"Someone's coming to dinner" onion and gruyere tart
Delicious, vegetarian and special without feeling too stuffy — it hits all the right notes.
My good friend Kate was visiting from out of town and came over for dinner this week. I didn’t tell her — and I hope you won’t either — that what she described as the “best meal I’ve had on this trip” is a standby of mine for when I have dinner guests.
It’s a caramelized onion and gruyere tart. It’s the perfect meal for having people over, in my opinion: It’s vegetarian to accommodate lots of people, it’s still savory and filling enough to satisfy meat eaters, like me, and it feels fancy without being too fussy.
You can also prep a lot of it in advance to save time on the night your guest(s) is coming. I’ll caramelize the onions, which can take some time, a day or two before and make and par-bake the pie crust. I like to go low and slow on the onions and cook them for about an hour, just stirring every few minutes while listening to a podcast or, frankly, while working from home and on a conference call. Then, all you have to do on the day is add your onions to the filling, pour it into the crust, top with cheese and bake. 30 minutes. Easy.
I’ll serve that, as I did on Thursday night, with a crisp green salad and some blanched asparagus with garlic aioli for dipping (see below) and a cold bottle of rosé. If I've served this to you, too, just remember: Don’t tell Kate.
Let’s get cooking.
Savory onion and gruyere tart
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen: SK herself acknowledges not really loving her crust for this and I, like many commenters, found it just did not come together. So, below, I just sub in my all-time, go-to, fail-proof pie crust from Melissa D’Arabian. I use it for everything. You can also just use store-bought.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. yellow onions
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mushroom or vegetable broth (you can use low-sodium beef broth if you’re not going for vegetarian)
2 tsp cognac (optional)
1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
3-4 oz. of grated gruyere (or swiss and whatever amount your heart is feeling)
For Melissa D’Arabian’s pie crust
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
8-10 tbsp ice water
Method:
(If you are using store-bought pie crust, skip ahead to step 4). Cut 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter into cubes and stick it in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to get really cold.
Once your butter is chilled, combine it with 2 1/4 cup flour and 1 tsp salt in a food processor. Pulse until it starts to look like wet sand. Then, one tbsp at a time, add ice water until the mixture starts to form into a dough. You should use 8-10 tbsp.
Divide the pie dough in half on two sheets of plastic wrap. Press into disks, wrap, and stick one in the fridge for your tart and the other in the freezer for another time.
Thinly slice 2 lbs of onions. (I like to use Kenji Lopez-Alt’s method of slicing pole to pole, it makes even slices and may make your eyes sting less).
Add 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil to a large pan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted add your onions. Keep stirring every few minutes until the onions take on some color and then turn your burner down to medium-low. Keep stirring every few minutes, adjusting the burner as needed to make sure they’re getting more color but aren’t burning. Let them cook until they turn the color of caramel candies, about an hour. About halfway through, when they’re getting toward graham cracker color you can add 1/2 tsp of salt. Some people swear by a pinch of sugar to get the caramelization process going, but it’s not necessary.
When your onions are done to your liking, add 1 cup of broth and 2 tsp of cognac (if using) and turn the heat all the way. Stir and make sure to scrap up any onion bits off the bottom of the pan. Let that boil away, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has almost entirely evaporated. Take the onion mixture off the heat and set it aside to cool.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400 and roll out one disk of your pie dough until it’s a bit larger than your tart pan. (I use an 11”, SK uses 9”, use what you have). You want it rolled out enough that it comes up the sides of your pie pan by at least an inch. Make sure to press it down and up the sides.
Now, we’re going to par-bake the crust for 12-15 minutes, until it’s just getting some color on the edges. You can fill the crust with parchment paper and cover that with pie weights or beans to weigh it down so it doesn’t bubble up too much. [If you’re making this a day or two in advance, you can stop here. Pack up your onions and stick them in the fridge. Wrap up the crust once it has cooled and leave it out on the counter.]
On the night you plan to eat, heat the oven back up to 400 degrees. Whisk one large egg in a medium bowl and add your caramelized onions and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Stir that together to combine and then pour into the pie crust. Top with 3, 4 or more ounces of grated gruyere (or swiss), whatever amount speaks to you. Pop that in the oven (I like to put it on a sheet pan in case of spills) and bake for 25-30 minutes.
When the cheese looks nice and golden, pull it out and check with a knife or fork to make sure the mixture comes out solid. Let it cool for a minute or two and then slice and serve.
Yes, and
As mentioned, I serve this tart with a crisp green salad and asparagus with aioli. For the salad, I love greens and a few crunchy vegetables mixed up with this dill vinaigrette from Eric Kim for the New York Times (combine 1-2 finely chopped cloves of garlic with 1 tbsp of rice wine vinegar and set aside to mellow out. After a few minutes, mix in 3 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp chopped dill, 1/2 tsp fish sauce and a pinch of a sugar, with salt and pepper. The fish sauce really adds depth, but you can use soy if you want to keep this veg).
For the asparagus and aioli, I was inspired by Alison Roman. You’ll quickly boil asparagus in salted water just until it turns bright green (we’re talking 1-2 minutes depending on how thick your asparagus spears are) and then put them in ice water to stop cooking. For the aioli: Mix 3/4 cup of vegetable or other neutral oil with 1/4 cup of olive oil. In another bowl, whisk one egg yolk with a little dollop of Dijon mustard and then start whisking in a little bit of your oil mixture at a time, making sure it’s all incorporated before you add more. Keep going until you’ve added in all the oil — this can be a bit of an arm workout. If it gets too thick, just add a bit of white distilled vinegar. When you’re done, season with salt, pepper and add one (or two) finely chopped cloves of garlic. Taste and see if it needs a bit more vinegar, you’ll want at least 1/2 tsp in total.
Background music
I did a fair amount of cooking, grocery shopping and even more dishwashing this week, or so it felt. My soundtrack was a 5-part podcast series (+ bonus episode) from the Last Podcast on the Left about the JFK assassination.
I’m new to this beloved podcast, in part because people recommended them as more research-focused and ethical than certain other true crime podcasts. The hosts are funny and really thorough, but what I most enjoyed about this series was their reflections on how the investigation of Kennedy’s murder and subsequent poor explanation of that to the country contributed to a lot of the American conspiracism that we’re living with today. If you like a good deep dive, I found it excellent.
That is all for this week. I’ll be back soon with more recipes!