When I traveled to Germany last year I had the opportunity to sample a lot of cuisine that was new to me. While in Heilbronn I went to a small wine festival and had a slice of something called zwiebel kuchen, which basically translates to onion cake. It wasn’t a cake so much as it was a quiche (I can’t image children wanting this for dessert, or better yet on their birthday!), with egg playing a major role. Tasty but pretty egg-y (it was from a food stand at a festival, after all).
I decided I wanted to lighten it up, take out the egg and replace it with more vegetables. Doing a little research I came across a French dish called Pissaladière, which is more of a pie or pizza, rather than a cake. This sucker sports olives and anchovies, however, which are not Edwin-Approved (to be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever had anchovies, but I try to stay vegetarian when I can). I played arround a little trying to add some sweetness (I was thinking cake, after all) with red bell pepper and a teensy bit of sugar and then threw in some tomato for kicks.
The result? Pretty rockin’ if you ask me! I would have preferred the filling a bit thicker, so next time I’ll cut back on the tomato juice (updated in the recipe below). Other than that, the only note is that this is a bit of a time intensive task, so clear some space out.
Filling:
4 tablespoon oil
2 large onions (or three small); sliced thin
1 red bell pepper; chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp salt
leaves of one small sprig of thyme; roughly chopped
1 can chopped or diced tomatoes (I recommend draining out half the juice)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon corn starch
Crust:
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (your good stuff)
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast (or one envelope, if you must)
1 1/2 teaspoon honey
2 cups flour, plus more for kneading
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon italian spices
For the filling, cook your onions, pepper, garlic, salt and thyme in oil under low to medium low heat until the onions are soft and thick; approximately 30-40 minutes. Be sure to stir everything up from time to time to prevent burning. Add the tomatoes, sugar and corn starch and bring to a simmer, cooking away some of the liquid until slightly thick, almost syrup-like; approximately 10-15 minutes. If you’re having problems with this, consider adding a bit more corn starch.
For the dough, combing the water, honey, yeast and olive oil in an electric mixer bowl followed by 2 cups flour and salt. Using a dough hook, mix on medium-low speed, adding additional flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the bowl. After ten minutes, move the dough to a floured surface and kneed for one minute. Put your dough in an oiled bowl, turn a bit to cover with oil, cover with a damp kitchen towel and let sit for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425. Lightly roll out your dough until it’s slightly larger than a 9 inch pie pan. Take an oiled 9-inch pie pan and stretch the dough to cover it, raising up the dough slightly over the edge so it sticks. Spoon your filling into the pie evenly and bake until the crust begins to golden; approximately 15 minutes. Bon appetit!
