French · Starter
Pissaladiere
Nice's onion tart disguised as a patisserie macaron — savoury olive shells, slow onion jam, whipped anchovy cream; a Riviera in-joke
- Prep
- 50 min
- Cook
- 60 min
- Serves
- 14
Ingredients
- Egg whites — 100 g
- Caster sugar — 90 g
- Icing sugar — 100 g
- Ground sunflower seeds (sifted fine, nut-free "tant pour tant") — 110 g
- Black olive powder (dehydrated tapenade, blitzed) — 8 g
- Onions, thinly sliced — 500 g
- Butter — 30 g
- Thyme — 2 g
- Sherry vinegar — 10 ml
- Anchovy fillets — 25 g
- Cream cheese — 120 g
- Double cream — 40 ml
Method
- Dehydrate 60 g tapenade at 70 °C for 6 h; blitz to powder.
- Whip whites, adding caster sugar gradually, to firm peaks; fold in icing sugar, ground seeds, olive powder; macaronner to a slow ribbon.
- Pipe 3 cm shells; rest 30 minutes until skinned; bake at 145 °C for 14 minutes; cool on the mat.
- Cook onions with butter, thyme and a pinch of salt over low heat 45–50 minutes to a deep amber jam; finish with vinegar; cool.
- Blend anchovies into cream cheese; whip with cream to piping texture.
- Pipe a ring of anchovy cream on half the shells; fill centres with onion jam.
- Cap, twist gently, rest 2 h in the fridge; serve at room temperature.