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Warm Onion Spread a la Pissaladière

Recipe Date: November 17, 2020
Difficulty: Easy
Measurements: Imperial (US)

“When thinking of a great pairing for the Amulet White (a Viognier Marsanne blend), I looked towards where the grapes originated from, the Southern Rhone in France. This is a big and bold white wine that called for a dish with similar flavours. Pissaladière is a dish from the south of France with origins in Liguria. It is a tart-like dish made on pizza dough or a puff pastry topped with sweet, caramelized onions, anchovies, and Niçoise olives placed in a harlequin or diamond pattern on the top.

As I am not a fan of anchovies or olives, I considered this pairing a fun challenge. Being a lactose-intolerant celiac Chef, makes one think outside of the box and modify whilst still being true to the spirit of the dish. Here is my version.” – Eliana Bray, Roche Wines Executive Manager and ZWineNinja Consulting

Ingredients

  • 4 medium white or yellow onions, sliced very thinly
  • 1 tin of anchovies
  • ½ cup lactose-free milk
  • 18 pitted black olives
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided with 1 tbsp set aside
  • Kosher salt
  • Fresh thyme sprigs
  • True North © gluten free crackers (sourced at Nature’s Fare)
  • Olive oil
  • Optional – pre-made gluten-free pizza dough (or you can make it gluten) Bob’s Red Mill Pizza dough is a good option for this, I ended up not using the dough and preferred a flatbread instead.

Directions

Steps:

  1. Put the anchovies in a small bowl with the milk, this will tone down the anchovies a bit and draw a little bit of the salinity out.
  2. Using a 12” cast iron skillet or a heavy bottomed sauté pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil until it shimmers. Add the onions with a pinch of kosher salt and cook at medium-high heat for 40 minutes stirring frequently as you do not want it to burn.
  3. Once cooked, you can either wait for it to cool or place in a shallow pie plate in the freezer to chill to room temperature.
  4. Rinse the anchovies in water and pre-heat the oven to 450F for just the onion mixture (or 475F if you have decided to go the pizza dough way) pat them dry, and then roughly chop (concasse) them up with the pitted olives.
  5. With your cooled onions, mix the anchovies and black olives and drizzle with the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil.
  6. Place the onion mixture into an oven safe pan and heat for 15 minutes. (If you have decided to go the pizza dough way, then make sure the oven is at the correct temperature.)
  7. Once done, remove from oven and let cool slightly while you open your delicious Amulet White wine, please note that this wine is unfined and unlfiltered and will have naturally occurring sediment. Pour yourself a glass, put some of the mixture into a snack sized bowl, and spread onto your favourite flatbread! Enjoy, the flavours are such a great pairing of umami and taste sensation.

Cheers,

Eliana Bray aka ZWineNinja