Do you know this French pissaladiere? It’s a caramelised onion pizza with black olives and salted anchovies and it comes straight from the streets of the mediterranean city of Nice!
Have you been to Nice, France?
If so, then you surely must have seen and perhaps even tasted the famous French pissaladiere, right?
Nice, France
If you missed it, don’t worry. And if you have never heard of this French delicacy before, then here’s the perfect chance for you to make good on that one. But before we go over to the recipe, what is pissaladière actually?
It is basically a caramelised onion pizza topped off with canned anchovies and black olives.
A classic French food monument if you ask me.
And what a delicious one!
Easy Pissaladiere (French Caramelized Onion Pizza)
I’m sure that you can all caramelise onions.
They need to be savory and sweet, golden brown and moist.
The bread dough pizza crust is the trickiest part of this recipe though.
It has to be crunchy around the edges but rather soft, airy, light and still cooked through in the middle. I made the dough a day in advance to give it enough time and space to raise fully.
This is capital here to obtain that light pizza bread base.
Bread Pizza Dough
Once that pizza base is rolled out and looking good, then top it off with the caramelised onions. And decorate the pizza more with black olives and anchovy fillets. That rectangular pattern is the classic way to garnish the pissaladiere.
Not a fan of anchovies?
Then you can leave them out, but it won’t be a real pissaladiere. What I sometimes so is put anchovies on one pizza half and leave the other side empty. Just because not everyone likes anchovies.
Bake it.
Slice it and enjoy it.
Lukewarm
I like to serve this pissaladière pizza lukewarm, for lunch with a little salad on the side
Yumm!!
Do you love homemade pizza?
Then also check out my tomato pizza with olives and pine nuts!
Enjoy!
Easy French Pissaladiere Recipe
French pissaladiere, a caramelized onion pizza with black olives and salted anchovies from the mediterranean city of Nice!
- 2 cups plain flour (250 g)
- ¼ cup warm water (60 ml)
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 2 large onions chopped
- 20 canned anchovy fillets in oil
- 15 black olives
- 1 tsp dried herbs
- olive oil
- pepper
- salt
- Add the warm water and yeast to a saucepan and stir until the yeast has dissolved.
Then add the flour, sugar and a pinch of salt to a blender. Pour in the yeast water and 4 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Pulse again until you get a smooth and glossy dough. Add extra water or flour if necessary.
Cover with a clean kitchen towel and then let it rest at room temperature for 2 hours (preferably overnight). The dough has to be doubled in size by then.
- Add the chopped onion to a large non-stick pan with a splash of olive oil. Season with a little pepper and salt. Place this over medium heat.
- Cook the onions until caramelized, soft and brown. Stir regularly.
- Then take the pan off the heat and let the onions cool down. In the meantime punch the bread dough down and then roll it out into a rectangle. Place it on a floured baking tray.
Brush the sides lightly with some olive oil and spread the caramelized onion over the dough surface. Sprinkle lightly with some pepper, salt and dried herbs. Top criss-cross with the anchovy fillets and then the black olives. This is the traditional pattern.
- Bake the pissaladière in a preheated oven at 392°F (200°C) for 20 minutes until golden. The pissaladiere has to be lightly browned and crisp on the sides. Cut the pissaladière up and serve warm, lukewarm or cold.
