Printable Recipe: Creamed Pearl Onions with Bacon Recipe

Creamed Pearl Onions with Bacon

Pearl onions can be a bit of work, but they're always worth it. Pretty and oh-so-delicious, they make the best Thanksgiving side dishes. This recipe combines a creamy sauce full of garlic and shallot with tasty pearl onions and a crisp bacon topping. If you have guests who love onions over for Thanksgiving, they may just hold you hostage for this recipe, so be careful. It's really that good.

Recipe makes enough for six to eight people, and can easily be made as a make ahead side dish for Thanksgiving. Simply prepare up to step 7, then cover and pop it in the fridge. Bring up to room temperature, add panko and onion topping, and bake as instructed.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 lbs. pearl onions
6 strips of bacon, finely chopped
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 shallots, minced
2 lg. cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 1/2 C. heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3/4 C. panko crumbs (or sub crisp, coarse bread crumbs)
2 tbsp. chopped Italian parsley

Instructions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large pot of boiling water, cook whole, unpeeled onions for five minutes. Drain onions and run cold water over them.

3. Clean onions: using a sharp paring knife, remove onion roots. To remove the skin, pinch onions. Set onions aside.

4. Cook bacon in a heavy skillet until crisp. Drain bacon on paper towels. Pour off fat, reserving 2 tsp. of bacon fat.

5. To the skillet, add butter, garlic, and shallots. Cook until tender.

6. Add cream to shallot/garlic mixture. Bring to a simmer and simmer, stirring occasionally, until volume is reduced by about half. This should take about 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

7. Butter a large casserole dish (dish should be fairly shallow). Place prepared onions at the bottom of the dish. Pour cream mixture over.

8. With a fork, mix the panko crumbs, bacon pieces, parsley, and bacon fat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

9. Sprinkle panko mixture over creamed onions. Bake until crumbs are crisp and brown and casserole is bubbly, about 30 minutes.