- 5 months ago
In this video, Chef John shows you how to make Pissaladière—a savory Southern French “pizza” packed with deep, rich flavors. Made with a tender dough, sweet caramelized onions, anchovies, and briny black olives, this rustic dish hails from Provence and is perfect for serving as an appetizer or a light meal.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Pizza La Dierre.
00:08That's right, I consider this Southern French classic the most delicious pizza that doesn't contain cheese.
00:14Although the pizza people would prefer we call this a flatbread.
00:17But anyway, I'm going to show you how to make that.
00:20And also how not to poison yourself with salt, which I almost did.
00:24And to get started, we'll begin with the star of the show, which is a whole bunch of caramelized onions.
00:30And for this, I think some nice big yellow onions are the best choice.
00:33And what we'll do is cut off both ends.
00:36And then we'll make one slice straight down, and then peel off the skin.
00:40And once that's been removed, what we're going to do is cut this onion in half.
00:44And then we'll lay those halves down on their flat side.
00:47And then we'll see which way the fibers, or those lines on the onions, are running.
00:52Since for this recipe, we have to slice across those.
00:55Okay, when you slice across the fibers of an onion, as you cook them, they will totally break down.
01:00Into almost like a jam.
01:02And once we've done that to about four or five big onions, we will transfer those into a nice big pot.
01:07In which we've melted some butter in olive oil, set over medium-high heat.
01:12And we will also toss in a nice big pinch of salt.
01:15And then we'll take a spatula, and we will give these a stir.
01:18So that salt gets mixed in.
01:20Which is going to draw out some moisture.
01:22And these onions will start to soften and slump down.
01:26And once they do, and they kind of look like this, we will lower our heat to medium, and we will cover this.
01:32And we will let it cook for ten minutes.
01:35At which point your onions are probably going to be looking something like this.
01:39And then what we'll do from this point on is cook these uncovered, stirring occasionally, until they turn a very light golden brown.
01:46And we should probably also reduce our heat to about medium-low.
01:50Since according to caramelized onion experts, and yes, that is a thing.
01:55But anyway, according to them, the longer and slower we cook the onions, the more delicious and savory they get.
02:00But if you want to cheat, you can do this on medium heat, and just stir it more often.
02:06And they will finish a little quicker.
02:08But either way, what we want to end up with is something that looks like this.
02:12And at this stage, the onions are going to be very soft and sweet.
02:16But we're not quite done yet.
02:18Because to finish these off, what we'll do is toss in some fresh thyme.
02:22Then I've tied together for easier extraction.
02:24And then we'll also toss in some freshly ground black pepper, along with the optional addition of two or three anchovy fillets.
02:32And then last but not least, we'll add a couple tablespoons of sherry vinegar, which helps us balance all the sweetness and richness.
02:40And that's it.
02:40We'll simply cook that stirring for another ten minutes or so.
02:43Or until it looks something like this.
02:46And if we're just making caramelized onions, we probably go a little bit darker.
02:49But we're going to be baking this in a hot oven.
02:51So the onions are going to darken up even more then.
02:55And that's it.
02:55We'll simply turn off our heat and reserve those until we need them.
02:59And then besides the onions, the other things we need for this pizza are some olives, which are supposed to be nisoas.
03:05But I can't easily find those.
03:07And if I can't find those easily, you probably can't either.
03:10So what we'll use instead are some pitted kalamata olives that we will slice in half.
03:16And that's going to give us something very close.
03:18And then the other main component will be our anchovies, which we want to drain and transfer into a bowl first, so that we can cover those with a whole bunch of nice, fresh, cold water.
03:29And what we'll do is go ahead and swish those around so they sort of separate.
03:33And we will let those soak for about an hour, which is going to leach out some of the salt.
03:39And you can if you want to change the water halfway through.
03:42And by the way, I'm filming this after the fact, since I did not do this on the one I'm showing you how to make.
03:48But trust me, you really do want to do this step.
03:50And once they soak for about an hour, you can go ahead and drain them and dry them off on some paper towels.
03:57And those are now ready to use.
03:59And once our onions, olives, and anchovies are set, we can move on to the crust.
04:03And for that, I'm going to take some prepared pizza dough and place it on some oiled parchment paper.
04:08And then top it with another piece of oiled parchment paper.
04:12And then sort of press it down.
04:14And then what we'll do is grab a rolling pin.
04:16And we'll use that to roll the dough out between the two layers of parchment.
04:20And yes, this is a new technique I'm showing you that I've developed for beginners who tend to have a tough time working with sticky doughs.
04:27And what they do is use way too much flour when they're rolling it.
04:31And by the time they're done, they end up with a very dry, dense, tough crust.
04:34But with this method, as you can see, we're able to get something nice and thin and nice and even and just about the size we want without adding any extra flour.
04:45So if you're one of these always-add-too-much-flour kind of people, I think this technique might be perfect for you.
04:51And that's it.
04:52Once we get it to this point, we'll go ahead and transfer that onto a sheet pan.
04:56And we'll peel that top piece off.
