This week’s Cook the Book Fridays recipe from David Lebovitz’ My Paris Kitchen is a French classic. Pissaladière – or onion tart in English – is a thin-crusted pizza-like tart topped with caramelized onions, anchovies and olives that’s typically enjoyed in the South of France.
I’ve made a version of this before for French Fridays with Dorie and, because anchovies are one of my least favourite foods ever, I switched them out and used oven-roasted tomatoes. This time I didn’t use anchovies either because I knew I would be eating most of this on my own (sorry Neil, I know you would have enjoyed anchovies on the couple of pieces you ate!).
You’ll also notice the absence of olives (sorry, David, *I’m* the person not following your recipes properly!). In fact, there are olives there in the form of a fabulous tapenade that we happened to have in the fridge, spread really thinly underneath the onions.
The dough for this came together very easily – I have to laugh now that I am writing this. A few years ago, this would have been a whole day’s project, so scared of the dough I was… In fact, these days, when I am making someone else’s recipes for the blog, I don’t think too much about it beyond actually shopping for the ingredients (well, mostly!). I don’t have time for things to NOT work these days so I just approach everything with the mindset that it will (kind of like my boys’ cooking club, actually – when you only have an hour to work with, there’s no choice – things just need to work, mostly!). Anyway, long story short, this dough worked really well (I halved the recipe) which made me very happy!
I used more onion than the recipe called for because I figure when you are caramelising onions you may as well go big, right? I loved this amount on my tart, it was really lush! So, while not a typical pissaladière, this was a spectacular weekend lunch served with a fresh green salad.
Get the recipe for David Lebovitz’s onion tart here or on p 69 of My Paris Kitchen.
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “My Paris Kitchen” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing do. All opinions 100% my own.
With all the substitution of the ingredients, yours still looks and sounds delish!
Same flavours though!
Simple and lovely.
Though yes, I DID miss the anchovies. I mean, there could have been some just on the end. 😉
Next time…. 😉
Wow that looks amazing! I love the colour of the fresh thyme sprinkled on top. I was surprised at how quick the dough came together as well. The dried tomatoes sound like a great idea!
The dough was really a dream to work with!
I am admiring the mahogany-color onion. Does it take you longer than an hour to get that?
Actually I might have sprinkled a little sugar on top to help speed up the process… I didn’t use the full amount of onions so it didn’t take as long for that reason either!
Your substitution of the tapenade was inspired! That sounds so delicious. I was also very happy with how easy the dough was to work with.
Well I didn’t want to buy a large quantity of olives that I wouldn’t use so I figured while it might change the concept, it wouldn’t change the flavours!
Looks great. I love that 3rd photo, it really brings it to life. Gorgeous.
Thanks!
I thought your Pissaladière was heavy on the caramelized onions but I loved the look and would even like the taste of it even better. A small spread of tapenade works for me also. This looks delicious and your photos bring it to Life. Have been on the AcorHotels site and voted for you. Good luck. Well done.
Yes definitely a little heavy on the onions but as I explained, I cut the recipe in half so I didn’t want to *only* caramelize a few onions. Definitely more than the recipe called for but I liked it 🙂 Thanks so much for your vote!
Your onions are the perfect color. Mine were more gold than mahogany. And the tapenade is a great idea. What a delicious tart.
I voted for your entry. Are we allowed to vote more than once??? Bonne chance!
Aw thanks Betsy – no I don’t think you can vote more than once! My onions were darker because I added a touch of sugar to help speed up the caramelization.
This tart is delicious! I like the changes you’ve made! Tapenade sounds good!
Voted for you! Good luck!
Thanks so much!
I love the idea of using oven-roasted tomatoes on this, for a meatless alternative. And I think a spread of olive tapenade sounds great (and even a tiny bit easier to eat).
Yup the tapenade was definitely a good plan!