If  you ever find yourself traipsing around Nice or any little  town within a short drive of the French Riviera, you’ll see large square pissaladières in the windows of pastry shops. Sadly, most of them are rather drab looking-like pizzas that didn’t quite make it.

But the comparison to pizza is unfair because a well-made pissaladière has a savory identity all its own. Even the origin of the words is different. In La Cuisine Niçoise, Jacques Médecin states that the word pissaladière comes from pissala, a kind of anchovy paste that, at least in traditional versions, is spread over the dough before baking.

So the decision to make pissaladière versus pizza or focaccia rests on your liking for onions, olives, and anchovies, the ingredients that give a pissaladière its own special identity. I happen to be addicted to all of the above, and while I love pizza and focaccia, neither one satisfies these particular cravings like a slice or two of pissaladière, whose saltiness also makes it the perfect accompaniment to apéritifs or cocktails. (I serve it in little wedges or rectangles.)

Pissaladière doesn’t need to be hard to make, but since I’m always trying to improve things, often by reverting to laborious methods from earlier times, I make a version that does take a lot of time. Making pissaladière the hard way or the easy way depends on what you use for the dough.

You can take the easy route and make a simple bread dough with yeast, flour, and water or a regular unsweetened pie dough, or you can complicate your life but come up with something better than any pissaladière you’d encounter in Nice and make your dough with a natural sourdough starter instead of just packaged yeast.

The topping of onions, olives, anchovies, and herbs stays the same, regardless of the dough. I use red onions instead of the traditional yellow onions (anyone from Nice would sneer) because I like their sweetness, a welcome counterpoint to the saltiness of the other ingredients.

SALTED ANCHOVIES

Because for years cooking-obsessed friends had been telling me that salted anchovies were far better than those that come packed in oil in little jars or cans, I went to my favorite fancy food shop several times to buy anchovies packed in salt.

But the anchovies were always too strong and fishy. Finally I made the essential discovery that if you want anchovies packed in salt you must buy a whole unopened can, desalt them, and repack them in extra-virgin olive oil.

If you’re desalting anchovies for the first time, you’ll probably want to buy the smallest amount you can, which is 600 grams, about 1 1/4 pounds. Cut the top off the pretty blue can and soak the whole can in a big bowl of cold water for about 10 minutes to loosen the salt.

Rinse under cold running water to dissolve more salt and then turn the can over and shake it to get the anchovies to come out in one big clump. Soak the clump in a bowl of fresh water for about 10 minutes, then gently pull away the anchovies-don’t force them or they’ll tear-one by one. Soak the anchovies in another bowl of fresh water for about 20 minutes.

Snap the head off each anchovy by pushing it back, and separate the fillets from the backbone by running a finger along the backbone, gently pulling away the two fillets. Pat the fillets dry on a clean kitchen towel and pack them in small jars with tight-fitting lids.

I use French canning jars with clamp-on lids and rubber seals. Pour in enough extra-virgin olive oil to cover, and use as needed.

The anchovies will keep for at least 5 or 6 weeks in the refrigerator.

Why don’t you try this wonderful this recipe.

NICE – STYLE ONION , OLIVE , AND ANCHOVY TART

FOR REGULAR BREAD DOUGH:

1 packet (about 2 teaspoons) active dry yeast

16 cups [400 ml] barely warm water

4 to 45cups [500 to 560 g] all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 cup [60 ml] extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon for the bowl olive oil for the sheet pan

FOR THE TOPPING :

4 cup [60 ml] extra-virgin olive oil

4 pounds [1.8 kg] red onions (or, to be traditional, yellow onions), sliced about 1?8 inch [3 mm] thick

(traditionally, the onions would be sliced thicker)

2 teaspoons total of fresh herbs, such as whole thyme leaves, winter or summer savory leaves, or marjoram leaves, or chopped oregano leaves, or 1 teaspoon total of the same herbs dried, and/or 5teaspoon fresh or dried rosemary leaves

20 salted anchovy fillets or anchovy fillets packed in olive oil in jars

salt

pepper

5 cup [65 g] black olives, preferably small Niçoise olives, pitte

TO MAKE THE DOUGH

COMBINE the yeast with 1/4 cup of the barely warm water (hot water will kill the yeast). Let sit for 5 minutes.

Toss 4 cups [500 g] of flour with the salt in a mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer that has a hook and paddle attachments. This will prevent a large amount of salt from touching the yeast and killing it. Stir in the yeast mixture, the remaining 1 ¼ cups [375 ml] of water, and 1/4 cup [60 ml] of extravirgin olive oil and work the mixture slightly with a wooden spoon or your fingers until it comes together in a shaggy mass. (If you’re using an electric mixer, start mixing with the paddle blade and as the dough thickens and the motor begins to strain, switch to the dough hook.)

Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes. If you’re working by hand, dump the dough out onto a work surface and knead it for 3 minutes. (In the mixer, work it for 3 minutes with the dough hook.) The dough should seem wetter and stickier than most bread dough. But if it’s impossible to work with, work in another 1/4 to 1/2 cup [30 to 60 g] of flour.

Put 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil in a mixing bowl, put the dough in the bowl, turn the dough around to coat it all over with oil, and cover it with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled, 1 to 3 hours depending on the temperature.

RUB a 12-by-18-inch [30.5 by 45.5 cm] sheet pan (what professionals call a half sheet pan) with olive oil.

Push down on the dough in the bowl with your fist and turn it out onto the sheet pan. The dough will be too loose to roll. Press it into the sheet pan with the tips of your fingers until it completely covers the sheet pan. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise again until doubled, about 1 hour.

TO MAKE THE TOPPING

W H I L E the dough is rising, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot or pan large enough to hold the sliced onions. Put in the onions and stir them with a wooden spoon. Cook them gently, stirring every few minutes, until they release liquid.

At this point, usually after about 10 minutes, you can turn the heat up to high to evaporate the liquid, but be careful not to let the onions burn. When all the liquid has evaporated and the onions are completely soft, after about 25 minutes more, remove from the heat. Stir in the herbs. Chop 8 of the anchovies into a paste, stir the paste into the onions, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

TO ASSEMBLE AND BAKE THE TART

P R E H E AT the oven to 425°F [220°C/gas mark 7]. If you have a pizza stone, slide it onto the lowest shelf in the oven.

S C AT T E R the onion mixture evenly over the dough, leaving about 1/4 inch [1.5 cm] of dough exposed along the edges. Arrange the anchovies on top of the onion mixture in a formal crisscross pattern or strew them nonchalantly.

Arrange or sprinkle the olives on top and slide the sheet pan onto the pizza stone or directly onto the bottom shelf of the oven. Bake until the crust is golden brown around the edges, 25 to 30 minutes.