For the past few weeks, in place of our usual Friday pizza, I've been making pissaladière, the Provençal tart smothered with caramelized onions, anchovies, and olives. I add tomatoes to mine, too, perhaps to make it more pizza-like, but also because they just work, especially in the late summer and early fall, and truly, to me, there are few combinations more delicious. It's like pasta Puttanesca in bread form, all sweet and salty, oily and briny, bold and aromatic.
Traditionally, atop the blanket of caramelized onions, anchovies are arranged in a crisscross diamond motif with olives either marking the intersection of anchovies or the center of the diamonds they create.
I've never loved this geometric arrangement and so I make an anchovy and olive (and garlic and caper) paste instead. I like this approach for a few reasons, namely because it more evenly disperses the intense (umami!) flavor across the dough, but also, in some ways, because it disguises it: those who think they dislike anchovies won't know they're there.
I've always loved the organic look of the toppings scattered all about, but the explosion of focaccia art cropping up across the web these past few years had me thinking: Should I revisit the iconic pattern? Is pissaladière the original focaccia garden?
It turns out: no!
I was shocked to learn from a Saveur article that pissaladière gets its name from pissalat, a pungent anchovy paste. According to the article, pissalat is made by layering baby anchovies and sardines with salt, spices, and herbs, and fermenting the mixture for 45 days. Early versions of pissaladière were spread with the fish paste before layering onions over top.
Interesting, right?
Get the recipe and watch the video here:
| How to Make Pissaladière |
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Alexandra Stafford
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