Pissaladière: Nice onion tart with anchovies and olives
The pissaladière is a thin onion tart, similar to a pizza, topped with onions, anchovies and plenty of black olives. The pissaladière comes from Nice and is one of the local delicacies there, along with the socca (a kind of savoury pancake made from chickpea flour), which can be found freshly prepared every day on every street corner and which people also like to eat on the go. The pissaladière is perfect for a summer picnic or a party!
The name comes from Nissart, a local variant of the Occitan language, in which a preparation made from anchovies and spices is called "pissalat", which literally means "salted fish".
We make our pissaladière with the wonderful pink onions from Roscoff in Brittany, thus merging two very beautiful regions of France in a culinary way... Fusion food of a different kind!
Ingredients for 6 people:
For the dough
For covering:
- 700 g pink onions
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 10 black olives. Classically, you use the small Olives Niçoises (Cailletier), or the Cuquillos from Murcia
- 8 anchovy fillets cut into pieces
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 1 pinch of oregano
- 1 bay leaf
Preparation:
1) Dissolve the yeast in 4 tablespoons of water. Mix the flour, polenta and half a teaspoon of salt in a bowl. Make a well and pour in the rest of the water, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the yeast. Knead the flour in with your hands.
2) Knead the dough into a soft ball, adding more flour if necessary if the dough is too sticky.
Knead the dough for 5 minutes and then place it in an oiled bowl.
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled in volume (about 2 hours)
3) Peel the onions and cut them into thin slices. Heat the oil in a sauté pan, add the onions and let them soften over a medium heat (about 10 minutes).
Add the oregano, bay leaf, anchovies, salt and pepper.
Seal the whole thing hermetically (with a sheet of aluminium foil under the lid) and let it simmer for 20 minutes on a low heat.
Preheat the oven to 240°C.
4) Knead the dough again for about 1 minute. Divide it into 6 parts and "roll" it with your fingers/hands into 6 round bases that should be a little thicker at the edges. (You can of course just line one or more baking trays instead of baking one pissaladière per person).
Cover the dough bases with the onion mixture and the chopped olives. Then let the dough rise again for 15 minutes before baking the pissaladière for about 20 minutes.
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Our wine recommendation: white wine goes particularly well with this type of onion cake. We currently like the Manda Chuva Branco from Portugal in particular. It comes from the region around Setubal in the south of Lisbon and grows on sandy soil. It is slightly salty, iodine-rich and mineral, making it an excellent match for hearty dishes!
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You can download a print-friendly PDF version of the recipe here.