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Cipolle Ripiene alla Piemontese
Created by Chef Graziella
Piedmont's stuffed onions, where crushed amaretti and piquant mostarda meet ground meat in a filling that defies the simplicity of most Italian cooking. Baroque, yes. Worth the effort, absolutely.
Most Italian cooking celebrates restraint. What you keep out is as significant as what you put in. And then there is Piedmont, where the influence of the French court and the wealth of the old aristocracy created dishes of startling complexity. Cipolle ripiene belongs to this tradition.
The filling seems improbable: crushed amaretti cookies with their bitter almond whisper, mostarda di Cremona with its candied fruit suspended in mustard-spiked syrup, ground meat, aged cheese. On paper, it should not work. On the plate, it is revelatory. The sweetness of the slowly cooked onion harmonizes with the amaretti. The mostarda provides heat that cuts through the richness of the meat. Each element makes sense of the others.
This is not a dish for those who want dinner on the table in thirty minutes. The onions must be blanched, hollowed with care, stuffed properly, and baked until they nearly collapse. It rewards patience. Serve these at the start of a special meal, when your guests have time to appreciate what they are eating.
Ingredients
large yellow onions
Quantity
6 (about 10 ounces each)
ground veal
Quantity
6 ounces
ground pork
Quantity
4 ounces
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| large yellow onions | 6 (about 10 ounces each) |
| ground veal | 6 ounces |
| ground pork | 4 ounces |
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