Saturday, October 22, 2011

Mommy's French Food

I remember the first time I watched my mother throw anchovies into her spaghetti sauce.  I was in my own moody preteen years, and found the whole thing repulsive.  Unmoved by my moods, my mother continued cooking and ultimately served my favorite sauces: spaghetti puttanesca.  This same angst has caused me to pass over pissaladiere. Anchovies fried into a sauce is one thing, biting into a whole anchovy is quite another. However, with the memory of my failed blini still fresh, I was hungry for a French Friday win.

The beauty of this recipe is in the minimal effort for delicious results.  The long simmered onions were elevated with the addition of chopped anchovies.  And, the crust was a work of art.  Not a crunchy thin crusted pizza, a true flaky French pastry that instantly differentiated this pissaladiere from your gourmet pizza.

Enjoyed with a glass of white wine, this is a meal to have in the midweek, or a great appetizer to have at an elegant dinner party.  Perhaps I'll serve pissaladiere this holiday season instead of blini!   

7 comments:

  1. Glad to see things turned around for you this week :-)
    I always use anchovy paste in my tomato sauce (but I also make sure no one sees me do it).
    Have a great weekend.

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  2. Anchovies are often better behind the scenes than they are at centre stage. Glad you had a winner this week.

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  3. Looks like a winner. I'm big anchovy fan and love puttanesca sauce.

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  4. Wine was a critical element for me in this one. :-) Still debating in my head if guests would go for this during the holidays or not...

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  5. Maybe I'll try this one again without the anchovies on top. I'm definitely trying some variations of this recipe.

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  6. I just loved it and I too enjoyed it with a nice glass of wine! Others seemed to taste it with a bit of whine, no? Team anchovy here.

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  7. Good for you ! I passed on this one because I am not a fan of anchovies and Nana helped me out by completing this one herself. She is firmly on team Anchovy :) I enjoyed your post and since I planned to revisit the recipe (sans fish) over the Thanksgiving holiday, I am very excited to hear your crust comments. Great job ~

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