CREAMY CHEESY CARAMELIZED ONION SAUCE
2 tbsp olive oil or butter
2 large spanish onions, thinly sliced
½ cup whole milk or dairy free milk (unsweetened oat milk works best as a sub)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ cup shaved parmesan or cheddar (or both)
In a saucepan over medium heat, add your oil or butter. Once it begins to warm up, add your sliced onion. Stir to coat the onions. The goal of this recipe is to slowly caramelize the onions to bring out their deep, rich, sweet flavor. Onions are naturally sweet. Just as caramel comes from the simple cooking of sugar, when you slowly cook onions, the natural sugars from the onions caramelize, turning a simple ingredient into a robust character. Anyways, once the onions are in the pan and coated, spread them out evenly in the pan and let them cook, and cover, only stirring occasionally (every 4 minutes or so) to keep them from burning. Keep an eye on how hot your pan gets, as you may need to lower or raise the temperature. After about 10 minutes of cooking, add 1 tsp of the salt. You don’t want the onions to burn or to dry out, but we also want them to cook. We’re going to let the onions cook, covered for about 30 minutes to an hour. The idea is for them to slightly stick to the pan so they begin to caramelize but to never let them burn. If you notice they’re beginning to stick, that would be a good time to stir them. The natural moisture from the onions and cooking process should allow them to pull off of the pan. All that caramel goodness happening in the pan is what we’re looking for. I like to use a flat head wooden spatula to help scrape up the browned bits from the bottom. Continue to cook and stir and scrape until the onions are a rich, brown, caramel color. Add the milk and black pepper. Allow to simmer on medium until the sauce begins to thicken. Stir in the shaved cheese and simmer for a few minutes. Simmer until thickened to your desired consistency. Taste for salt - add the other tsp if desired. This is a wonderful sauce to put over meat or to add to your favorite pasta dish. The last time I made this I served it with fresh trofie.