Caramelized Onion and Blue Cheese Galette

I can see myself in New York twenty-five years from now, pie in one hand, cane in the other, at the twenty-seventh annual Pie Party Live. I’d reminisce about the early days… like this year when Maggy and I attended the second annual event hosted by party planners extraordinaire Jackie and Ken at the bustling GE Kitchens in midtown Manhattan.

Seventy-five of us showed up with our best offering, and it was an impressive site. The pies were segregated–sweet and savory. When most of us think pie, we naturally go sweet, and it was true at this event as well. The sweet pie table was, by far, the biggest.  For precisely this reason, Maggy and I have made savory galettes both years, and for as long as we attend I think we’ll continue the tradition.

Last year we made a Butternut Squash and Cabbage Galette, and when we thought about what to bake this year, the blue cheese crust on the Beef Stout Pie we ran earlier this year came to mind.

This time we paired it with another of our favorites—caramelized onions deglazed with port wine and pecans, another natural blue cheese partner.

Here’s our recipe. I don’t know if our fellow bloggers were just being nice, but Maggy says we got a lot tweets that our pie was one of the best.

Given all the gorgeous pies there, I doubt it, but it was pretty good!

Caramelized Onion and Blue Cheese Galette
Serves 8

1 recipe Blue Cheese Pastry (see below)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
4 medium-large red onions, halved and thinly sliced
Salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup port wine
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
1/2 cup crumbled blue chese

Make Blue Cheese Pastry.

Meanwhile, heat oil and butter in a large (12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook onions until rich caramel brown, about 20 minutes longer, lightly seasoning with salt and pepper. Increase heat to medium-high and add port; simmer until liquid has almost completely evaporated. Cool to room temperature (Can be covered and refrigerated for several days)

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll Blue Cheese Pastry on a floured surface to a 13-inch circle; slide onto a cookie sheet or pizza pan and spread evenly onion mixture, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold pastry border over onion mixture. Sprinkle nuts and cheese over onions and pastry, pressing them lightly into pastry to stick.

Bake galette until golden brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes. Loosen with a metal spatula and slide onto a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve.

Blue Cheese Pastry
Enough for a single crust 9-inch pie

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) frozen unsalted butter, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/3 cup ice water
3 ounces crumbled blue cheese

Pulse flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor to blend. Add butter; process with 12 to 14 one-second pulses until mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-size butter pieces. Add blue cheese; process with 2 to 3 more one-second pulses until incorporated. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl; sprinkle ice water over mixture with a fork until mixture starts to come together. Switching to hands, form mixture into a ball pressing dough onto the side of the bowl and adding sprinkling in a little more water, if necessary to get dough to form a solid ball. Wrap dough in plastic and press into a 4-inch disk. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days.