This Onion and Ricotta Tart Is My Go-to for an Easy Fancy Dinner

Name: This Onion and Ricotta Tart Is My Go-to for an Easy Fancy Dinner
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 2 medium yellow and/or red onions (8 ounces; 225 g each), sliced crosswise into 1/4-inch thick rounds; 5 medium cloves garlic, in their skins; Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing; 1 (14-ounce; 397 g) sheet puff pastry from 1 (17.3-ounce) package, such as Dufour, thawed if frozen; 1 cup ricotta cheese (8.5 ounces; 240 g); 1 teaspoon picked fresh thyme leaves, minced, plus more for garnish; 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest; Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Why It Works

Microwaving the oil-brushed onions quickly softens them with little mess or effort, ensuring a tender tart topping.
Store-bought puff pastry bakes up quickly and easily into a fancy-seeming savory tart.

I love a savory onion tart. What I don't love is the dreaded onion-pull: when you attempt to bite into onions that are tough and semi-dessicated from baking in an oven's dry heat, and instead of breaking cleanly between your teeth, they pull off in strands. The solution is to pre-cook the onions so they're tender, but that is a slight pain, usually involving an additional roasting or sautéing step. That is, unless you realize the microwave can take care of it, with far less effort and time.

Section of onion tart on a plate — Serious Eats/ Amanda Suarez

That’s the secret to this tart, and the key to what makes it so effortless, along with the use of store-bought puff pastry, which bakes up crisp and airy and requires no more than letting it defrost first.

A tart being prepared with thinly sliced onions placed on a rectangular base — Serious Eats/ Amanda Suarez

Forget the Skillet—This Microwave Trick Gets You Great Onions Fast

The beauty of the microwave onion trick is that it thoroughly softens the onions, partially steaming them while also gently frying them in a light coating of oil. Once layered on top of the puff pastry and baked in a hot oven, the onions take on a lightly caramelized flavor and texture that's sweet, roasty, and tender. It's a small step that is worlds better than putting the onions on top of the pastry raw, and worlds easier than sautéing them in a skillet before building the tart.

Sliced onions being heated on a microwave-safe plate — Serious Eats/ Amanda Suarez

I'm omitting one thing: The stuff that sits in between the onions and the puff pastry. In this recipe, it's an effortless mixture of seasoned ricotta with thyme and lemon zest, which adds moisture and creaminess to each bite along with a welcome herbal and bright lemony flavor. I also add one final secret weapon to amp up the tart's flavor—some garlic cloves that I micro-roast in their skins alongside the onion slices. Because when has more aromatic alliums ever been a bad thing?