As described in the book "Bread Machine Kitchen Handbook", "this French version of an Italian pizza is typical of Nicoise dishes, with anchovies and olives providing the distinctive flavour typical of the region".
Ever since I've seen recipes using canned anchovies with the descriptions "stir until the anchovies are melted ", I have been curious about how anchovies can be melted. Anchovies is a common ingredient over here in Asian cooking, but what we have over here are usually the dried ones, which we use to make a base for stock and cooked in various dishes and can be deep-fried till crispy as a snack. But I have never come across anchovies that can be "melted" when cooking. Though this Pissaladiere recipe does not require the anchovies to be "melted", I can now fully understand how that can happen when I purchased a can of anchovies in oil. It is quite costly, more than RM8.00 for one can (product of Spain), and there are only about 8 pieces of anchovies inside!
These canned anchovies are salted and soaked in oil and are really soft, easily broken to pieces when I remove them and I can see that these can be easily "melted" if cooked further. They are actually very much similar to our local salted mackerel fish (mui heong ham yee), soaked in oil, which are very tender and can be mashed easily.
The result is a nice, fluffy, soft crust. Instead of using tomato sauce for the base as in most pizza, this uses only a tablespoon or so of Dijon mustard. If you are not a fan of mustard, I guess you can always substitute with your own favourite tomato sauce. The filling are just onions, basil leaves, black olive and anchovies, it is best to break the anchovies to little pieces and scatter all over, as it is quite salty.
Review from my kids : Where's the cheese? How come there's no cheese on this pizza???? Oops, sorry kids, I did thought of adding some cheese to it, but decided at the last minute to follow exactly as the recipe..maybe next time!!
Overall review : Nice pizza with soft, fluffy crust that would make a great base for any pizza. I enjoyed it with a cup of warm Earl Grey tea.
Exciting Announcement !!!
My baking buddy, Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids will be starting a new blog hop "Cook Like A Star". Each month a celebrity chef will be chosen, and everyone is invited to cook from any of that chosen chef's recipes! "Cook Like A Star" will launch in March and Zoe has chosen Donna Hay as the celebrity chef of the month. Please hop over to Zoe for more details. I hope everyone will join in this exciting blog hop, see you there!
Pissaladiere
(adapted from "The Bread Machine Kitchen Handbook" by Jennie Shapter)
100ml / 3-1/2 fl oz / 7 tbsp water
1 egg
225gm / 8oz / 2 cups unbleached whole bread flour
5ml / 1 tsp salt
25gm / 1oz / 2 tbsp butter
5ml / 1 tsp easy bake (rapid-rise) dried yeast
For the filling
60ml / tbsp olive oil
575gm / 1-1/4 lb onions, thinly sliced
15ml / 1 tsp Dijon mustard
3-4 tomatoes, about 280gm/10 oz, peeled and sliced (I did not bother peeling)
10ml / 2 tsp chopped fresh basil
12 drained canned anchovies
12 black olives
salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Pour the water and egg into the machine pan. If the instructions for your machine specify that the yeast is to be added first, reverse the order in which you add the liquid and the dry ingredients.
- Sprinkle over the white bread flour, ensuring that it completely covers the water and the egg. Add the salt in one corner of the pan and the butter in another corner. Make a small indent in the centre of the flour (but not down as far as the liquid) and add the easy bake dried yeast.
- Set the bread machine to the dough setting; use basic or pizza dough setting (if available). Press Start.Then lightly oil a 27 x 20cm/11 x 8 in Swiss (jelly) roll tin (pan) that is about 1cm/1/2 in deep.
- Make the filling. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the onions over a low heat for about 20 minutes, until very soft. Set aside to cool.
- When the dough cycle has finished, remove the dough from the machine and place it on a lightly floured surface. Knock it back (punch it down) gently, then roll it out to a rectangle measuring about 30x23cm/12x9in. Place in the prepared tin, and press outwards and upwards, so that the dough covers the base and sides.
- Spread the mustard over the dough. Arrange the tomato slices on top. Season the onions with salt, pepper and basil and spread the mixture over the tomatoes.
- Arrange the anchovies in a lattice and dot with the olives. Cover with oiled clear film (plastic wrap) and leave to rise for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Bake the pissaladiere for 25-30 minutes, or until the base is cooked and golden around the edges. Serve hot or warm.
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