🔗 Share this article

This particular recipe provides a speedy take on pissaladière, converting a small amount of pastry scraps into a spontaneous treat. Store and collect any trimmings into a round mass and roll out again whenever needed. Dough freezes beautifully in the icebox, and by skipping two lengthy steps in the classic preparation – making the pastry and cooking slowly the onions – this version comes together much more quickly. In its place, the onions are cooked upside down, cooking and browning under a covering of pastry with salted fish and dark olives for a fast, enjoyable twist on a traditional French dish. And if you have a smaller amount of dough, you can always reduce the method.

Speedy Inverted Pissaladière Tarts

The current popularity of inverted pastries, which became popular on TikTok and Instagram a few years back, may have started with a delicious and easy fruit and honey pastry or an inspirational onion tart that even resulted in a whole book on upside-down cooking. Additionally, I have been experimenting with inverted baking recently, from an extra-long leek tart to these speedy small onion tarts. It’s a simple, fun approach to make something that feels especially impressive.

Produces 4 individual tarts

• 1 sweet onion
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• Salt and black pepper
• 8 anchovies (or 4, for a milder taste profile)
• Dark pitted olives, to taste
• 120g dough – flaky or buttery works also

Heat the appliance to 410F/210C. Peel and trim the onion, then slice into four thick, circular pieces. Line a heat-resistant oven sheet with baking paper, then imagine where you will place each piece of onion. Drizzle those areas with olive oil and honey, then add salt and pepper. Lay two fillets on top of each seasoned area and cover them with a piece of onion. Tuck a few dark olives inside and beside the onions, then sprinkle with a extra olive oil, honey, salt flakes and spice.

Switch on two side-by-side stovetop elements to a moderate temperature, put the tray on top of the rings and leave the onions to cook undisturbed for a short time.

In the meantime, on a sprinkled with flour surface, spread the pastry and trim it into four rectangles big enough to enclose each round of onion. Carefully put one pastry square on top of each round of onion, flatten along the sides with the back of a fork, then bake for twenty minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Set a plate on top of the hot pan, then flip to turn the tarts on to the surface. Carefully lift off the paper and present.