pissaladière
This summer my sister Ali made a delicious pissaladière for a family meal, with a pastry specially tailored to meet my dietary requirements. It used equal quantities of chickpea and buckwheat flour, and was unanimously voted as excellent, being both tasty and light. In French Provincial Cookery, Elizabeth David chooses a pizza-like dough base, but she adds, ‘truthfully it must be admitted that both the Italian pizza and the Provençal pissaladière lie somewhat heavy on the stomach’ and suggests a preference for a ‘version made with pastry which is sometimes served in restaurants and private houses’. Indeed, when one of our Marnavois neighbours came round for a New Year village fête bearing pissaladière (we always have what is called a repas espagnol, where each household cooks a dish to share) she also chose to cook the pastry version.
Classic pissaladière is decorated with anchovies but I’ve substituted strips of roasted, skinned red pepper as a flavoursome vegetarian alternative. And, whilst I feel that the butter used in the pastry gives the most delicious result, olive oil can easily be substituted in the same quantities (and is in fact what Ali used). I find a mandoline does an excellent job of slicing the large quantity of onions (but don’t forget to use a guard when your fingers get close to the blade!).
Serve with a fresh salad: at this time of year, when I can get wonderful fresh white-veined, deep-red radicchio from our organic vegetable supplier, Pawel, I combine the torn leaves with orange slices and this season’s walnuts, and dress simply with best olive or walnut oil and good vinegar.
SERVES 4–6
For the top
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
500g brown-skinned white onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 sprigs of thyme, firmly tied together with cotton, plus a few extra leaves for sprinkling
1 bay leaf
Fine salt and pepper
1 large red pepper
About 18 black olives, pitted
For the pastry
75g buckwheat flour
75g chickpea flour
95g unsalted butter, at room temperature
Fine salt
Warm the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan with a tightly fitting lid on a low heat. Add the onions, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and a pinch of salt. Stir well to coat the onions with oil, then put on the lid and leave to cook very gently, stirring from time to time, until the onions are meltingly soft and on the point of disintegration, at least 1½ hours. The aim is that the onions don’t take on any colour at this stage.
To make the pastry, sift the flours into a mixing bowl. Add the butter cut into small pieces and, using your fingertips, rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (a few slightly larger lumps are fine). Add a pinch of salt and sprinkle over a tablespoon of water. Gently bring the pastry together and shape it into a rectangle, ready for rolling out. Wrap in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Set the oven to 200°C. While it is in the process of heating up, place the red pepper on a baking sheet lined with parchment, and immediately put it into the oven to roast for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned and softened. Remove the pepper from the oven and place it in a cold saucepan and cover with a lid for 10 minutes (the steam created will help to loosen the skin). Peel off the skin of the pepper, then cut open and remove and discard the seeds. Slice the skinned pepper into long thin strips about 0.5cm wide.
Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C, ready for cooking the pissaladière, and put a large baking tray (about 40cm x 30cm) into the oven to heat up. Retrieve the pastry from the fridge and roll it out into a rectangle (roughly 30cm x 25cm with rounded corners) between two sheets of baking parchment. It should be no more than 0.5cm thick. Remove the upper layer of baking parchment and lightly mark a 2cm border round the edge of the pastry with a sharp knife. Decorate this with the imprint of a fork, like on a pie crust.
Remove the lid from the onions, turn the heat up slightly and cook gently, stirring often, to evaporate any liquid that may have accumulated. Spread the onions on a large plate or tray to cool. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf.
Once the onions are cold, spread them over the pastry, leaving the decorated border uncovered. Top with the skinned pepper strips to create a criss-cross diamond pattern and place a black olive in the centre of each diamond.
Finally slide the pissaladière, still on its sheet of baking parchment, onto the heated baking tray. Put it into the oven and bake until the onions start to colour and the pastry goes a deep gold, for 20 to 25 minutes. Drizzle with a little of your best olive oil, grind some pepper over the top and scatter with a few fresh thyme leaves. Serve warm or at room temperature.
