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Pissaladiere


Pissaladiere

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Pissaladiere
11th May, 2018

Pissaladiere is essentially France's version of the pizza made with sweet succulent onions and topped with salty anchovies and black olives. It originated from the Côte d'Azur but is widely available throughout France. In terms of a snack, this is one of the best. Another variant of this recipe is to include a black olive tapenade in the sauce

As with a few recipes; I've included a cheat using shop bought puff pastry but the original dough recipe is simple and gives the base added texture

Ingredients

  • For the dough:
  • 200g strong white bread flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp easy yeast
  • 150ml warm water
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • OR 500g Block Jus-Rol All butter puff pastry
  • For the topping:
  • 4 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
  • 1kg onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 sprigs of thyme
  • 2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
  • 2 x 80g cans anchovy fillets, drained, fat ones halved lengthways
  • Handful of black olives

    Method

    To make the dough

    Tip the flour, salt and yeast into a bowl and then pour in the water before drizzling in the olive oil and mix by hand to a soft dough. On a lightly floured surface, tip out the dough mixture and start to knead it for about 5 minutes until the dough is nice and smooth. If it's still quite sticky; keep kneading but try not to over knead it.

    In an oiled bowl, pop the dough in and cover with a dampened tea towel and leave it at room temperature to prove for an hour

    CHEAT: SHOP BOUGHT

    Take the pastry out the packet, cut it in half and let it get to room temperature so it will roll easier

    To make the topping

    Bring a pan of water to the boil and take off the heat. Add in the whole tomatoes and leave for five minutes. Refresh in cold water to cool them down and peel them. Once peeled, cut in half, de-seed and grate them into a clean bowl

    Add a dash of oil to a saucepan and over a low to medium heat begin to fry the onions until nicely softened. You want to avoid browning them or the onions will be bitter

    Add the thyme and some salt and pepper before tipping in the grated tomatoes. Cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes before removing the lid for another 10 minutes to reduce the liquid as the sauce should be thick. Remove from the heat and leave to cool

    Preheat the oven to 220 C

    Lightly oil baking tin or tray so the base won't stick.

    At this point it doesn't matter if you cheated or made the dough; just be aware of the cooking times. Roll the dough or pastry out to a depth of about 5mm and press it into the tin before spreading the tomato and onion mixture all over the dough. Place the anchovies on top making a criss-cross pattern before studding each section with an olive and then bake for 20/25 minutes until the base is golden. If you went the cheat route; the puff will likely take less time so keep an eye on it