Pissaladière Inspired Bread

There are some things I’m willing to spend time on. Homemade short crust pastry, slow cooked lamb shanks, or making koeksusters or salted caramel from scratch. However, making bread is not one of those things. A combination of my fear of yeast and the kneading-resting-kneading-resting pattern, still has it safely in my no-go zone. Perhaps contributing to this, is the fact that I’ve discovered my local grocery store sells bread dough by the kilo – fresh, yeasty goodness ready to be made into whatever loaf you choose.  

Keeping with my bread-laziness, but still wanting a quick, tasty lunch time snack, I transformed my kilogram of bread dough into a pissaladière inspired loaf. Traditionally a pizza like dish made in southern France, it is topped with caramelised onions, olives and anchovies – my version has a little added thyme for good measure.

I used plump juicy Calamata Olives from Mediterranean Delicacies – now available in a generous 700g tub, it’s the perfect size to cook with…leaving just enough to snack on every time you pass the fridge. This make an impressive dome of a loaf – made to be cut into door-stop size wedges, and enjoyed with lashings of salted butter.

Ingredients:
1kg bread dough
2 onions, sliced
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp butter
300g Mediterranean Delicacies Calamata Olives, stones removed (from the 700g tub)
leaves from 5 stalks of fresh thyme
2 tbsp anchovies

Method:
Melt the butter in a medium sized frying pan, add the sliced onions and cook over a medium high heat, until softened. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook until evaporated. Add 100ml water to the onions, along with the thyme leaves. Allow to simmer until all the water has evaporated – about 5 minutes. Increase the heat to high, and cook the onions (while stirring) until the darken in colour and become sticky. Remove from the heat.

Heat your oven to 180 degrees C. Place the bread dough in your oven dish of choice – I used my 26cm Le Creuset Buffet Casserole – and stretch it until it is in an even layer. Spoon over the caramelised onions, sprinkle over the olives and lay over the anchovies.  Bake for 30 – 45 minutes (depending on the dish used) – it is ready when a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy at room temperature – this keeps very well and can last at least 2 days if covered.

Note : This post and recipe forms part of a campaign I am doing for Mediterranean Delicacies, and for which I will be remunerated.