From The Optimist Magazine

Fall 2015

When you bring everyone who wants to work with you to tears, and you still make it into countless dishes all over the world every day, you must be pretty special. The culinary qualities of the onion are indeed extraordinary. You can coax almost any flavor out of an onion: from sharp to hot to sweet. Also, it gets along with practically everybody. No wonder the onion has been embraced by all world cuisines.

But despite all that, you’ll rarely encounter the onion in a leading role; it is always playing second fiddle or acting as a foil to other ingredients. Yet in terms of flavor, it can definitely handle being in the spotlight. It doesn’t even
need any help to shine.

Preheat the oven to 400˚ F (200˚ C). Cover a baking sheet or the bottom of a casserole with a sheet of baking paper. Now cover the sheet in whole onions, peel and all. Put them in the oven until they are done; check them after about 20 minutes with a toothpick to see if they are soft inside. If necessary, cook a bit longer. Take the onions out of the oven and let them cool down a bit. Then take the peels off and your reward is delectable: an onion so soft and sweet that you could spread it on a piece of toast. Lightly salt and pepper; more garnish would be an insult.

Oh, and a beautiful thing about this recipe: it never even makes you cry! Not at the beginning, anyway … | Elbrich Fennema