Pissaladière
Region: France, Provence
Category: Pizza and Focaccia
Season: Any
Difficulty: Easy but takes non-working time
The Provençal pissaladière is an oven-baked focaccia or torta topped with caramelized onions, black Niçoise olives, and
anchovies. It is a specialty street food
of Nice and often sold by street vendors or at local markets. Even though it is thought of as street food, pissaladière is many times served as an
appetizer. The word pissaladière
derives from the fermented anchovy sauce known as pissala, which is related to the classical Roman garum and is used on the pizza. These words derive from the Provençal dialect
word in Nice for salted fish, pèi salat. But the essential feature of a true pissaladière is the onions. They are cooked down in olive oil until a
kind of marmalade and fantastically delicious.
Some cooks add eggs or milk to the dough and others layer the onion half
as thick as the crust. In Provence, home cooks
would have bought their dough at a local bakery or made it with short
dough. I prefer it with yeasted dough,
closer to a pizza. Pissadella is the Ligurian version of the pissaladière and it usually also contains bits of tomato. It is a
typical Ligurian torta that is
attributed to the sixteenth-century Genoese admiral Andria Doria; in fact, it
is also known as piscialandrea (pizza all’Andrea), as well as sardenaira.
Yield: Makes 8 first course servings or 16 hors d'oeuvres servings
Preparation Time: 5 hours
1 recipe Basic Pizza Dough
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 1/2 pounds yellow onions, very thinly sliced
3 large garlic cloves, very finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
2 cloves
Cornmeal for sprinkling
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
1/3 cup pitted black Niçoise olives (about 45), drained
20 salted anchovy fillets, rinsed and split lengthwise
1. Prepare the pizza dough and let rise as instructed.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat, then cook the onions and garlic, seasoned with salt and pepper and the herbes de Provence and cloves, covered, until light golden, about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook until all the moisture has evaporated and the onions are cooked down to a marmalade looking substance, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure the onions don’t burn or stick to the skillet, adding 1 tablespoon of water or so if they do. Remove and discard the cloves if easily found, and set the onions aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a baking stone for 30 minutes.
4. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface into a thin rectangle that covers the bottom of a 12 x 17-inch baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest 30 minutes.
5. Remove the cloth and spread a thin layer of anchovy paste on top. Spread the onion mixture over that evenly without leaving a crust border on two sides. Arrange the olives and the anchovy fillets in a crisscross pattern and season lightly with pepper
6. Bake until the crust has browned, about 20 minutes. Cut into squares of your choosing and serve hot or warm.
Variation:
Note:
Posted: 09/09/2009
Needed Recipes:
Homemade Bread and Pizza Dough
Referenced Recipes:
