Image by JCarrot

First, let me apologize for the poor quality of the picture! It doesn’t do justice to the tart or the camera’s abilities… better luck next time! Now onto to the food itself…

I’ve always been a huge fan of onions – red, white, yellow, green – I don’t discriminate. I like them raw and cooked, on bagels with cream cheese, on pizza, in salad, etc. I find that most things I cook begin with my gorgeous Sur Le Table sautee pan (Hannukah present from my Dad), some olive oil, chopped garlic, and of course, some onion. They just seem to add necessary flavor to everything. Now I know there are people who hate onions and while I can respect that, I just can’t understand it. However, as my friends and family will tell you, I have some weird issues with food textures that many cannot understand. Fortunately my little sister has many of the same issues so I have an ally. Let me also add, if you do not like onions, this recipe isn’t for you… but it’s really really good.

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Throughout the year we get different types of onions in our CSA box so I rarely have to buy onions anymore. This also means that I don’t always have the correct type of onion for the recipe I want to make, however, I’ve found that in a bind types of onions are interchangeable. In this case I had yellow onions when I needed red onions. Fortunately the yellow onions worked out just fine.

Gruyere cheese was on sale at Whole Foods so a picked up a chunk and immediately I decided I was going to use a portion of it to make an onion tart. My “go to” onion tart is one of my friend Rivka’s recipes and can be found here. It’s really fantastic! I took Rivka’s advice and caramelized the onions ahead of time which made the prep time before dinner that evening very short. I happened to be looking at another of my favorite cooking blogs and found this recipe for an onion tart. On that particular day I didn’t want to spend time making my own crust so the onion tart I made ended up being a hybrid of the two I mentioned. This a perfect addition to a meal for 6-8 people since it makes 2 tarts.

And now for the recipe:

2 sheets puff pastry (I like Trader Joes because it has butter instead of lard)

3 onions (red or yellow will work)

2 Tbsp good quality olive oil (local and organic if possible)

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 cup grated gruyere cheese

Salt to taste

Slice or chop onions (your preference). Heat olive oil in sautee pan at medium heat. Add onions and sprinkle with salt. Cook for about 10 minutes until the onions are soft and translucent. Make sure the onions are not burning. Turn the heat down to medium low and cook for about 40 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure the onions are not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add balsamic vinegar, stir, and cook for 10 more minutes on medium low heat.

About 10 minutes after you’ve turned the heat down and covered the onions remove the puff pastry from the oven to defrost. Pre-heat oven according to directions on box. Grate cheese and set aside.

Once pastry shells are defrosted and soft, place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Split 3/4 cup cheese between the two pastry shells. Spread carmelized onions over cheese on each pastry shell. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of onions. Fold edges of pastry shell over (about 1 inch) so nothing leaks out of the tart during baking. Bake according to directions on pastry shell box.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

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