Recipes Featuring Onion
View all 1309Penne Rigate with Sausage, Mushrooms, and Ricotta
This recipe will become a regular request from your family and guests. It is often known as boscaiola, or “of the forest,” because of the earthy mushrooms in the sauce. Definitely one of Tanya’s favorites, this dish spent many years on the menu of my restaurants. On cold winter nights in New York City, when Tanya and her teenage friends had no other place to go, I would serve them this pasta followed by hot chocolate in our private dining room. I loved seeing them so full, chatty, and happy. It is easy to assemble, flavorful, and filling.
Italian
Barley Risotto with Cabbage and Sausage
Tanya absolutely loves the combination of cabbage and sausage, and this dish is one of her favorites. Today we are all cooking with more and different grains. Barley is an ancient grain, one of the first grains cultivated, more than eight thousand years ago, and is used around the world. Every region of Italy uses it—as flour to make pasta, for breads and porridges, in soups, as a contorno, in stews—and I use it here in a risotto. Barley does not release starch as short-grain rice does, and so, when making a barley risotto, I cook the barley separately, drain it, and add it to the flavoring of the risotto I want to make—in this case, cabbage and sausage. Then I apply the last step of a regular risotto, mantecare, mixing the flavored barley with butter and grated Grana Padano to make it creamy. I par-cook the barley like pasta in this recipe, since it takes much longer to cook than rice.
Italian
Baked Onions with Fennel Bread Crumbs
These ultra-tender baked onions are topped with fennel-spiked breadcrumbs.
American
Winter Minestrone
As with my Summer Minestrone, think of this recipe as a template for any hearty winter vegetable soup. You can vary the dried beans and include other vegetables- such as leeks, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips or rutabaga, parsnips, or myriad winter greens, like escarole, spinach, and chard.
Italian
Cream of Fava Soup with Rice
Mostly, one thinks of favas as the puffy green pod with the fava bean in it. Well, just as all beans get dried and saved for off-season cooking, so do favas. Shelled and dried, they behave like dried peas when cooked, disintegrating and making a delicious and dense soup. When I was a little girl, it was part of my job to help Nonna Rosa pull the beans out of the pods and lay them on mats for drying so she could make rich winter soups. In my own kitchen, this was a job my mother, Erminia, took very seriously, and she would patiently sit at our kitchen table for hours, pulling beans out of pods, sometimes singing an old Italian song as she proceeded. Since the favas you use here are peeled and split before drying, you do not have to soak them as long as other dried beans—3 hours is fine. You can soak them overnight if you prefer; just be aware that the cooking time on the soup will be a little less. You can make this soup ahead, but add rice only to the portion you want to serve right away.
Italian
Savoy Cabbage and Bell Pepper Slaw
If you’re making this salad for a gathering, it can be made several hours ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated until you’re ready to serve. Leftovers make a great topper for a turkey or roast beef sandwich the next day.
Italian