Pissaladière
Pissaladière is a speciality of Nice, sold by the slice in bakeries like pizza. It is a thin bread dough under a thick layer of onions stewed slowly in olive oil with thyme, topped with a lattice of anchovies and black olives. There is no cheese and no tomato. After the best part of an hour over low heat the onions turn soft and sweet, and the anchovies and olives add saltiness. The name comes from pissalat — a Niçoise paste of salted small fish that was once spread over the dough.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Dough 10 min
- Stewing onions and rising 60 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Baking 25 min
- Cooling 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead the dough
Mix the flour with the yeast and salt, add the olive oil and lukewarm water and knead for 8–10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
Ingredients: 250 g plain wheat flour · 150 ml lukewarm water · 3 g dried yeast · 2 tbsp olive oil · 5 g salt
Leave to rise
Shape into a ball, cover and leave somewhere warm for 60 minutes until doubled. Stew the onions meanwhile.
Ingredients: 250 g plain wheat flour · 150 ml lukewarm water · 3 g dried yeast · 2 tbsp olive oil · 5 g salt
Stew the onions covered
Slice the onions thinly. Heat the olive oil in a wide pot, add the onions, garlic, thyme and bay leaf. Stew covered over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
Ingredients: 1000 g onions · 4 tbsp olive oil · 2 cloves garlic · 4 pcs thyme sprigs · 1 pcs bay leaf · ¼ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch salt
Low heat and a lid — the onions soften without browning.Cook off the liquid
Remove the lid and cook 15–20 minutes more, stirring, until the liquid has gone and the onions are very soft, sweet and pale golden, not brown. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf, season with pepper and a pinch of salt — the anchovies are salty.
Ingredients: 1000 g onions · 4 tbsp olive oil · 2 cloves garlic · 4 pcs thyme sprigs · 1 pcs bay leaf · ¼ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch salt
Stretch the dough
Heat the oven to 220°C. Oil a tray of about 30 × 40 cm. Stretch the dough over the whole tray with your fingers — it will come out about 3 mm thick — and raise the edges slightly. If it shrinks back, wait 5 minutes and stretch again.
Ingredients: 250 g plain wheat flour · 150 ml lukewarm water · 3 g dried yeast · 2 tbsp olive oil · 5 g salt
Spread the onions
Spread the onions in an even layer, leaving a 1 cm border.
Ingredients: 1000 g onions · 4 tbsp olive oil · 2 cloves garlic · 4 pcs thyme sprigs · 1 pcs bay leaf · ¼ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch salt
A thick layer of onions, a thin dough.Add anchovies and olives
Lay the anchovy fillets in a diamond lattice and press an olive into the middle of each diamond. Drizzle with olive oil.
Ingredients: 50 g anchovy fillets in oil, drained (about 14) · 20 pcs small black olives (ideally Niçoise) · 1 tbsp olive oil for drizzling
An anchovy lattice, an olive in every diamond.Bake
Bake on the lowest shelf for 20–25 minutes until the edges are browned and the base is crisp. Cool 10 minutes, cut into squares and serve warm or at room temperature.
Ingredients: 250 g plain wheat flour · 150 ml lukewarm water · 3 g dried yeast · 2 tbsp olive oil · 5 g salt
Before you start
With pissalat
Pissalat is practically unobtainable outside Nice. A stand-in: mash 2–3 of the anchovy fillets from the list and stir them into the onions at the end of stewing — the flavour will be deeper and there are still plenty left for the lattice.
Olives
Small Niçoise olives with stones are best, or other tree-ripened black olives. Canned, artificially blackened olives taste bland.
Storage
Pissaladière is best on the day it is baked. Keep leftovers in the fridge up to 2 days and reheat in the oven at 180°C for about 8 minutes to crisp the base again.
