Pissaladiere
This is the one party item that I really like to make. It looks great, tastes great and is great. How can you go wrong with huge amounts of onions, anchovies, and olives; preferably Greek. Start with a pastry crust, not a pizza crust recipe. I adapted Julia Child’s pie crust recipe. It goes like this:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt 1 stick butter
2 T. shortening
5 to 8 T. iced water
Dump flour into the food processor. Add butter, cut into very small pieces. Add salt and shortening. Then, run processor for about 4 or 5 short bursts to cut up the butter and mix the dry ingredients. Add 5 T. ice water and run machine 5 or 6 times. If the dough begins to mass on the blade (Julia’s term) stop, if not, add more water one T. at a time. Repeat only if necessary. The dough should not be over-mixed. Now the fun begins. Take the dough out of the processor and break off small pieces and smash them into 5 to 6 inch chunks with the heel of your hand. (First clear off a space on the counter, or use a cutting board) This last part is called finishing the dough. It mixes the fat and flour. Pile up the pieces, pat them into a ball— don’t handle the dough too much, though— and put it into the refrigerator, at least 2 hrs to a couple of days. You can also freeze it, then thaw it for a day in the refrigerator before rolling it out. You can also substitute any other pie dough (See the Martha Stewart pie dough recipe in the desserts chapter) as long as you leave out any sugar. A sweet dough doesn’t mix well with the rest of the ingredients.
Pissaladiere ingredients:
4 cups sliced yellow onions
4 to 6 T. olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tsp. or so dried oregano or thyme, or mixed dried herbs.
Two 2 oz cans flat anchovies (I usually split the fillets in half the long way)
2 dozen Mediterranean olives
About 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Cook the onions slowly in 4 T. olive oil, in a covered pan, stirring frequently over low heat until they are soft and thoroughly tender, but not browned. These can be cooked ahead and stored in the refrigerator for several days, or frozen.
Meanwhile, butter the bottom of a large cookie sheet, then rapidly roll out the chilled dough and cut off the excess. Fold the edges and crimp with a fork. Take a couple of forks and poke the dough all over until its full of little pock marks. This keeps it from bubbling up when it’s baking. Again, you can refrigerate the pan with the spread out dough.
Just before baking, spread the onions over the dough. Then put the anchovies on in a pattern. I usually put them on diagonally about 5 inches apart so that they are in strips that criss-cross the onions. Put the olives on. I usually put one in the middle of each square made by the anchovies. Then sprinkle the herbs and Parmesan cheese on top and bake for 25 to 30 min in a preheated 425°F oven. Cut into squares before serving.