Blue Cheese Onion Tarts
With the exception of carmelizing onions, this little knosh couldn’t be easier. Ok, fussing with the puff pastry takes a little time, but it’s still not hard. Sick of potatoes? Tired of rice? Bored of pasta? Make tarts. It’s just enough of a starch for a side dish that no one will miss potatoes or rice. Pasta…I dunno…they might still miss pasta. But no one complains because everyone loves puff pastry.
Get the store bought kind. I do because I have no patience to make puff pastry by hand. Plus I’m lazy. And this kind of tart is right up my alley….simple, straightforward, and soooooo delicious! We’ve had them twice now. This dish is versatile, too. We had them with pork chops, BBQ chicken, and it would be fantastic with any steak you can think of.
Since this calls for carmelized onions, go ahead and make extra onions to save for something else later. Carmelizing onions takes time. I don’t care what any other recipe says….if they claim you can carmelize onions in anything less than an hour it’s a lie. Period. Unless the laws of physics cease to exist in their kitchen, there is no way to do it in under an hour. I think mine actually take longer. So go big with it.
I saved my extra onions for french onion soup this weekend. And I can’t wait! I know, it’s mid July. Who wants soup?! Me. So shaddap. Since the hard part is over already, I just need some beef broth, thyme, and some cheese. I can picture it now….me hunkered down on the couch in my PJs slurping soup and watching the Flix. But that’s later. Is it the weekend yet? What day is it?
Where was I? Oh, tarts! This whole pandemic thing has me completely rethinking my relationship with time. I did eight large onions in two sticks of butter and lots of white wine. Yes, of course I drank some! One bottle for me….one bottle for the onions. Feel like you need to unwind? Pour a glass of cold white wine, chop a pile of onions, and lazily carmelize them. It’s restorative.
Blue Cheese Onion Tarts
Ingredients
- 1 package frozen puff pastry cut into four squares each sheet
- 1 cup blue cheese of your choice more or less
- 1 beaten egg
- 8 large white or yellow onions
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 bottle of white wine of your choice
Instructions
- Slice all the onions into thin wedges (I used 8 onions) and pile them on top of two sticks of butter in a saute pan on medium high heat. Coat all the onions in the melted butter as it melts.
- Let the onions sizzle until browning appears. Using a nonmetal spatula, scrape the bottom of the pan. When scraping becomes difficult or resistant, splash with white wine to ease the dislodging of the brown bits. Repeat every 15 or 20 minutes, lowering the heat as the browning begins. This could last for at least an hour. Drink wine.
- Preheat the oven to 375 and place the pastry squares on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Score the edges of the pastry to make an inner square without cutting the pastry all the way through.
- Pile about a tablespoon of bleu cheese (more or less) inside the scores and follow with a heaping tablespoon of carmelized onions, using the back of the spoon to flatten out the mixture slightly to the inside of the scores.
- Brush the outer edges of the pastry with the egg.
- Bake for about 30-45 minutes or until the edges are browned. Serve immediately! With wine! And for the love of all things delicious....save your extra carmelized onions.