Melting Middle Baked Onions Recipes

MELTING ONIONS

Steps:

• Position rack in upper third of oven. Preheat to 450°F.
• Toss onions, oil, butter, sage (or thyme), salt and pepper in a large bowl. Spread in a 9-by-13-inch metal baking pan (don't use glass or ceramic, which might shatter). Roast, turning once, until browned on both sides, 30 to 35 minutes total.
• Turn the onions again and carefully add broth to the pan. Continue roasting until the broth is reduced and the onions are very soft, 15 to 20 minutes more.

MELTING-MIDDLE BAKED ONIONS

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Trim the bases of the onions so they stand up in a baking tray, and cut the tops flat, about 1cm down, so you can see most of the onion layers. Pour 1cm boiling water into the tray, add the bay leaves and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 1-1¼ hours until they are soft all the way through when pierced with a skewer.
• Pour any liquid from the bottom of the tray away, and leave to cool for 20 minutes until they are cool enough to touch. Pull out the centres of the onions by gently squeezing them, they should pop out of the top, or use a spoon to scoop out the layers. Leave about 4 or 5 outer onion layers as a shell. Finely chop the soft onion middles, season with salt and lots of black pepper, and add a pinch of thyme leaves, and pack into the onion shells to fill them about 2cm up. Discard any onion left over (or use for soup). Mix the cheese, garlic, nutmeg, half the thyme leaves and season. Spoon into the onions on top of the chopped onion, packing the cheese in densely, as the cheese will melt and reduce when cooked.
• Toss the bread cubes with 1 tbsp oil, the remaining thyme and season well. Add to the tops of the onions. Drizzle over a little more olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes until the tops are golden and crunchy. Serve with a green salad or vegetables.

MELTING MIDDLE ONIONS

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Cut a small disc off the root bottom of each onion so they stand upright. Cut 1cm slices off the tops (these will be used as lids), then put back on top of the onions. Wrap each onion in foil, transfer to a baking tray, and bake for 1 hr until tender.
• Melt the butter in a pan. Tip into a bowl. Add the pine nuts to the pan and toast over a low heat for 2 mins until golden. Add to the butter with the breadcrumbs, garlic, thyme, parsley and egg. Stir, then season.
• Cut the cheese into 8 chunky cubes. When the onions are cool enough to handle, scoop out the soft centres, leaving a few layers of onion at the edge. Finely chop the scooped-out centres from 2 onions, and add to the breadcrumb mix (reserve the rest to use in another recipe, such as ragu). Spoon the breadcrumb mixture into the hollowed-out onions so they're halfway full, then push a piece of cheese into the middle of each and top up with more breadcrumb mixture. Top each onion with its 'lid', then roast for 35-40 mins more until tender and the cheese is melted.