I learned to make (and to love) a French onion tart from the recipe in Elizabeth David’s classic French Provincial Cooking. This tart remains faithful to the spirit of that recipe, based as it is on lots of sweet, soft onion, but I’ve added greens, used my half-wholemeal shortcrust pastry and gone for a lighter custard based on half milk, half cream (and whole eggs, so there are no spare whites leftover for you to deal with). It’s still gorgeous. And this is an endlessly adaptable tart template.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
- 1 quantity half-wholemeal shortcrust pastry, chilled
- Flour, to dust
Filling
- 1 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
- A large knob of butter
- About 600g onions (red, brown or a combination), finely sliced
- Nutmeg, for grating
- 200–250g cavolo nero, tough stalks removed, or about 300g spinach, very well rinsed
- 150ml double cream
- 150ml whole milk
- 3 medium eggs
- 50g mature Cheddar or Parmesan, grated
- Sea salt and black pepper
Method
- Use the chilled shortcrust pastry to line a 24cm tart tin and bake blind as per the instructions on page 143. Trim the edges. Preheat the oven to 180°C/ESSE Dial Guide MODERATE (Aim for the dial reading to be at the top end of MODERATE or very low end of HOT).
- To make the filling, heat the oil and butter together in a large frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the sliced onions with some salt and pepper. Cook gently, stirring regularly, for about 30 minutes until soft, golden and tender. Grate over some fresh nutmeg, stir in and leave to cool a little.
- While the onions are cooking, blanch the greens: bring a pan of water to the boil and add the cavolo nero or spinach. Return to a simmer then immediately tip the greens into a colander to drain and run under the cold tap to cool them quickly.
- Now squeeze out as much moisture from the greens as you can, then chop coarsely and combine with the cooked onion. Beat the cream, milk and eggs together in a bowl and season well with salt and pepper.
- Arrange the onion and greens mix in the prepared tart case and carefully pour the beaten egg mixture over them. Scatter the grated cheese over the surface.
- Bake in the oven for about 30–35 minutes until the filling is just set and golden. Leave the tart to cool, at least a little, before serving warm or at room temperature.
A best-loved favourite recipe made better by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from the River Cottage good comfort cook book. Recipes prepared using his ESSE Range Cooker
