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French Onion Pizza

A phyllo pizza topped with caramelized onions, olives, and herbs.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

French Onion Pizza

Oven400°F
Timeabout 20 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the onions

  1. Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add one-third of the onions and cook, stirring, until slightly wilted, 4 to 5 minutes.

  3. Remove onions to a plate.

  4. Repeat twice with remaining oil and onions, removing each batch to a plate when slightly wilted.

  5. Return all onions to the skillet.

  6. Add garlic, herbes de Provence, salt, pepper, and bay leaf.

  7. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender and the consistency of a thick, chunky sauce, about 25 minutes.

  8. Remove from heat and cool slightly, stirring occasionally.

  9. Discard the bay leaf.

Prepare the crust

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

  2. Lightly coat a 15 x 10-inch baking pan with vegetable cooking spray.

  3. Unwrap phyllo sheets, discard any torn sheets, and immediately cover with plastic wrap to prevent drying.

  4. Remove the wrap and lightly coat the top sheet with cooking spray, starting from the outside edge.

  5. Lift carefully and center the sheet on the prepared pan.

  6. Repeat with remaining phyllo sheets and more cooking spray, stacking sheets in the pan.

  7. Gently ease phyllo into corners of the pan, then fold or crimp edges to form a 1/2-inch raised crust.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the onion mixture evenly over the phyllo, then sprinkle with olives.

  2. Bake until the phyllo is golden brown and shrinks from the edges of the pan, about 20 minutes.

  3. For easy cutting, carefully slide the pizza out of the pan onto the back of another baking pan.

  4. Using kitchen scissors, cut into rectangular slices.

  5. Serve warm.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

179Calories
2 gProtein
14 gFat
13 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Olive1 large (4g)4
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Onions
Cook down into a sweet, jammy topping that forms the body of the pizza.
Phyllo sheets
Stacked layers bake into a thin, crisp, golden crust with a flaky texture.
Extra-virgin olive oil
Carries the onions' browning and adds richness and fat to the topping.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows as it cooks with the onions.
Greek black olives
Add salty, briny flavor that contrasts with the sweet onions.

The step that matters

Cooking the onions down slowly. Onions must cook long enough to lose their water and soften into a thick sauce. If rushed, the topping stays wet and can make the thin phyllo crust soggy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, olive, onion, garlic):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, onion, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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