Onion tart

onion tart
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A classic dish from northern France.  I make onion tarts for our family dinner, a light lunch, parties and picnics.  It is very versatile as it can be eaten hot out of the oven or cold.  Although if cold, I find it is better at room temperature than cold out of the fridge.

The difference with a pissalardiere is in the seasonning.

The preparation is easy.  You will need to prepare ahead a shortcrust pastry (or purchase a good quality one, then this tart is even easier to make).

Serves 4-6

onion tart

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:

  • 75 g of soft butter (I like to use salted butter)
  • 150 g of flour
  • Some icy cold water

The above quantity is enough for a 22 cm diameter tart dish.  There is additonal instruction on this shortcrust pastry page.

For the filling:

  • 4 large onions
  • 20 g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon of four
  • salt, pepper
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup of milk or cream
Method
  1. Place the flour and soft butter in a large bowl. With your finger tips rub the butter into the flour. You will obtain a coarse granular texture.
  2. Add a little water at the time and mix lightly until the pastry comes together as a ball.  Do not work more than the getting of a nice ball. Cover or wrap in cell wrap and rest for at least half an hour (1 few hours is better) at room temperature.
  3. In the meanwhile, peel and cut the onions. Heat up the butter in a thick base frypan (use one with a lid) and place the onions.  Stir.  After 30 seconds, reduce the heat to half.
  4. After a couple of minutes, stir with a wooden spoon and cover with the lid. You may need to reduce further the heat, we are looking here fro a slow je=heat to reduce the onions. They must not brown. The onions will turn golden and start to “melt”.  This will take 15-20 minutes.
  5. Once melted, add salt, pepper, nutmeg and leave at room temperature.
  6. Preheat your oven at 180°C.   Using a rolling-pin and a little flour to prevent sticking, roll the shortcrust pastry and transfer to the tart tin.  Trim the edges.
  7. In a bowl, mix the onions with the flour, eggs, milk or cream and transfer to the tart.  I like adding fresh thyme is I have some handy at this stage.
  8. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is light brown. Remove from the oven.  Serve with a mix green salad.

Note: you can use the excess to make tartlets either sweet or savoury. A number of sweet tarts (for e.g. apple, apricots, peaches, pears) use the same pastry.

onion tart