alsatian onion tart.

There is no reason not to make this tart.

First of all, there's buttery puff pastry. Secondly, sweet simmered onions finished in cream. And thirdly, there's bacon.

I admit that I'm not the biggest buddy of bacon. The fact that I'm a sucker for all-butter puff pastry motivated me to make this tart rather than that prized porky-ness. But when everything came together in the end, every single element of the tart made this tart as fantastic as it was- you cannot leave anything out and no part (even the bacon or in my case, puff pastry) is any less important than others. I was tempted to leave out the bacon at first but I'm so glad I didn't.

Because I made this in the morning, and let's face it, I'm not ready to face a stove yet. Especially to fry bacon. The smell of bacon on my clothes and in my hair at 9 am disgusts me. Okay, the smell disgusts me anytime of the day. Sorry peeps, that's the truth.

So what I did was to skip the frying step and just plonk cut up pieces of bacon (with scissors, Nigella style!) on top of the onions and let the oven heat do the cooking. Of course, because the tart is baked on the lower rack, the bacon didn't get golden brown. To remedy that, I shifted the tart to the upper rack and broiled it for 2 to 3 minutes to give it a nice color.

I really encourage you to try this recipe, as simple as it seems, and I advise you to not make these two mistakes I made.

One, quartering the recipe. And two, sharing.

Because after you had your first bite, you'd wish you didn't.

Alsatian Onion Tart
slightly adapted from Baking with Julia

Puff pastry, enough to roll out to a 10 to 12 inch circle or rectangle, whichever is easier
4 large onions, diced
1 cup chicken broth
3 tbsp cream
1/4 pound bacon, cut into small (but reasonably sized) pieces
salt and pepper, to taste

Prepare your puff pastry. Roll it out to an 1/8 inch thick and cut into a 10 to 12 inch circle. Whatever shape you want is fine really. Place on a lined baking sheet, prick the dough all over with a fork and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to several hours.

In a medium saucepan, combine the onions and chicken broth. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until the onions are very tender, about 30 minutes. Uncover the saucepan and turn the heat back on high to let the excess liquid evaporate. When there is none left, take it off the heat and let cool. When its cool, stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper. At this point, you can let it cool completely, transfer to a bowl, wrap it up tightly and store it in the fridge if you're making this ahead.

Preheat oven to 350F, placing a rack in the lower third of the oven.

Retrieve the puff pastry from the fridge and spread the onions all over it in a single layer, spreading all the way to the edges. Top with the pieces of bacon. Bake for 30 minutes on the lower rack of the oven until lightly golden. Transfer the tart to the top rack and broil for 2 to 3 minutes until the bacon gets a nice colour. This step is completely optional but why not.

Cut a huge slice for yourself and serve immediately.