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It’s Not Regular Pasta. It’s French Onion Pasta.
French onion orecchiette, to be exact, from the genius mind of Ham El-Waylly.
Ham El-Waylly’s French onion orecchiette.Credit…David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Onions, on their own, are pretty great. They’re inexpensive and they last a long time. Raw, they have an unmistakable sharp bite; sautéed, they become silky and sweet.
But when they’re cooked forever and ever into a thyme-infused deep brown softness, becoming the basis for French onion something? Oh là là.
I say “French onion something” because we have a bunch of recipes that apply that rich, caramelized onion treatment to a nonsoup entity. See: French onion dip, French onion panade, French onion mac and cheese, French onion grilled cheese, French onion sliders, French onion skillet chicken. Ham El-Waylly has now added to this esteemed list his French onion orecchiette, which turns five onions, a heavy splash of “whatever dark liquor you have lying around” (Ham’s words) and pasta into a luxurious dinner.
It’s not a quick dinner — as anyone who has ever made caramelized onions knows, with low heat and lots of time necessary to coax out that deep, satisfying sweetness from the onions. But I love these sorts of “long cook time, little effort” recipes for weekends, when I can poke around the kitchen stirring the onions every now and then while I attempt other household chores. And to nod to the cheesy toast that tops the soup, Ham adds a Gruyère-panko topping to the pasta, which gets a quick broil to crisp into golden goodness. Because this isn’t just pasta. It’s French onion pasta.
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French Onion Orecchiette
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