04:58And then, as usual, we'll do some fine-tuning with our fingers.
05:02Right, stretching the dough here and there.
05:04Or wherever we think it needs to go.
05:07And no, we're not going to end up with a perfectly uniform shape.
05:10Which is fine.
05:12Pizzas and flatbreads are not supposed to be perfect.
05:14Right, they're supposed to look like we made them.
05:17But anyway, once we're finally done fussing, we will take a fork and prick the entire surface.
05:23Which in the business we call docking.
05:26Although no one's really sure why.
05:27And that's going to prevent any big air bubbles from making our dough bubble up.
05:31But don't worry, the texture is still going to be great.
05:34Because we're still going to have millions and millions of tiny air bubbles.
05:38And that's it.
05:39Once docked, we're going to pre-bake our crust in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes.
05:45Or until it just barely starts to turn a light gold and it looks something like this.
05:50And that's it.
05:51We'll transfer that off the pan onto a rack.
05:53And we'll let it cool all the way down before we use it.
05:56Although we could use it right away, I guess.
05:58But generally, I like to make the crust ahead.
06:01But either way, once we're ready to bake, we will transfer that on to a lightly oiled piece of parchment paper.
06:07Set on a sheet pan.
06:09And before we transfer on our onions, I like to paint the edge of the crust with a little bit of olive oil.
06:14Which is going to help it get crisp and brown up beautifully.
06:18And once that's been accomplished, we can transfer over our onions.
06:21Which we want to do in a very generous layer.
06:24Oh, and this would be the perfect time to mention, there are three different kinds of crust you can use for this.
06:29Alright, my favorite is a very simple pizza-like dough.
06:32But most people use puff pastry.
06:34Which is easy, since it's rare to use.
06:36But personally, I think that is way too rich and buttery.
06:40Oh, and the third way, which apparently is the original way, is to use a dough close to a pie crust.
06:45Which, again, I think is too rich.
06:47But of course, suit yourself.
06:50I mean, you are, after all, the Ace Ventura.
06:52Of which base you prefer.
06:54But no matter which you use, once our onions are spread over, we can start applying our soaked anchovies.
07:00Which, as I mentioned, is not what I'm using in this shot.
07:03Right, these are straight out of the can.
07:06But anyway, what we'll do is make diagonal lines one way.
07:09And then we'll lay some anchovies across those lines, going diagonally the other way.
07:14To form the classic signature pattern.
07:17Oh, and above and beyond soaking the anchovies.
07:19You can also control the saltiness of this by putting less anchovies on.
07:24Which means making these lines further apart.
07:27So that you're using less.
07:29And once we have those placed down, we'll take our halved olives, and we'll place one in each opening.
07:35And once I had the first few placed down, I did not like the angle.
07:38So I gave them a little turn, so they would be going more diagonally, like we did our anchovies.
07:45So just a little reminder, that if something doesn't look right, always feel free to adjust.
07:50And that's it.
07:51Once olives, we'll transfer that into the upper center of a 450 degree oven for about 25 minutes.
07:58Or until the onions on top and the edges of our crust are beautifully browned.
08:02And it hopefully looks like this.
08:06And then as soon as we have that out of the oven, we'll grab a spatula, and we'll transfer that onto a cooling rack.
08:11And we'll let it sit for a few minutes before we try to cut it up.
08:15And while I was waiting, because I have them, and they're in the onion family,
08:19I snipped up some fresh chives and scattered those over the top.
08:23Since I find the appearance of this very enticing and totally fascinating,
08:27but the colors are a bit drab.
08:29So I decided to chive.
08:31And then I transferred that to a cutting board.
08:34And I grabbed my pizza wheel and went ahead and cut that up.
08:38And by the way, extra credit.
08:40If you can do this without touching any olives, which I wasn't able to accomplish,
08:44I think I touched all the olives.
08:47But anyway, after putting those back in place,
08:49so I could take a few contractually obligated pictures,
08:52I grabbed a piece and went in for the official taste,
08:55which was beyond delicious and flavorful.
08:58Okay, like I said in the intro, if you allow me to call this a pizza,
09:03this is by far the world's tastiest pizza that does not contain cheese.
09:06And even though it might not look impressive,
09:09that very simple bread-based crust I think is absolutely perfect with the rich onions
09:14and the salty anchovies and those briny salty olives.
09:18So I really was thrilled with how this came out,
09:21except for one very major thing.
09:23Since I did not soak my anchovies,
09:26and I put so many on,
09:27this was so salty,
09:29it was borderline inedible.
09:30And I quickly realized I had skipped a very, very important step.
09:35So I will make sure that soaking step is well detailed in the written recipe,
09:40along with how to do the dough if you're going to make it from scratch.
09:43But whether you use your own homemade dough or not,
09:46or do the richer, easier version using frozen puff pastry,
09:50this cut up into small squares is one of the greatest party foods of all time.
09:54And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
09:57So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
10:01a printable written recipe,
10:02and much more info as usual.
10:05And as always,
10:07enjoy.
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