Mornay onion tart

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 300 g shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée)
• 2 1 kg onion
• 3 50 g butter
• 4 150 g smoked pork belly (or thick cut streaky bacon)
• 5 4 tablespoons vinegar
• 6 300 g mornay sauce
• 7 30 g grated cheese
• Total weight: 1,890 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 3 min.	1 hour 15 min.	2 hours 15 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Roll out 300 g shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée) then line a 22 cm (9-inch) diameter high-sided baking tin, which you will have placed on a sheet of baking paper in a baking tray. Leave any excess dough around the edges, then place in the fridge to set aside.
2	Prepare and slice 1 kg onion (a mandolin is ideal for this). This may seem like a lot, but don't worry, they'll reduce when cooked.
3	In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 50 g butter, and when hot, add the onions. Season with salt and stir well. Cover for the first 5 minutes.
4	Leave to cook until the onions are tender, checking the salt seasoning as cooked onions tend to be a little sweet.
5	Your onions should be fairly dry, with little or no cooking juices. If this isn't the case, because they've given off a lot of water during cooking, drain them in a fine sieve. Set aside.
6	Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Cut 150 g smoked pork belly (or thick cut streaky bacon) into small pieces.
7	Toast them, without adding fat, in a small frying pan over medium heat.
8	When toasted to your liking, add 4 tablespoons vinegar, and stir until evaporated.
9	It's not essential, but I recommend adding 2 or 3 spoonfuls of already-cooked onions to the pan at the end of cooking, then stirring well to capture all the flavor of the grilled bacon.
10	Pour the lardons + onions into the remaining onions and mix well.
11	Add 300 g mornay sauce and mix well.
12	Take the pastry mould out of the fridge, cut the excess pastry around the edges of the mould, place a sheet of baking paper on the bottom and fill with ceramic balls (or similar). Bake at 200°C (390°F) for 20 minutes.
13	In the meantime, you can roll out the pastry scraps into small strips to decorate the tart.
14	After 20 minutes, remove the baking tray from the oven...
15	... and remove paper and beads.
16	Fill the tart with the onion-lardon-Mornay mixture.
17	If you have made some, place the pastry strips on top.
18	Sprinkle with a little grated cheese.
19	Bake for a further 30 minutes.
20	Enjoy warm or hot, on its own or with a small green salad.

Remarks

If you find your onions a little too soft at the end of cooking, you can add a good glass of dry white wine.
If you don't have a Mornay sauce, use a Béchamel sauce to which you can add grated cheese to taste.
You'll notice that in this recipe, the onions are cooked without coloring, but if you prefer, you can caramelize them. In this case, increase the weight of onions to 1.5 kg, as they will reduce even more.

---