And now for something completely different: onion sauce. Yes, I just made an onion sauce last week. But that was light and creamy, and this one is dark and dreamy.
And even more pantry friendly: Butter, onions, pasta and Madeira. Hard to get more basic than that. It does take a time commitment, but most of that time isn't hands-on.
Braised onion sauce
Adapted from “Beard on Pasta,” which shows an illustration
of author James Beard tossing pasta with a somewhat maniacally intent look.
Ingredients
½ pound butter (Holy Cow, that’s a LOT of butter)
6 largish onions, peeled and sliced
¼ cup Madeira
Grated cheese, such as Parmesan or Gruyere
Pasta, 12-ounces to a pound. Pick something substantial like
wide ribbons.
Method
Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onions and cook over
medium heat until soft and translucent. Reduce heat to quite low and cook
onions for an hour, uncovered. The goal here is not to brown the onions but to
bronze them. How long that takes is going to depend on your burner and your pan.
It took about 75 minutes for me.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. (The recipe did indeed give that range of pasta; I used a
12-ounce package and that was about right for the amount of sauce it made because the onions really cook down.)
At this point you have nice bronze onions simmering in what
still seems like a LOT of butter and you’re wondering whether you should have
cut back on the amount … But you add the Madeira and cook for another
few minutes and somehow it turns into a sauce instead of a separated mess of
onions and butter. If you used unsalted butter, you may need to adjust the seasoning with salt at this point. I used salted butter and didn't need any additional flavoring. Toss with pasta and serve garnished with grated cheese.
Rating: Very, very nice. Those onions are elevated to about their highest level in this dish. Caramelization and the glug of Madeira give it a nice richness. Still wondering about that much butter ... but heavens, it's tasty.
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