Caramelized Onion Tart and Warm Mushroom Salad... that turned into a frittata

Sometimes dinner is just a bust and unfortunately Thursday was one of those nights. Based on the photo above, you'd think we had caramelized onion tart. And it did start off that way. In the morning, I searched the freezer to make use of something on hand, and when I saw some puffed pastry, I went looking for a savoury tart recipe. I had high hopes for this recipe but although the kitchen smelled like a dream with the caramelized onions, and the tart came out of the oven looking golden-brown on top and along the edges, when I cut into it once it had cooled I found that the pastry was still totally raw. By that point, way too late to put it back in the oven. And this, even though I had already doubled the recommended cooking time. The recipe didn't call for rolling out the pastry so I had just unfolded it as indicated but this was likely the problem. Maybe my pastry was overly thick... who knows. Just a disappointment in terms of wasted time, energy and ingredients.


Since I had also figured that we were kid-free that night, I had plans for a warm mushroom salad on the side and knew this combo would be fine for the two of us. But at the last minute, Austin popped in the door, looking for a meal before he reffed soccer. Last week nobody was home for dinner and now I have unexpected hungry tummies. And not many 14-year-old boys are excited at the thought of uncooked pastry, let alone a warm fungus salad. You can imagine the blank stare of "are you kidding, you want me to eat this?" So we cobbled together a Plan B meal for him instead.


At this point, I'd basically given up on the idea of dinner altogether and a few minutes before Q arrived home, I decided that a salad alone probably wasn't going to do it for him either (how many people can I disappoint in one day) so I tried to salvage what I could of my efforts by scraping off the ricotta/onion mix from the top of the tart, combining it with the sauteed mushrooms that I'd started on, throwing in some beaten eggs and calling it a frittata. He was thrilled and said it was delish because he's a trooper who rarely complains about any of my food. And I didn't wince when he squeezed some ketchup on top and asked if I wanted to take a pic of the whole mess.

Caramelized Onion Tart

2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp sugar
optional 4 tsp white wine
1 package puff pastry, thawed
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium frying pan, cook butter, thyme, onions, salt, pepper, sugar and white wine for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened and golden brown. While onions are caramelizing, combine ricotta cheese and egg in a small bowl and set aside. Unfold puff pastry sheets on a large cookie sheet, making sure both sheets connect in the middle. (This is where things fell apart for me. Flour and roll out the sheets fairly thinly so they'll cook through.) Gently fold in each side of the puff pastry sheets approximately 1 inch. Spread ricotta cheese evenly over the puff pastry and lightly sprinkle most of the parmesan on top. Add caramelized onions evenly over the cheese mixture and top off by sprinkling any remaining parmesan. Bake for 45 minutes until puff pastry is golden brown.



Rest of the week


Aug 23 Nobody home for dinner

Aug 24 Date night at Table 17 as part of our staycation with Maddie away; kids had salmon and veggies

Aug 25 Mushroom/caramelized onion/ricotta frittata