anchovy and olive spread beneath the onions.

I made this yesterday and it was so delicious. My older girls raved about it and the almost-three- year-old ate his fair share as well. The rest of the kids (as can be expected) turned up their little noses and ate something else for dinner.

Printable Recipe

I use my own 'recipe' for pizza dough, which isn't a recipe at all; it's one of those things I throw together until it 'feels right'. The crust yesterday was superb, if I do say so myself. I can only share with you that it starts with one packet of dry yeast, a cup or so of warm water, about a 1/4 cup of oil (olive, if you have it!), a healthy pinch of sugar, a fair amount of salt and enough flour to make a pliable dough. Once the dough is formed, let it stand for about half an hour under a towel and in a warm spot in your kitchen. Punch it down and form into a 'pizza' round. I have a 16" pizza pan, and that was perfect.

The olive and anchovy paste is similar to tapenade, but not exact.

1 cup of pitted oil cured black olives
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
1 garlic clove

Blend this all together until a fine paste forms. Spread onto the pizza dough.

Before any of this, and while the pizza dough is rising, slice up 3 large yellow onions and mince 2 cloves of garlic. Sauté the onions in a large pan in olive oil until limp. Add the garlic, a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper and a tablespoon or so of sea salt. Continue sautéing until the onions begin to caramelize; don't overdo on the coloring.

Spread the onions over the olive and anchovy spread and top with more black olive halves. Bake in a hot (400 degree F) oven until the crust is browned.