In every boulangerie in the South of France, pissaladières peek through the display case begging to be devoured with their decadent pile of caramelized onions and black olives on top of a golden-brown crust. This savory tart is a quintessential treat from both Provence and the French Riviera, making it a popular option for locals. It’s perfect on its own, or served with a fresh green salad. It happens to be a meal I love to make at home and one that was first introduced to our palates when, ironically, we lived in Australia.  

For my Mother’s Day celebration, over a decade ago when we resided in the suburbs of Brisbane, my husband offered to make me a dinner of my choice. I immediately pulled out my Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris cookbook and started tabbing recipes. I must admit my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I earmarked too many courses for our appetites to handle, not to mention my poor husband spent the whole day with rolled sleeves as he chopped, sautéed, rolled and peeled. It’s now a memory he warns me, jokes about every time he offers to cook me something. Despite that lengthy day of meal prep, one of the courses discovered was Ina’s pissaladière and it’s something that since then, is on heavy rotation in my kitchen. While it can be considered a pizza, my family showed skepticism as there is no traditional pizza sauce or even cheese for that matter. And while this savory tart typically has a healthy layer of anchovies on top, our taste buds prefer it sans these little fish, so we simply omit that ingredient. Back to our introduction to this French street food, my family kindly forged through their doubt that they would enjoy it, but once they all took their first bite, even my toddlers at the time, were hooked!

Like anything worthwhile, the time spent caramelizing onions warrants the effort to achieve that sweet, yet savory depth. Combined with salty black olives, it has that perfect umami taste. While it’s generally served as part of a meal, I deemed it deserved to be in the spotlight as a perfect bite for apéro, so that’s exactly what we did for our traditional Friday afternoon happy hour.

After experimenting with many types of crusts, I finally landed on my go-to pizza dough recipe and is one that I’ve made for years. If you’re in a pinch for time, any store-bought dough also works, or frozen puff pastry could even be wonderful; however, I find that home-made dough, especially this Giada de Laurentiis recipe, is so quick to whip together and the biggest benefit is knowing every ingredient within.  My caramelized onions are an adaptation to Ina Garten’s recipe and for the black olives, I always use Kalamata.

Dough by Giada de Laurentiis:

• 1 cup very warm water
• 1 teaspoon dry active-yeast (be sure it’s not expired, otherwise the dough will not rise)
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 2 ¼ cups pizza flour (AP flour also works)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Drizzle of olive oil

To the warm water, add the yeast and honey. Mix and allow the yeast to slightly bubble, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, add the flour to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and then add the salt. Mix the salt into the flour. Once the yeast mixture is ready, add it to the flour on a low speed. Once it’s well incorporated, switch the paddle attachment to a dough hook. Increase the speed and allow to mix for about 4-5 minutes, once the dough comes together into a ball. (If it’s too sticky and doesn’t pull away from the sides of the bowl, this can happen depending on weather, add more flour until the dough comes together.) To a medium size bowl, drizzle in olive oil, add the dough ball and cover the bowl with a dry cloth. Allow the dough to rise for about an hour. The longer the time allowed, the better rise you’ll get. Once it’s risen, roll it out into a rectangle to fit to the edges of a standard baking sheet.

Caramelized Onions: (Recipe adaptation from Ina Garten)

• 2.5 lbs yellow onions (about 4 medium sized onions)
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 3 cloves of garlic

Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Slice the onions in half and then slice each half of onion in strips, to create moon-shaped slices. Add the onions to the heated olive oil. Add the fresh thyme, salt, pepper and whole garlic cloves. Allow to cook for approximately 45 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the garlic cloves, roughly chop them and return them to the pan. Cook for an additional 15 minutes until they are a golden/caramel brown.

Pissaladière:

• Dough
• Caramelized onions
• Olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence
• 15 black olives

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface to the rectangular shape of a standard size baking sheet. Carefully place the dough onto the baking sheet. Spread the caramelized onions onto the rolled-out dough, leaving a one-inch border. Brush the border with olive oil. Top the onions with black olives. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the crust is a golden brown. Once removed from the oven, sprinkle the Herbes to Provence over the top.

Bon appétit!