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| Just-harvested onions drying in the sun. |
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| Big daddy Texas onion, 16-inches circumference! |
You never know what will happen when, in the spring, you go forth into the garden with implausible seeds or puny starts or sets and sow them into the soil. This year we have been rewarded by numerous crops, but perhaps none so amazing as the onions. A note about onion harvest. It is a sensory experience because onions create a fragrance that is released from the warm soil in an intoxicating burst, When I started this post, I wasn't thinking about the olfactory benefits of onion harvest. But when reviewing the experience, I couldn't help but focus on the eye-rolling, head- tossing perfume released during harvest. It is a huge part of the pleasure. Along with the size and vigor of the 2011 onion crop, the harvest fragrance about had me rolling in the garden trenches.
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| Onions drying on the shaded front porch. |
We
almost have enough onions to make/freeze caramelized onions. Almost. It's disheartening, really, to see exactly how much is required to make a handful of caramelized onions. But I cooked down enough onions (about 3 large ones) for one amazing pesto, sausage, peppers and caramelized onion pizza. Here's a recipe, followed by onion cultivation photos from start to finish.
BEST PIZZA EVER!
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| Yes, drool. This pizza is heaped with caramelized onions. And plenty of cheese, peppers, etc. |
INGREDIENTS
- Dough - I use a bread machine recipe using whole wheat flour. I divide the dough into three parts and freeze two. This makes for a super-thin crust when used with a 12-inch pizza pan.
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup pesto. I use homemade, and it doesn't have cheese in it yet. Spread this evenly over the crust. Commercial pesto is good also.
- 1.2 - 3/4 cup marinara sauce. Relax, use a bottled marina if you don't have from-scratch marinara. Spread evenly and sparingly over the pesto.
- 1/2 pound Italian sausage, cooked, drained, and crumbled. Distribute evenly.
- 1 to 1.5 cups caramelized onions, spread over the sausage
- 1 large sweet or mild pepper, chopped, spread on top.
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450. Pop prepared pizza into oven and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven when edges brown. Add grated Parmesan or other cheese and return to oven a few minutes until cheese melts. I wish I could eat this right now!
How to caramelize onions
Thinly slice 3-4 onions, dump into a large skillet and add a couple T of olive oil. Cook uncovered over medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Stir as necessary as onions release moisture and begin to brown. They're done when they're uniformly browned and sticking to the pan.
Get used to the idea that what you see before you in the pan will reduce by at least half.
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| At the beginning of the caramelizing process |
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Near the end.
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Onions from start to finish.
Photos
