Cippoline Agrodolce

A classic way to do many vegetables but especially nice with onions. I am reminded because I made them yesterday to serve with short ribs braised in coffee/ancho chile sauce. Cippoline are the small, very flat 1-2" round onions just now in our markets.

1 # cippoline peeled, root end intact. Cook 20 min in water and 1 1/2 T butter in a pan in which the onions sit flat with the water almost up to the tops. Turn once or twice.
Add slightly less than 1T. vinegar - I use a good wine vinegar. If you use balsamic, use less sugar, pinch of salt and slightly less than 1 tsp sugar.
Cook at a bare simmer for 2 hrs. You want to end up with a rich, brown
syrup. If too dry before finished add a bit of water.

[Jenise]

Sounds fantastic. Never cooked them this way. But, two hours isn't too much? Cippolines are so small, I would have thought they'd have cooked to nothing in that much time.

Yes, they are probably done before 2 hr but the flavor continues to concentrate. There is no onion texture, only a little bag of onion puree. Be sure to leave the root end intact so that the outer layer of onion stays intact and acts like a purse. Serve warm although I just ate the leftovers at room temp in a romaine/red pepper/sheved carrot salad -nearly as good.

Christina, how high do you put the water temp during the first 20 minutes? Thanks, Bob

Initial temp is medium so that the water has steady bubbles but not roiling. Before turning the water down there should be about 1/2 " left in the pan. Later, just a very low simmer - a bubble here and there.

Check out Marcella Hazan - Classical Italian Cooking for a real recipe. I fly by the seat of my pants as you can probably tell by my sketchy posts !

I simmered from the get go, seem to be doing just fine. The aroma is wonderful. Thanks -- I had three bags left over from New Years and used two this afternoon.