Sweet and sour baby onions in balsamic vinegar (cipolline in agrodolce)
Print
Balsamic glazed baby onions (cipolline in agrodolce)
Your guests will be fighting over these tangy little onions! Provide plenty of bread to mop up the sticky, caramelized sauce. At our cooking school in Tuscany, this side dish is one of the biggest hits.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 10 servings
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 700 g (1½ lb) small white pickling onions, peeled
- Olive oil
- 2 tablespoons sugar or runny honey
- 120 ml (½ cup) balsamic vinegar (or a mix of balsamic and wine vinegar, to taste)
- About 500 ml (2 cups) vegetable stock
- A pinch of salt
Instructions
- Trim off any remaining peel and roots from the onions.
- In a heavy pan, brown the onions in a little olive oil, turning them until golden.
- Mix the vinegar with the sugar or honey.
- Add it to the onions and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Add stock just to cover (no more) and a pinch of salt, cover the pan and cook over low heat for 45 minutes, adding a little more stock as needed. Aim for a thick, syrupy coating on the onions.
I went on one of Shilpa’s cooking course in August 2009. What a fantastic week. My husband didn’t do the cooking but joined in everything else and since getting home we have tried to adopt the Organic Tuscany “way”. Our favourite meal from the course was the caramelized onions, the chicken marinated in red wine, served with either taglietelle (I make that) or gnocchi (which he makes). Thanks to Christina we are pretty good at choosing which wines go well with our meal. We enjoyed Organic Tuscany so much last year and this year we rented a flat near to Certaldo and visited some of the places I missed on the course last year and also popped into see Terry and Clara (to buy espresso cups). Somehow I don’t think 2010 will be our last visit to Tuscany !!!!
I’ve been making this recipe for years—ever since I learned it in Shilpa’s class. Every time I make it, it is gobbled up, and I am asked for the recipe. I have no idea why it only has 3.5 stars, as it is one of the best recipes from the course. I highly recommend it. It is a little time consuming to peel all the onions and to wait for the sauce to reduce, but it is worth it!
Came out amazing! Highly recommend