Rustic simplicity — a winter savory TART
This tart is a vehicle for two winterfriendly ingredients — caramelized onions and Gruyere cheese.
Caramelized onions are sweet, savory and slick. A lengthy cooking time coaxes out their abundant natural sugars and releases their juices, resulting in a squidgy heap of golden brown onions. Gruyere cheese is a nutty, piquant Swiss cheese, a favorite melting cheese in fondue and equally delicious au naturel. Combine the two ingredients, and you have the makings for a richly savory winter meal, guaranteed to spark visions of snowflakes and crackling fires in your imagination. (At least in mine, since I live in California!)
This recipe is my best reproduction of an appetizer I ate years ago, when I lived in a Swiss winter wonderland near Geneva. It was a complimentary sliver of tart, passed around with a pre-dinner drink at a local auberge in the hills overlooking Lake Geneva. I have never forgotten this tart. It was simple and rustic, just like the half-timbered dining room in which it was served, with its man-size fireplace and crooked beamed ceiling.
There are few ingredients in this minimal creation, so every ingredient counts. Take the time to properly brown the onions and choose an authentic Gruyere cheese, preferably aged for deep flavor — and you will be rewarded with this uncomplicated and seductive tart. Serve it as a light meal, or cut into thin slivers and pass around as an appetizer.