Cauliflower and Carmelized Onion Tart

This dish made me long for the days of ladies' luncheons. It is a delicious savory tart that is perfect for sharing with your best friends over a long lunch. Served with a simple green salad (mine was just some baby lettuce dressed with the vinaigrette from Barefoot in Paris -- but I wished I'd had some of the heirloom cherry tomatoes that I used the last of last night to add -- that pop of tomatoey goodness would have been a nice contrast flavor- (and color-) wise to the creamy cheesy goodness of the tart.

It is quite time-consuming to make (especially if you make the tart crust from the recipe rather than use a store-bought pie crust). The crust recipe is a little tricky (mine threatened to never come together into a dough but I beat it into submission -- actually -- added a few drops of water) so if you have a favorite tart crust you are already using, I'd go with that. This recipe would have gotten five stars from me had I not encountered the crust problem.

The tart has to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes but does not need to be pre-baked before filling (it will need to be pre-baked if you are using a store-bought crust however). The onions need to be sauteed thirty-to-forty minutes (getting to a lovely golden brown) and the cauliflower roasts for about 25-30 minutes. When I remake this I will get the onions going first, make the tart crust next (although I will probably search for and make one of Martha Stewart's tart crusts -- she tends to be fool-proof with stuff like that), then roast the cauliflower. While that's roasting, you can blend mascarpone, Gruyere, cream and eggs. And make your favorite vinaigrette for the salad. The tart itself takes 40-50 minutes to cook (keep an eye on it those last 10 minutes or so) and rests another 15 to set up. Start to finish you need about two hours.

Served with a white zinfandel that turned out to be a better pairing than the sauvignon blanc I'd originally planned on.

I agree with everyone! It's a delicious, rich and fairly time-consuming tart. It took me about 2 hours, start to finish, though when I make it again, I'll consider roasting the cauliflower and caramelizing the onions ahead of time. I might even consider a pre-made crust to save time, though the one I used (a press-in recipe from Cook's Illustrated rather than her recommended crust) was simple to make and very tasty.

I had no mascarpone, so used her suggestion of cream cheese mixed with heavy cream. I could see experimenting with reducing the richness a little in the future by possibly cutting back on the mascarpone/cream cheese and just doing this like a classic tart (using an extra egg and straight cream, without the extra cheese), but that's only my vague sense of excess nagging at me - it's very tasty as it is.