Pastry
500g plain flour
pinch salt
250g cold butter, diced
2 eggs, beaten
Filling
4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
6 large onions, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh thyme, plus extra to serve
3 fresh bay leaves
6 anchovies, drained
6 black olives, pitted.
to serve: green salad
1 To make pastry, combine flour and salt in a food processor. Add butter and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add beaten eggs and about 60ml cold water to form a dough. Transfer to a wooden board, and wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
2Roll pastry dough out to a 4mm thickness and cut circles large enough to line 6 x 12cm tart tins.
3Lay pastry in tins, pushing it down gently, then trim any excess away. Prick bottom of pastry with a fork. Line each tin with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans or rice and cook in a preheated oven at 180˚C for 15-20 minutes. Remove paper and beans or rice, then return tins to the oven and cook for a further 6-8 minutes until pastry is golden.
4Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over a low heat. Add onion, garlic, thyme and bay leaves. Season generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook covered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour or until onions are soft and pale. Allow to cool.
5Pre-heat oven to 200˚C. Divide onion mixture between the tart tins, add an olive and anchovy fillet on top, drizzle with a little olive oil, then transfer the tart tins to a baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm or cold topped with extra thyme and a green salad.
I know this recipe under its French guise, pissaladière, a Provençal version of pizza. As (almost) always, a rosé could work, especially an uber-pale Provence style but the intense flavours of the caramelised onion and gutsy anchovies calls for a weightier wine. Enter gamay – either as Beaujolais, the nearby appellation to Provence or a local incarnation, here a luxe example from the gamay-besotted David Lloyd. The juicy red berry flavours, gentle tannins and buoyant acidity are more than equal to the potency of the rustic tart.