Imagine sitting on a sun-drenched terrace overlooking the glistening Mediterranean, a glass of chilled rosé in hand and contentedly chomping on the utter deliciousness that is pissaladière – sweet and very slow-cooked onions topped with salty anchovies and olives baked on an olive oil dough; this has to
be one of our all time favourite salty snacks even if most of the time we’re eating it on the slightly less sunny Devon coast.
Ingredients
- 1 lb 2 oz 4 cups (500 g) strong white flour
- ¼ oz 1½ tsp (10 g) fine seasalt
- ⅛ oz 1¼ tsp (5 g) fast acting yeast
- 2 fl oz 4 tbsp (60 ml) olive oil
- 10 fl oz 1¼ cups (275 ml) warm water
- 5 large onions, peeled and very thinly sliced
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 3½ oz (2 x 100 g) jars or tins anchovies
- 30 pitted olives, black or green
How to Make It
- Mix together the flour, yeast, salt, water and 1tbsp of the oil. Knead for 5 minutes to get a smooth dough. Leave in a clean bowl with a cover on until well risen and puffy about 1 hour or so.
- While the dough is rising, heat the rest of the oil in a large wide pan and add the onions and dried thyme with a good pinch of salt. Cook in the oven in a large uncovered pan until the onions have halved in volume and are completely soft and golden. Drain through a sieve.
- Drain the anchovies and cut the fillets in half lengthways. Cut the pitted olives in half lengthways too.
- Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces and roll them out to get 2 rectangles about 30x25 cm/12x10”. Put the dough on a well floured board.
- Put the onions on the dough rectangles and spread them right to the edges.
- Make a lattice pattern over the top of the onions with the anchovy strips and put the olives in the centre of the anchovy diamonds.
- Shuffle each pissaladière on to a well floured peel and use it to put them on to the oven floor. Bake the pissaladières in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the dough is cooked through with the door closed.
- When the pissaladières are cooked, take them out of the oven using a metal peel and leave on a cooling rack for a few minutes.
- Cut into pieces and serve warm with salad for a light lunch or cut into small squares with drinks as an appetiser.