Seafood Made Simple: This anchovy pizza recipe is a fabulous balance of sweet and salty

This Basque beauty rivals the pizza

Pissaladiére is great for picnics and fantastic served with a simply-dressed green salad. Picture: Chani Anderson

A recent trip to the Basque city of Bilbao served me very well. My non negotiables for travel secured good food, great company and a return flight out of Cork Airport. It was the perfect spot to catch a quick break before the summer madness begins. 

Basque cuisine is a delight. We sampled classic dishes like wild mushrooms with egg yolk, plates of jamón ibérico and kokotxas, a simple fish dish of the gelatinous throat of hake, a real delicacy in northern Spain.

Bilbao is well known for its pintxos bars, great places to have a cold glass of something and enjoy a couple of light bites. Thick slices of tortilla, Manchego cheese, and my all-time favourite bar snack, the gilda, were very much enjoyed.

The first gilda originated a couple of hours from Bilbao in San Sebastian. The classic composition includes salted anchovies, green olives and pickled guindilla peppers, all assembled on a cocktail stilck. My version always includes a little cornichon or two for an extra hit of vinegar. 

The Cantabrian anchovies you’ll enjoy in Bilbao are caught nearby in the Bay of Biscay, a well-managed fishery that has prioritised the preservation of the species as well as the technique of canning seafood.

Anchovies here are considered some of the best in the world and it would be unusual to eat in a restaurant in this region that does not have a signature dish honouring this flavourful species. The best we encountered was a kimchi-brined and butterflied plump anchovy perched on top of toasted bread with tomato. 

This weekend’s recipe makes excellent use of those Cantabrian anchovies. Although hailing from Nice in the south of France instead of Spain, this pissaladiére is a fabulous balance of sweet and salty with caramelised onions, umami rich anchovies and briny olives.

Pissaladiére

recipe by:Aishling Moore

This pissaladiére is a fabulous balance of sweet and salty

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 15 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1x 320g sheet of all-butter puff pastry

• 3 tbsp golden rapeseed oil

• 25g butter

• 850g white onion, finely sliced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 3 sprigs thyme (1 sprig reserved for baking)

• 16 anchovy fillets

• 12 black pitted olives

• Freshly cracked black pepper

• 1 egg yolk

Method

1. Begin by making the caramelised onion base.

2. Heat a heavy, medium-sized saucepan or Dutch oven on low heat. Add the rapeseed oil and butter to the pot.

3. Once the butter has melted add the onions and stir well to coat.

4. Season with fine sea salt and add the sprigs of thyme and minced garlic to the pot.

5. Cook gently for 25-30 minutes, stirring often to prevent thebottom of the pan catching and the onions burning. If the bottom of the pan begins to catch, add a splash of water to deglaze the base of the pan.

6. Once the sugars in the onions have caramelised and a jammy chutney consistency is achieved, remove from the heat, discard the thyme sprigs and pass the cooked onions through a strainer toremove the excess oil and butter. Set aside and allow to cool.

7. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

8. Lightly dust a large baking sheet tray with flour.

9. Place one sheet of puff pastry on the baking sheet.

10. Using a small, sharp knife make a slight incision in the puff pastry 2cm from the edge of the pastry.

11. Continue this line all around the sheet’s edges to create a border.

12. Place the now cooled caramelised onions onto the pastry and spread to cover inside of the border of the pastry sheet.

13. Lay the anchovies across the caramelised onions diagonally to create a lattice.

14. Place the olives across making sure each slice, when cut, will have one olive.

15. Scatter over some picked thyme leaves and season generously with some freshly cracked black pepper.

16. Lightly brush the outside border of the pastry with egg yolk and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

17. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before slicing and serving.

Fish Tales

Be sure to weigh onions after peeling and slicing, not before. Every gram counts when cooking down to a jam-like consistency.

The onions can be caramelised a day or two before and stored in the refrigerator, ready to assemble if you’d like to get ahead.

Avoid the temptation of turning up the heat when cooking the onions to speed things up; caramelisation needs to happen slowly.

Seasoning the onions at the beginning of cooking is essential to draw out the water in them.

Cut the pissaladiére into smaller slices and serve as a canapé. It is great for picnics too and fantastic served with a simply-dressed green salad.

Reserve the olive oil remaining from the anchovies, transfer to a small glass jar and keep refrigerated. Use to dress grilled or roasted vegetables or fish, in pasta sauces or salad dressings.