When Life Gives You Onions
So many beautiful cookbooks are published every week, but the ones on my shelf that are dog-eared and oil-stained are time-tested stand-bys like Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. In this inexpensive, easy recipe, a humble pot piled high with sliced onions turns sweet, earthy, and soul-warming with a little time, patience, and heat. Consider it a lesson in renewal, and resourcefulness, too.
Ingredients:
- 3 Tablespoons Lard (or combination of, butter + olive oil work too)
- 1 ½ Pounds Onions, sliced very thinly
- Salt
- Pepper
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- ½ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
- 1 pounds Spaghetti (Dececco is the the only commercially available dry pasta worth your sauce)
Put the lard or butter + olive oil, and the onions with some salt in a large saute pan. Cover and turn on the heat to very low. Cook for almost an hour until the onions become very soft.
Uncover the pan, raise the heat to medium high, and cook the onions until they become colored a deep, dark gold. Any liquid the onions may have shed must now boil away.
Add liberal grindings of pepper. Taste and correct for salt. Bear in mind that onions become very sweet when cooked in this manner and need an adequate amount of seasoning.
Add the wine, turn the heat up, and stir frequently while the wine bubbles away.
Add the parsley, stir thoroughly, and take off heat.
Toss with cooked, drained pasta, adding the grated Parmesan. As you toss, separate the onion strands somewhat to distribute them as much as possible throughout the pasta. Serve immediately.
