Crunchy, sweet, so delectable that you can’t help but take a bite. Move over Honeycrisp apples and make way for your layered and oft-misunderstood friend, the onion. If you’ve seen the classic movie “Holes,” then you’ve perhaps shared my fascination with onions when, after seeking refuge in the mountain known as God’s Thumb, Zero and Stanley Yelnats desperately bite into the mythical sweet onions growing around them, finding them to be just as amazing as legend foretold. With this recipe, you’ll have that exact moment of keen realization of just how wonderful and all-powerful an onion can really be. Now, while I do enjoy a couple slices of onion every once in a while with my food (often served as a side dish with Indian cuisine), I prefer it soft, brown and sweet, as it appears in my recipe below for onion pasta.
The onion is the judge, jury and executioner of the dish, and depending on how you play your cards, it may give you the best meal you’ve eaten all summer. This recipe will take you on a journey where yes, you will shed many tears (unless you have laboratory or construction goggles to block the propanethial S-oxide released by onions which, trust me, sunglasses have no power over) and perform countless agonizing wrist movements as you maneuver the onion towards browned, softened perfection, but once you reach the end, it’ll all be worth it. Trust me, cooking the onion for so long in a warm pan teases out a different kind of sweetness from the onion that can’t be found anywhere else other than a dish like this.
Oh-so-good onion pasta
Servings: 4
Time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
- Pasta of your choice (use packaging instructions to figure out portion size for 4)
- 2-3 large, sweet onions (I recommend yellow for a more robust flavor profile, but white works for those with a milder palate)
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
- Any vegetables of your choice
- ¾ cup water
- Pinch of sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 ½ tablespoons butter
- Optional: ½ teaspoon thyme, ½ teaspoon oregano, ½ teaspoon rosemary
Instructions:
- Cook pasta of choice as required by instructions on packaging (I recommend spaghetti al dente).
- While pasta cooks, slice your onion into thin strips.
- Then in a saucepan, heat up your butter on medium heat, followed by onions and optional herbs.
- Cook onions until half way to brown (softer, but not the softest possible), then add garlic and continue cooking.
- Once onions are soft and light brown, turn heat down to low for a few minutes, then add water and any vegetables of choice (cut up, of course, as you like!).
- Cover pan, let cook on medium heat for 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened and vegetables are cooked.
- Once so, turn heat down again, add heavy cream and parmesan cheese, mix thoroughly.
- Add pasta of choice, turn heat back up to medium and cook until well incorporated.
- Garnish as you please (parmesan is great for this too) and enjoy!
For an additional kick, I am often prone to adding chili flakes or chili oil (Momofuku is great if you’re looking to splurge) to garnish my pasta dishes, but for this one I wouldn’t add too much as it may detract from the overall sweetened complexity of the flavor profile. For maximum enjoyment, and especially if you haven’t seen “Holes,” I suggest you cook this recipe with your family and settle down for a whimsical summer evening of sweet onions and surreal storytelling. Cheers!
