Caramelized Onion Pasta Bake (Cloverleaf Cut)

Notes

The house cut of the 89-million-view oven bake from @plantyou (the faithful original lives next door in caramelized-onion-pasta.md). The oven does the caramelizing under foil while you do literally anything else, and the baking dish becomes the sauce pan. This remix keeps that method and the lemon finish, then trades coconut milk for Boursin and slides balsamic under the onions. Chili crisp is not optional because every branch of this trend runs sweet without heat.

Ingredients

• 4 large yellow onions, halved and sliced into thin half-moons
• 1 head garlic, top third sliced off
• 6 loose garlic cloves, peeled
• ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
• 2 tbsp balsamic glaze
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp kosher salt and ½ tsp black pepper, plus more salt for the pasta pot
• 3 tbsp olive oil, or the oil from the sun-dried tomato jar
• 1 lb short pasta (farfalle, rigatoni, or casarecce)
• 1 package (150g) Boursin, garlic and herb
• 1 tsp chili crisp, plus more to serve
• Juice of ½ lemon, more to taste
• ¾ cup grated parmesan, plus more for the table
• 1 cup reserved pasta water
• A good handful of fresh basil, torn

Instructions

1. Load the dish:
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
3. In a 9×13 baking dish, toss the onions with the sun-dried tomatoes, balsamic glaze, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and olive oil.
4. Nestle the garlic head cut side up in the center and tuck the loose cloves in among the onions. Drizzle the garlic with a little extra oil.

5. Cover tightly with foil.

6. Oven caramelize:

7. Bake 45 minutes covered.

8. Uncover, stir, and bake another 15 to 20 minutes until the onions are deep golden and jammy and the loose cloves have gone sticky.

9. Boil the pasta:

10. During the last 15 minutes of oven time, cook the pasta in aggressively salted water to just shy of al dente.

11. Scoop out a cup of pasta water before draining. The pasta water is the entire sauce mechanic, do not skip it.

12. Build the sauce in the dish:

13. Squeeze the roasted cloves out of the garlic head into the onions and mash with a fork.

14. Add the Boursin, chili crisp, lemon juice, and a good splash of pasta water. Stir until the residual heat melts everything into a glossy sauce.

15. Marry:

16. Add the drained pasta and parmesan to the dish and toss, loosening with more pasta water until silky rather than gloopy.

17. Optional but correct: top with extra parmesan and broil 3 to 4 minutes for a crusted lid.

18. Serve:

19. Finish with torn basil, more parmesan, and an extra hit of chili crisp. Serve straight from the baking dish.

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

• Calories: ~680
• Protein: 21g
• Fat: 28g
• Carbs: 84g
• Fiber: 6g

Estimated from the ingredients at five servings. Ballpark only.

Variations & Adaptations

• Vegan reversion: Skip the Boursin and parmesan, use ½ cup coconut milk and the juice of a whole lemon. That is the @plantyou original, captured in caramelized-onion-pasta.md.
• Protein add: Stir in a drained can of white beans at step 5, or top with sliced grilled chicken.
• Deeper acid: If it still reads sweet at the end, more lemon fixes it faster than more salt does.