Pichade

Medium·40 min active + 1 hour 40 min resting

Monaco's tomato-and-onion tart — a bread-dough base spread with a slow-cooked tomato-and-onion sauce and topped with anchovies, black olives, and garlic. The Monégasque cousin of pissaladière, set apart by its tomato.

Pichade is the Monégasque cousin of the Niçoise pissaladière, but where Nice keeps it onion-dark, Monaco lays a tomato base beneath the onions, anchovies and olives. It is the Riviera's bread-and-oil snack, sold by the square.

Bite a square of pichade and the crisp bread base supports a thick layer of jammy sweet onion and tomato, salty anchovy melting in, black olives sharp against it. Bite: the dough is crisp-chewy, the onion-tomato deeply sweet and savory, the anchovy a salty umami punch, garlic warming. A sun-soaked Riviera tart, eaten warm in squares as a starter or with an aperitif.

Cooking the onions slowly to a jam draws out their sweetness to balance the salty anchovy; the tomato base (the Monégasque difference from pissaladière) adds acidity and body. A hot oven crisps the bread base under the wet topping, and the anchovies dissolve into savory depth as they bake.

Variations

Without tomato (closer to pissaladière). With a puff-pastry base. With capers. Extra-jammy onions. With herbs de Provence. As small individual tartlets.

On the Palate

Where Pichade sits in the Monégasque flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 6

How it's made

8 steps · 40 min active + 1 hour 40 min waiting

1
6 min
Dissolve 7 g yeast in 150 ml warm water; mix into 300 g flour with 2 tbsp olive oil and salt.
2
92 min
Knead to a soft dough; rise 90 min.
Watch out
The dough has risen enough when it's puffy and roughly doubled — press a finger in and the dent should fill back slowly, not spring straight out.
3
26 min
Meanwhile, slowly cook 3 sliced onions in olive oil 25 min until jammy.
Watch out
Cook the onions low and slow until they collapse into a soft golden jam — any browning should be honey-gold, not scorched; burnt onion turns the whole base bitter.
4
16 min
Add 3 chopped tomatoes and 1 tbsp tomato paste; cook 15 min into a thick sauce; cool.
Watch out
Reduce the tomato until it's thick enough to hold a line when you drag a spoon through — a watery sauce soaks the dough and the base bakes soggy.
5
4 min
Press the dough into an oiled tray.
6
3 min
Spread the tomato-onion sauce over the dough.
7
6 min
Lay a lattice of anchovy fillets and dot with black olives and slivers of garlic.
8
26 min
Bake at 210°C for 25 min until the base is crisp and the edges golden; serve warm.
Watch out
Bake in a hot oven until the underside is crisp and the edges go deep golden — lift a corner to check; a pale, bendy base means it needs more time under the wet topping.