Niçoise flatbread tart with deeply caramelized onions, anchovies, and black olives — Provençal sunshine on a plate.
Pissaladière is the soul of Provençal café cooking — a thin, bread-like tart blanketed with onions cooked down for over an hour until jammy and sweet, then laced with salty anchovies in a lattice and dotted with tiny Niçon olives. The name comes from pissalat, a fermented anchovy paste once smeared on the dough. Unlike its Italian cousin pizza, there's no tomato and no cheese — the magic is in the slow patience of the onions and the briny punch of the toppings. Served warm or at room temperature, cut into squares as a casual lunch, an aperitif snack with chilled rosé, or alongside a green salad for a light dinner.
Serves 8
Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl. Add warm water and 2 tbsp olive oil. Stir to a shaggy dough, then knead 8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise 1.5 hours until doubled.
Heat remaining olive oil in a wide pan over medium-low. Add onions, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, sugar, and a generous pinch of salt. Stir to coat.
Cook uncovered, stirring every few minutes, for 60–75 minutes until onions collapse into a deep golden, almost sticky mass. Lower the heat if they color too quickly — you want sweetness, not bitterness.
Remove thyme stems and bay leaves. Taste — onions should be lightly salty (anchovies will add more). Cool to lukewarm.
Heat oven to 220°C with a baking tray inside. Punch dough down. Roll on parchment to a rectangle about 30×40 cm and 5 mm thick.
Spread cooled onions evenly to within 1 cm of the edges. Arrange anchovy fillets in a diamond lattice. Tuck an olive into each diamond. Drizzle generously with olive oil.
Slide parchment onto hot tray. Bake 18–22 minutes until edges are deep golden and the base is crisp.
Cool 10 minutes. Cut into squares with a pizza wheel. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Patience with the onions is non-negotiable — they must collapse and sweeten, never brown harshly.
Rinse and pat dry salt-packed anchovies; they're firmer and more flavorful than oil-packed.
A handful of fresh basil scattered just before serving brightens the richness beautifully.
Use puff pastry for a quicker, flakier version.
Vegetarian: skip anchovies and add capers plus a few sun-dried tomatoes.
Add a thin layer of caramelized fennel under the onions for an aniseed note.
Best the day it's baked. Refrigerate up to 2 days; revive in a 180°C oven for 6 minutes — never microwave (the crust turns leathery).
Pissaladière originated in Nice in the late Middle Ages as a way to use up onion gluts and preserved anchovies. It long predates pizza margherita and reflects the deep ties between the Niçoise coast and Ligurian Italy across the border.
Yes — choose a plain, slow-fermented dough. Pissaladière dough is leaner than pizza, so let store-bought dough rest at room temperature and stretch thin.
Traditionally no — they define the dish. If you really can't, substitute capers and a splash of fish sauce in the onions for umami depth.
Per serving (180g / 6.3 oz) · 8 servings total
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