I took this recipe for a carmelized onion tart from The Pie and Pastry Bible and modified it a bit to make it a bit easier. I don’t own a tart shell, so I just used a shallow pie plate. I also didn’t use any of the fancier pie crust recipes the author suggested. Just a plain old whole wheat pastry flour, unsalted butter, and chilled water pie crust. As always, recipe below is what I did, not exactly what’s in the cookbook.
- Single shell pie crust
- 1 egg white
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 6 medium sweet onions
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
- ½ ounce Gruyère cheese
- pitted Manzanilla olives
- Pre-bake the pie crust
- Lightly beat egg white
- While still warm, brush the crust with egg white
- Peel and thinly slice onions
- In skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over low heat
- Add onions
- Sprinkle onions with sugar, salt, and pepper
- Cover and cook without stirring on lowest possible heat 45 minutes
- Shred Gruyère cheese finely
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Raise heat on onions to medium
- Stir and cook onions until all liquid has evaporated and they are golden
- Turn heat to low
- Add garlic and thyme
- Cook for 3 to 5 minutes
- Fill pie shell with onion mixture
- Sprinkle with Gruyère cheese
- Place olives on top
- Bake for 20 minutes or so (until cheese is melted and top is brown)
The result was heavenly. Several folks told me it was the best of the 20 or so pies we had at the last Pie Night. It might become one of my staple pies. Easy to make and so very very tasty.
