Just in case you were wondering what to send me...

When I lived in Paris in 2008, my host family had two exchange students: me, and another girl from my exchange program.  While I was there, my mom sent me a guidebook to the best pâtisseries, or pastry shops, in Paris.  My roommate's mom sent her miniature boxes of American cereals.

I always kind of wondered why she had come to Paris, if she wanted to eat American cereals and didn't seem much interested in practicing her French or sight-seeing.  I, on the other hand, wore out my shoes hitting the streets of Paris, nearly always with my pâtisserie bible in hand.  Good thing I did; otherwise, I doubt I ever would have found Le Loir dans la Théière.

Le Loir dans la Théière (which means, by the way, the dormouse in the tea kettle) is an eclectic salon de thé/café/restaurant tucked away on the narrow, verdant rue des Rosiers in the heart of the Marais.  It's the kind of restaurant where the chairs don't match, where the half the tables feature brightly colored ceramic bowls filled with white and raw sugar cubes (and those who don't have them make friends with their neighbors), where diners charge their iPhones at the socket beneath the Alice in Wonderland-inspired mural.  Basically, it's my favorite kind of place - especially when you consider how outstanding the food is.  I came for the dessert buffet, much lauded in my pâtisserie guide for its enormous slices of tarte à la citron meringuée (left), but I came back again (and again... and again!) for the tarte aux oignons rouges et tomates.

The savory tarts don't show up on the paper menu - instead, they selections du jour are always listed on a chalkboard near the front door.  The selection is pretty similar from day to day: tarts with fresh goat cheese, capers, and tomatoes; tarts with shallots and aged goat cheese; tarts with red onions and tomatoes.  All the tarts are good, but oh my, the onion and tomato tart is just heavenly.  The earthy sweetness of the caramelized onions is perfectly balanced by the acidity of the fresh tomatoes, and then it's topped with a dusting of diced herbs and served on a perfectly crisp, flaky, buttery crust.  In a perfect world, I would eat this for lunch every day.

Unfortunately, it is not a perfect world, and I don't usually have this even once a year.  I've tried a few times to make it at home, and I think I'm starting to get close.  In any case, I have definitely learned a few things in the attempt.

1.  The onions need to be cooked slowly in advance, to get to the soft, sweet, unbelievably delicious state.  That's just not going to happen during 15 minutes in the oven, so they need to get going well in advance.

2. The tomatoes won't get cooked in 15 minutes, either.  Better to roast 'em by themselves in the oven for an hour first to condense some of the juices and create a much deeper, richer flavor.

3.  To be crisp and flaky and perfect, the crust really needs to be fully cooked on its own, too.

So when you get down to it, making the tart itself is super quick and easy, because you're just throwing together ingredients that have already cooked, and heating them up for 10 or 15 minutes.  It's just the time spent getting everything ready in advance that takes a while.  The end result, though, is so, so worth the effort.

Now that I'm back in the US, I wish my Parisian host mother would send me care packages... I could use a nice slice of authentic Loir tarte aux oignons rouges et tomates!  However, since I doubt it would survive the trip in stellar condition, I suppose I'll just have to keep making my own.  I suppose my consolation ought to be that I have access to all sorts of American cereals in any size box I desire...  Lucky me?

Tarte aux oignons rouges et tomates

A quick note about pie dough: I used Pierre Hermé's recipe for pâte brisée because that was what I had waiting for me in my freezer, but you could use your own favorite recipe.  What's important is that it's fully baked before you put the onions and tomatoes in.  Otherwise, it won't be crisp and divine when the tart is served.  If you have a tart pan, this is a great opportunity to use it, otherwise a pie plate will work just fine.

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or bacon fat
6 medium to large red onions, julienned
Salt and pepper
Dried herbes de Provence

Pie crust, pre-baked in a tart pan or pie plate until golden brown and crisp.


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then spread out the tomatoes in a single layer over the paper.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Bake for thirty minutes, flip the tomatoes over, then bake for another thirty minutes or so, until they're wrinkled and browned and leaking their juices.

While the tomatoes are roasting, set a large frying pan over low heat.  Warm the oil or bacon fat, then add the onions.  Let the onions cook over low heat for about twenty minutes, stirring every few minutes, then add salt and pepper to your taste.  Continue to cook for another twenty to thirty minutes, still stirring every few minutes to prevent sticking and burning, until the onions are soft and sweet without any of the sharp pungency of raw onion flavor.

If you're really good at planning and timing your cooking, you could be preparing the pie dough during the time the onions and tomatoes are cooking: after it has rested, rolling it out, getting it in the tart pan, chilling it, pre-baking it.  If, like me, you have high hopes for doing 15 things at once in the kitchen that invariably turns into a slow working process, you could get the pie dough done ahead of time.  In any case, once the pie dough is baked, the tomatoes are roasted into their sweetest essence, and the onions are irresistibly caramelized, it's time to start assembling.  Pour all of the onions into the tart crust, then dot the top with tomatoes.  Finally, sprinkle herbes de Provence over the whole tart.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, just until heated through.  Serve immediately with a tossed green salad and crusty bread.  If you also happen to have a buffet table full of desserts when you finish, so much the better.

Serves four