Hi folks! This is my first attempt at making French Onion Soup. There were a lot of recipes to choose from, all pretty similar, but the one I adapted here (from Food52) had a generous amount of red wine so I went with that, because red wine + beef broth = amazing flavor. But first I had to buy some individual oven-safe soup bowls. I found these at Crate and Barrel (on sale! yay!) and got the little platters to go with them. I think they’re really cute and will work great for future soup and sandwich situations. So as far as the soup goes, the biggest challenge will be cutting all those onions without burning your eyes, as I mention below in the recipe, I recommend using a food processor to slice them, be advised when you’re done and open the lid you will experience all that cut onion at once! I had to put the lid back on until I was ready to put them in the pan. Alternatively you can put the onions in the refrigerator a day in advance, or even the freezer if you don’t have that much time, this greatly reduces the burn factor. The cheese: I made the individual crocks twice, the first time I didn’t put enough soup in the bowl so I didn’t get the draped cheese effect. The second time I made it, which is what you see here, I added enough soup and really piled on the bread and cheese, but still, I only got a little drape. But seriously I can’t complain it tasted so good!

Another thing worth mentioning is that if you cook the soup and then refrigerate it overnight, it will taste even better the next day. It’s just a fact. Recipe below, enjoy!

French Onion Soup

2 1/2 - 3 pounds onions
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 generous pinch of salt
Fresh ground black pepper, a few twists
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
6 cups beef stock
2 cups red wine
1 baguette or other crusty bread
4-6 slices of swiss cheese, one for each serving
Grated gruyere cheese, a handful for each serving

Halve and slice the onions. I highly recommend a food processor to slice the onions. Slicing this many onions can be torture, if you don’t have a food processor place the onions in the refrigerator a day before and they won’t burn your eyes (as much if at all).

Melt together the butter and olive oil in a large dutch oven, add the garlic until it’s caramelized. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper, and stir around just until the onions are all coated in the olive oil/butter. Add in the fresh thyme and the bay leaf and let the onions caramelize, about 20-30 minutes. They will be golden to brown in color.

Once the onions are caramelized and have cooked down, pour in the stock and wine. Simmer uncovered for at least an hour and as much as three hours, add salt and pepper to adjust the flavors.

Meanwhile, slice the bread and toast in a 400° oven until lightly golden brown. You'll want 2 pieces of bread per person - one for the bottom of the bowl, and one for on top.

Grate your cheese. Alternatively, you can drape a deli-cut slice of cheese (swiss or gruyere) over the top of the bowls. I used both, grated cheese on the soup, then a slice of swiss over the toast slice.

Preheat your broiler. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf from the soup. Arrange your oven-safe individual serving bowls on a baking sheet.

To prepare, place a toast slice in the bottom of each bowl. Ladle in the soup (close to the top of the bowl) top with some grated cheese, a slice of toast, then a slice of cheese or more grated cheese. Be generous! You want the cheese to seal in the soup and drape over the edge of the bowl. Which mine sort of did and didn’t, I swear I put so much cheese but it still melted down into the soup, so as you’re stacking your cheese and bread make sure to pile it high!

Makes about 4-6 servings.

Adapted from Food52

Ratatouille

1 large eggplant, 1” slices

1/2 cup olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

10 cloves garlic, minced (I used 3 cloves of garlic)

2 large beefsteak tomatoes, cut into 1” cubes

2 medium zucchini, sliced

2 medium yellow squash, sliced

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

3 bell peppers (red, green and yellow), cut 1” pieces

2 14oz cans of diced tomatoes

5 bay leaves

1 1/2 cups fresh basil

2 teaspoons fresh or dried oregano (or rosemary if you prefer)

2 teaspoons fresh or dried thyme

Salt & pepper to taste

(Note: the original recipe cooks each vegetable separately in another pan, then added to the larger pot, I cooked everything in one pot and it worked out fine)

Place eggplant slices on paper towels and sprinkle slices with salt for one hour to make them sweat. Blot them dry with a paper towel. Cut into quarters.

In a large dutch oven cook the eggplant in some olive oil until about half way cooked. Add the onions, garlic and tomato to the pot, sauté a few minutes until soft. Add the zucchini, squash, mushrooms, peppers, adding more olive oil as needed. Cook for 5 more minutes or so. Stir in the cans of tomatoes and the herbs (save some basil for garnish). Cover the pot and cook for about 30 minutes on a very low heat, stirring every so often.

While the Ratatouille is simmering prepare the Polenta.

Serves 6-8 (This completely filled my dutch oven and I could not add one more thing, so it makes quite a bit!)