Pissaladier – French onion pie with anchovies

Pissaladier resembles pizza and focaccia in its characteristics. The dough used is the same, but thicker than pizza dough. On top there is a filling of onions stewed in oil, and the pie is decorated with a net of salted anchovy fillets and olives.

A few words about the filling. If onion pie sounds unappetizing to you, then most likely you just don’t know how much different onions taste. When onions are cooked for a long time they lose all their bitterness and sharpness and all that is left is their sweetness. Onions stewed for half an hour are more like jam in texture and taste than the onions themselves. And now imagine those sweet, juicy onions on a bread crumb, combined with the saltiness of anchovies.

I see two possibilities: either you have already imagined this amazing taste, go to knead the dough and check if there are anchovies left at home, or you still think that onions are unpalatable. The second option is the envy of you – you still have so many taste discoveries ;). When you figure out the pissaladier – be sure to try making onion confit and onion soup. (I think by that time I’ll have added these recipes to the site and pasted the links).

Ingredients

For 4 servings:

For the dough:

• 300 grams (10,6 oz) of all purpose wheat flour
• 1 tsp instant dry yeast (I use Saf Instant)
• 170 ml (0,7 cups) water
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil + ~1 tbsp to grease the molds
• 1 tsp. salt

For the filling:

• 1-1.2 kg (2,2-2,6 lb) yellow onions
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 30 g (1,1 oz) butter
• 1 tin of anchovies in oil (140 g (5,3 oz))
• 100-150 g (3,5 oz) olives with bone (mixed black and green olives preferred)
• Neutral vegetable oil
• salt, black pepper

Extras:

— A rectangular or round baking dish or just a baking tray.

I used a round mold with a diameter of 26 cm, for this amount of dough – it’s rather small. The optimal diameter would be 32-35 cm. It can be larger, but then the dough will be thinner and drier, and it will look more like a pizza. You can use pizza molds or pie and tart molds like I did. But more often this pie is rectangular in shape and can be baked without a special mold, just on a baking tray. The dough should take up a little more than half of the area of the baking tray.

Step by Step Directions

Most recipes suggest that you cook the onions first and knead the dough at the same time. I don’t see any point in this order for two reasons: you get distracted by switching between processes and the dough still needs time to rise. But if you knead the dough first and leave it in the mold, it will be ready just in time for the onions to cool.

Mix 300 grams (10,6 oz) of flour, 1 tsp of instant yeast, 1 tsp of salt and mix.

Make a well in the center and pour in 170 ml (0,7 cups) of water and 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.

Knead the dough with a spoon, then transfer to a work surface.

Knead the dough by hand for at least 10 minutes, until smooth. There are many techniques for kneading dough, this time I did the following: I rolled the dough into a bundle, working with my hands from the center to the edges, then I rolled the bundle several times and repeated the procedure. The technique, of course, does not play a role – knead as you like, only the result is important here.

Grease the mold with olive oil. You don’t need to pour out a whole tablespoon, pour as much as you need to cover it in a thin layer. Place the dough in the mold and slide it around the mold to brush the dough with oil on both sides.

Using your fingers, spread the dough around the mold from the center to the edges. You don’t have to make it flush – the dough will move closer as it ferments. If you are placing the dough on a baking tray, take this fact into account, too. Make a billet slightly smaller than the planned pie. If anything, you can stretch it out later. The thickness of the billet should be about 1 cm.

As you can see, in my case, the dough has a rim. Classically, a pissaladier has no protruding sides. The dough is practically the same thickness over the entire area. You also don’t need a rim if you are using a larger mold or a smaller amount of dough. In my case, the mold was a little small and I didn’t want to throw away some of the dough. I made a rim so I wouldn’t over thickness the dough in the middle and make sure it would cook all the way through.

Cover with cling film (or a towel) and leave at room temperature for an hour (45 minutes in most cases is enough).

Now it’s time to do the onions. I don’t know how to cut an onion without crying (except for the gas mask), but I will tell you how to minimize tears. The basic idea is that the more we injure the bow, the more it makes us cry. That’s why I suggest we take our time and do everything gradually.

I cut the onion in half without first cutting off its tails (less mutilation, remember?) and peel it.

After that, I cut off the ends and cut into half rings, a little less than 1 cm thick.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of neutral vegetable oil (sunflower oil, for example) in a large frying pan over high heat.

Using a wide saucepan is even more convenient than using a frying pan. But it is highly desirable that the pan has a thick bottom. Otherwise, the onions will require more frequent stirring and there is still a risk of burning.

Add all the onions and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Try to stir thoroughly so that all of the onions are coated in oil on all sides.

Add ~30 g (1,1 oz) butter, 1 tbsp oregano and 1 tsp thyme stir until the butter is completely melted and covers all the onions.

Reduce heat to low and cook stirring occasionally (once every 1-2 minutes) for 20-30 minutes. Until onions are caramelized.

Salt and pepper with freshly ground black pepper and stir. Taste and add more salt if needed. The onions should not be extremely salty, but it should not feel like something is missing. Let it cool.

Look at the dough, most likely by now it has doubled in size and you can consider it ready. Soon we will move on to assembling the pie, but first the last stage of preparation, so preheat the oven to 240 ° C / 465 °F , mode top – bottom.

Take the anchovies out of the jar and cut the fillets in half lengthwise. You can, of course, use the whole fillet, but then you are more likely to run out of it for decoration.

Remove the cling film from the dough. Place the stewed onions on the dough and flatten. Mesh the anchovies on top. Place an olive in the center of the lozenges. (Take olives with a bone, of course, they taste better, but do not forget to warn your guests about it)

Bake in the oven until the bread crust is golden, about 20-25 minutes.

Take the pie out of the oven, let it cool for 5-10 minutes and serve. With a glass of red dry would be double ideal (let it be, like the pie, French).