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A little while ago, on a visit to Annisquam, Massachusetts, my friends Ann and Nick hosted an “Impress the Food Blogger” dinner at their home.
Guests were encouraged to bring a favorite dish, and we all got to vote on what we thought would be a hit on the site.
The evening was a blast, the votes were tallied, and the winning dish? This caramelized onion tart! Or pizza as it was called, brought by Ann’s friends Jeff and Marilyn.
I’ve made this tart several times since I first had it, and it’s one of those dishes you want to limit to special occasions, because it’s really hard to stop eating, it’s that good.
Crispy, pillowy puff pastry, with balsamic caramelized onions, topped with sprinklings of gorgonzola, brie, and tarragon.
The original caramelized onion pizza recipe is from Marilyn and Jeff’s friend Bonnie Stern,
Canadian author of several cookbooks.
I played a bit with the recipe, rolling the dough out more thinly, reducing the amount of onions and cheese, so the serving pieces would be easier to hold and work better as appetizers.
Perfect for New Year’s crowd. Enjoy and Happy New Year!
Caramelized Onion Tart with Gorgonzola and Brie Recipe
Tarragon is a summer herb, if you can't find any, you may crush a few fennel seeds (maybe half a teaspoon) and sprinkle over the tart. Or top with fresh chopped fennel fronds, after the tart has been taken out of the oven.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cups of sliced onions, sliced root-to-top into 1/4-inch thick slices (about 2-3 med onions)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 8 oz frozen puff pastry (defrosted a couple hours in the fridge)
- 2 oz chilled Brie cheese, rind removed and diced
- 2 oz Gorgonzola or other blue cheese, diced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
Method
1 Caramelize the onions: Heat oil in a large deep pan on medium-high heat. Add onions and cook for about 10 minutes or until wilted and starting to brown. Add sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Reduce heat and cook gently, uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until richly caramelized. Add a little water if the onions look like they are starting to dry out. Cool.
2 Roll pastry into a 10-to-14-inch rectangle (or whatever shape you want). Place pastry on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Prick with a fork at a couple inch increments to prevent the pastry from forming big bubbles while baking.
3 Spread onions over pastry, all the way to the edges of the pastry. Dot with cheese. Sprinkle with tarragon. Refrigerate if not baking immediately.
4 Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F for 18-20 minutes or until cheese has melted and pastry is crispy. Cool for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges or squares and enjoy!
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Caramelized Onion Tart with Gorgonzola and Brie
I was so excited about this recipe. Sounded amazing. But was just ok. Perhaps I didn’t add enough fennel, or the puff pastry was too thick, or….don’t know, but it was surprisingly flavorless, hard to believe given all of the great ingredients. I make a lot of different onion tarts, this one probably won’t be in my keepers file.
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Going to make it for Christmas. I bought 10×10 puff pastry sheets (2), would you suggest using both or just one? Total package is 400g
Hi Tammy, 400 g is 14 ounces, which is almost twice as much puff pastry as is called for in the recipe. So I would use just one of the pastry sheets.
Thanks, fingers crossed!
Can you freeze after baking or should you freeze pastry raw then cook?
Hi Dorothy, I would assemble the pastry, then freeze, before baking.
The taste is fantastic and the edge pieces perfect…how can I get the middle of the pastry to puff (or at least cook enough so that it’s not gooey)? I tried prebaking the pastry for 8 minutes before I added the toppings. Maybe I should have done it longer??
Hi Jamie, I think just baking it longer would do the trick, that and making sure the toppings are thinly spread out.
Will parsley or basil work in place of tarragon.
Hi Diana, hmm, not really. If you don’t have tarragon I would crush a few fennel seeds and sprinkle over.