🔗 Share this article

This recipe provides a quick version on the French onion tart, transforming some leftover of dough trimmings into a quick treat. Keep and gather any scraps into a ball and re-roll as and when required. Dough freezes beautifully in the freezer, and by omitting two lengthy steps in the traditional recipe – creating the dough and cooking slowly the onions – this version comes together much more quickly. In its place, the onions are prepared inverted, steaming and caramelising beneath a covering of dough with anchovies and dark olives for a fast, enjoyable twist on a traditional French dish. Should you have less pastry, you can always halve the ingredients.

Fast Flipped Pissaladière Tarts

The recent wave of upside-down tarts, which became popular on video platforms and social networks a couple of years ago, may have started with a delicious and simple sweet pastry creation or an creative onion tart that even led to a whole book on inverted recipes. Additionally, I have been having a lot of fun with flipped preparations these days, from an lengthy vegetable pastry to these quick small onion tarts. It’s a straightforward, creative way to prepare something that appears especially impressive.

Yields 4 personal pastries

• 1 sweet onion
• 2 tbsp extra virgin oil
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• Kosher salt and peppercorns
• 8 anchovies (or 4, for a milder flavor)
• Brined olives, to taste
• 120g pastry sheets – light or buttery can be used as well

Warm up the stove to 410F/210C. Peel and trim the onion, then cut into four thick, cross-sections. Cover a hob-appropriate oven sheet with non-stick paper, then visualize where you will place each piece of onion. Drizzle those spots with cooking oil and honey, then add salt and pepper. Put two anchovies on top of each seasoned area and cover them with a piece of onion. Tuck a few black olives inside and beside the onions, then season with a extra oil, sweetener, salt flakes and black pepper.

Activate two adjacent hob rings to a medium heat, place 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 slice it into four squares just large enough to cover each round of onion. Gently put one pastry square on top of each slice of onion, flatten around the edges with the reverse of a tool, then heat for twenty minutes, until the crust is browned. Lay a serving platter on top of the pastry tray, then invert to turn the tarts on to the board. Gently lift off the lining and enjoy.