Must-Have Creamy Red and White Pearl Onions with Bacon

Thanksgiving onions This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. In fact, one year, I decided to omit it and sat at the table with my heaping plate of food and felt regret. Not only are the onions to die-for, but you’ll want to sop up the sauce on a piece of bread! I wrote this down by hand years over 10 years ago from the newspaper and have never grown tired of it.

Here are 3 Tips before you begin:
• Use only fresh onions. Yes, it’s a pain to peel them, but I tried frozen one year and they were so disappointing. They just didn’t have that little bit of crunch that makes them delicious.
• You can cook and peel the onions two days ahead. Place them in a ziploc in the fridge.
• If you’re using this for Thanksgiving, cook a pound of bacon on Tuesday so that it’s ready to use on several of my Thanksgiving recipes…and to munch on. Trust me: it will get used.

20 oz red pearl onions
10 oz white pearl onions
2-3 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled*
2 tbl butter
2 minced shallots
1 minced garlic clove
1 ½ pints heavy cream
½ cup bread crumbs
2 tbl chopped parsley

Boil large pot of water. Add onions and blanch until skin is loose about 5 or 6 minutes.
Drain water over a strainer and let cool.
Peel onions.

Preheat Broiler. Melt butter in a dutch oven pan or iron skillet over a low heat.
Add shallots and garlic. Stir while cooking for about 3 minutes until they’re translucent and just a little brown.
Add cream. Simmer until cream is thick and a little golden—about 12 minutes.
Stir in onions for a 2 minutes.
Place in casserole dish. Top with bacon, bread crumbs and parsley.

Place under broiler until browned and bubbly, about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it though because I’ve burned the bread crumbs before. Makes about 8 large servings or 16 small.

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