French Onion and Blue Cheese Tart

Given how often we need onions to start a recipe, let’s not forget or discount how important they really are. So in this tart, I’ve made them the star of the show, sweet and lightly scented, in pride of place on a layer of light, puffy pastry and delicious crumbled blue cheese.

Nadiya Bakes by Nadiya Hussain

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons butter

2 large sprigs of lemon thyme

1 clove of garlic, grated

5 onions, thinly sliced (you will need about 2 pounds 2 oz/1kg)

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1 sheet of pre-rolled puff pastry

1 egg, lightly beaten

5¼ oz/150g blue cheese

a small handful of chopped fresh chives, to serve

INSTRUCTIONS

Start by cooking the onions. They need to be cooked slowly on low heat, so it's best to begin with those.

Melt the butter in a large nonstick frying pan--we have a load of onions to cook. When the butter has melted, pick off the thyme leaves and add, then add the garlic and onions. Mix everything together.

Now add the pepper, salt, and sugar and mix. Cook on medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you have onions that look like the kind you would only eat with a burger in a Sunday market at 6 a.m.!

While that cooks, start on the pastry. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper or use the paper the pastry comes in and roll out the pastry onto the sheet.

Using a knife, score a smaller rectangle ½ inch/1cm inside the pastry rectangle, making sure not to cut all the way through. Pierce the inner rectangle with a fork all over to allow the steam to escape when it bakes.

Brush the edges with the egg and bake for 20 minutes, until golden all over.

Take out and, using the back of a spoon, push down all the puffed-up pastry of the inner rectangle, creating a nice neat border.

Take the blue cheese and crumble all over the inner rectangle of the pastry. Add the onions and scatter them all over till you have an even layer. Now bake for 15 minutes.

Take out and let cool for 10 minutes before eating, sprinkled with the chives.

Adapted from NADIYA BAKES by Nadiya Hussain. Copyright © 2020 by Nadiya Hussain. Photographs copyright © 2020 by Chris Terry. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

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