Thursday, April 03, 2014

Pisaladiere

 My friend and fellow quilt artist Mary and I have been meeting almost weekly for lunch downtown. We have a blast and discuss arty topics as well as our day to day challenges. Recently we met at Mary's house, and I felt it was my turn to return the favor and get a chance to cook for Mary.
With all the fancy meals we have eaten downtown, I wanted to create something semi-exotic for our lunch, so I chose an old favorite from Julia Child, a pisaladiere. This is a French version of a pizza, in this case without anchovies.
I made the dough from my usual no knead recipe the night before and put it in the refrigerator. 
The toppings are quite different. On the left is caramelized red onion flavored with red wine, slowed simmered until mushy, but O the flavor! On the right, roast and deskinned poblano peppers, and tomato slices, drained on paper towels until almost dry. On the red cutting board, sliced Virginia ham.

 
The cheese is presliced fresh mozzarella. I painted the edge of the dough with olive oil and sprinkled on sesame seeds, and a little kosher salt, then topped the dough with daubs of onion, slivers of pepper and ham.

 
 And then applied the tomatoes, cheese and a bit of parmesan, oregano and chopped walnuts (!) and into the 450 degree oven for 20 minutes or so.

It baked up light and puffy because I allowed the dough to rise for two hours (covered with a clean dish towel) before baking. Since the oven was hot I also did a tray of asparagus in olive oil, baked until almost crispy. So yummy.
I have lots of leftover sweet caramelized onion which will top hamburgers for lunch today. 
And then I am back to my very strict diet.

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:56 AM

    So beautiful and yummy! ~ RBC

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  2. Yowza! You are such an artist in all you do! The pizza looks divine, as do the asparagus! I have never tried baking them... will keep that in mind!

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  3. Oh yum! I think I need to make this today.

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  4. FWIW, although the words look similar, pizza and pissaldiere are two separate things in France and the French enjoy eating both kinds of pie. Pissaldiere comes from the south of France, a tarte niçoise, made with onions, anchovies and block olives. Your interpretation looks delicious ... thought I doubt any French person would recognize it. I didn't use anchovies before I lived in France, now I cannot imagine pissaldiere, Caesar salad or salad Niçoise without them. (I would never imagine pizza with eggplant and an egg on it before I lived there, either, living and working there was eye-opening in many ways :-)

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  5. Drooling....looks as pretty as I imagine it is delicious!

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  6. Deb from Kingston, Ontario10:13 AM

    Sounds yummy!!!! When I was in France (quite a few years ago now) I had an amazing pizza. The dough was topped with a Parmesan garlic White sauce, fresh tomatoes, basil leaves, slivers of crispy bacon, and, smack dab in the middle, an egg! The chef said you bake everything, except the egg, until almost done, then the egg gets broken on top, and baked for about five minutes. Wow.

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  7. No matter what you want to call Melody's version, it was exquisite! I am trying to hire Melody to cook for me on a regular basis! Thanks again Mel!

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  8. OMG that looks stupendously delicious!!!!!

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  9. Is there anything you can't do? It looks delicious!!! So glad you are out meeting people without a long drive. Life is good.

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  10. That looks wonderful! I can't eat tomatoes (SUCH a bore!!) but that onion mix would be a fantastic alternative base. I'm going to "speriment" My mouth is watering. Thanks Melody

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  11. Luscious food! And how nice to have a friend on your same wave length. One question: why is the pizza dough in the skillet? Did you cook it in the skillet before the oven?

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Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com