Rue des Rosiers recipe: pissaladière

Okay, just did a test run today and it turned out very tasty. I did not seed the tomatoes, despite the original recipe calling for that. Nor did I wait to let the dough rise after spreading the topping (though it did rise in the baking tin while I was frying the onions…) This is a recipe I have made myself many times, always with good results. Will try to post more recipes once I’ve made and tested them recently. This is really good.

Pissaladière

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 medium onions (about 1 pound) sliced into thin rounds
• 2 large garlic cloves, sliced thin
• 1 spring fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 8 ounces bread dough
• 8 flat anchovy fillets, rinsed and drained
• 12 black olives, pitted and halved

1. In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium-low heat. Add onions, garlic and thyme. Toss to coat with oil. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions turn light gold, about 20 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes, turn heat to high, and cook until liquid has evaporated and mixture is thick; about 5 minutes. Discard thyme sprig if used.
3. Roll out bread dough to fit an 11 x 14 inch baking pan. Let rest in pan 15 minutes, covered with clean teatowel. (I often omit this step…)
4. Heat oven to 450° F.
5. Spread onion-tomato sauce evening over the bread dough, right to the edges. If you want to be fancy, arrange anchovy fillets in a  pattern (or don’t). Add olive halves. Let stand for 15 minutes (if you have the patience).
6. Bake until crust is crisp, 15 to 20 minutes. Slice and serve warm or room temperature.

Serves 6 to 8. It is good!

Adapted from Patricia Wells’ Bistro Cooking.

Page 166: “Later that morning, Sarah and Michael and Laura are lingering over brunch at Laura’s apartment. She lives on a tiny street, rue Agar, in the 16th, the fanciest of all fancy arrondissements in Paris, where parfumeries surely out-number grocery stores. Laura has made them pissaladière, a flatbread with onion, olive and anchovy topping, and then a green salad which she’s served, French style, as a separate course after the main course. The pièce de résistance is dessert, a tarte Tatin, apple upside-down pie, which Laura has also made herself – she was just putting it in the oven when they came in. They’re squeezed around the table on her little rooftop patio, Laura and Michael delicately sharing a cigarette. He’s trying to quit. Sarah’s standing on tiptoe, looking across the river where she can just see the top of the Eiffel Tower.”