Pissaladiere—Provencal Pizza

From America's Test Kitchen Season 5: Pissaladiere

Pissaladière, the classic olive, anchovy, and onion tart from Provence, is easy enough to prepare, but each ingredient must be handled carefully. We wanted to harmonize the onions, olives, and anchovies with a crisp crust to produce a tart worthy of the finest bakery in Nice.

We made the dough in a food processor and kneaded it as little as possible to create a pizza-like dough with a cracker-like exterior and a decently chewy crumb, a dough with the structure to stand up to the heavy toppings. Bread flour was our flour of choice as it has more protein than all-purpose flour, and that translates to a more substantial chew. Using a combination of high and low heat to cook the onions—starting the onions on high to release their juices and soften them, then turning the heat to medium-low to caramelize them—gave us perfectly browned and caramelized, but not burnt, onions. Adding a bit of water before spreading them on the crust kept them from clumping. We placed the onions on top of the chopped black olives, anchovies (also chopped; whole anchovies were too overpowering), and fresh thyme leaves to protect them from burning in the oven. Diehard fish lovers can add more anchovies as a garnish if desired.