Pissaladière: The French Answer to Pizza
No, your eyes are not deceiving you! This sure looks like pizza and it’s also most definitely French. Have you ever had it?
Pissaladière hails from Provence, a region that borders Italy and shares many of the same ingredients and flavors. The toppings for this French pizza are usually caramelized onions, anchovies, and black niçoise olives. Sometimes a little grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese brings all the rich flavors together.
The crust is really the distinguishing feature of a pissaladière. Unlike the crunchy, bread-like crust on Italian pizzas, this is closer to a tart crust. A generous amount of butter gets worked into the dough, which may or may not include yeast for leavening. It’s usually thicker and chewier than a pie crust – a cross between puff pastry and Chicago deep-dish pizza, if you can imagine that!
If you’ve never had pissaladière before, it’s a dish that’s definitely worth trying. It makes a fantastic light dinner on its own, especially with a tossed salad along side. We also like cutting it into small squares and serving it as an appetizer.
Take a look at these recipes:
• Classic Pissaladière from Epicurious
• Pissaladière with Tomatoes from Martha Stewart
• Caramelized Onion and Fresh Anchovy Puff Pastry Tart from La Tartine Gourmande
• Vegetarian Pissaladière from BBC Food
(Image: Martha Stewart)